Laserpitium

Laserpitium is the kind of throwback shooter that doesn’t care if it’s ripping off the classics, just as long as it looks good doing it.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: It’s the 24th century and the previously hostile galaxy of S-08G has signed a peace and cooperation treaty. In an effort to optimize the management of goods, the control of military forces and the health and well-being of the population, a computer program named EVA was created. But wouldn’t you know it, EVA’s programming led to some unexpected problems, including taking control of the fully-automated military forces and using them to invade other planets around the solar system. Now it’s up to a small group of resistance fighters to restore freedom by piloting a trio of experimental space jets into the heart of the battle and defeating EVA once and for all.

Coming to us from a first-time developer known as The Reeteam, Laserpitium is a sharp-looking shooter that borrows heavily from side-scrolling greats like Thunder Force III and Gaiares, giving us ten long and challenging stages with beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds and a wide variety of enemy ships to shoot down.

The trio of ships not only look slightly different, but also have unique weapons designed specifically for their craft. The horizon, for example, allows the player to shoot both forward and backward, The Second Fox has a cool spread shot and The Proto 26 uses a crazy lightning attack that hones in on the enemies. All of these weapons can be upgraded by picking up the glowing red orbs, though don’t go in expecting to pick up a bunch of extra weapons and items, because there aren’t any. What you see is what you get.

One thing that I like about this game is how it handles its story mode. We’re given two different ways to play through the stages – one of them will let you choose what five stages you want to play and in what order, while the other will let you choose between two different stages after you defeat each boss.

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No matter which way you choose to play the game, you’ll be impressed with the rich and detailed 2D graphics. There’s a nice mix of bright and vibrant stages, as well as those that are dark and gloomy. These levels are also surprisingly long, showing us more than just a repeating pattern as we fly through the different caves and skim the surface. Each level ends with a cool (and challenging) boss fight that feels like it was plucked straight out of some of my favorite 16-bit shooters.

Unfortunately, this is a game that is undermined by its simplicity. Without any power-ups, you’re basically stuck with three standard weapons. I also found that the large size of the ship meant that it was easy for an enemy to rush onto the screen and immediately blow-up my fighter craft. There are also a lot of levels that expect you to memorize the obstacles. A good example of this is a standard cave level that will drop a bunch of rocks that block the path. I found that I kept getting stuck because I wasn’t able to anticipate when and where they would drop.

I would also add that Laserpitium is not especially original and the best bits feel like they were plucked straight out of better shooters. Still, as a debut release from a new company, you could do a lot worse. The levels are fun to play through and the graphics and boss fights will keep you invested. Now that The Reeteam has proven that they can make a good game, it’s time for them to show us their original and innovative side.