Relic Hunters Zero is a simple game with a simple premise: There are some cool artifacts of power on a space asteroid and you want to get them. Unfortunately an insidious race of human/duck hybrids also want those relics and they got there first. Diplomacy has failed, there is no hope of reaching a peaceful compromise, you’re going to have get those relics the only way you know how: With violence. Shoot your way through developer Rogue Snail’s new action game, showing no mercy to the Ducan fleet as you claim the relics of power.
Relic Hunters is free to play. Or rather, just free. As far as I can tell there’s no extra levels to buy, no means to purchase bigger guns with real cash, not even the option to unlock valuable unlockables faster with a few extra dollars. I’m not sure I understand the motivation behind giving the game away for free other than just a desire to be generous, and that’s pretty cool. While the actual game left some things to be desired, I do admire that sometimes someone just wants to share their work with the world.
Gameplay in Relic Hunters is a little hard to get the hang of at first, but becomes fairly easy to understand quickly. It’s a twin-stick shooter that puts you in levels which are pre-designed but filled with randomly placed content: Enemies, ammo, even destructible terrain will be randomly scattered each time you enter a new level. Depending on the starter character you pick you will either have the option of carrying two guns and some grenades, or one gun and an extremely powerful melee attack. You have a shield which will protect you from small bursts of damage, as well as a dash ability to escape from harm. Between your moves, your arsenal and cover you will be pitted against mobs of enemy duck men and space monsters, requiring you to kill all enemies before moving to the next level.
I’m not a real fan of twin-stick shooters, and this game didn’t do much to change my mind. No matter how many times I played it the controls never did feel intuitive to me. Sometimes I felt like I could scope in on enemies effectively, but often it felt like my aim skewed in wild directions in spite of my input. The dash ability adds a nice feeling of flowing movement to the action, but the overall pace of the game feels just a little sluggish. Despite your shield, your character is still pretty fragile and it felt like you trudge just a little too slowly to capture the urgency of a good firefight. Furthermore, I felt like the game was very stingy with ammunition, which did not work well with a frantic firefights it tries to serve up: Often I would burn through my ammo after just a few mobs, leaving me to bludgeon my foes while desperately searching for bullets. As I progressed and acquired better weapons and power ups this felt like less and less of a problem, but it made for a rough start. Overall the gameplay is fine, but lacking in memorable quality.
Relic Hunters does have a nice aesthetic with it’s colorful characters and designs. Unfortunately the environments are blander than I would have hoped, mostly just large expanses of a single color dotted crates and boxes. It’s unfortunate that they did not capitalize a little more on design to make the game feel more distinct. Along those lines, the Steam page states that this is the work of the creators of Chroma Squad and Knights of Pen and Paper. It does share some of the quirky attitude and humor I would expect from those titles, and while it also doesn’t really come through as much as I would like, it does feel more on-the-mark than other aspects of the title.
I wasn’t especially impressed by Relic Hunters Zero, but I can’t bring myself to be too hard on a dev who put their time and effort into a game they’re perfectly pleased to give away for free. The action isn’t amazing, though it was certainly not a chore to play either, and much of the game feels like it could be fleshed out more, but one can forgive much of that in light of the price tag. Should you get Relic Hunters? If it appeals to you even a little then by all means, you have nothing to lose and I hope you find something you like. I won’t begrudge you your enjoyment.
This game was reviewed using an early access code provided to us by the publisher.
