Jamestown has proved to be a very impressive new indie game.
So going into Jamestown I had no expectations, I had never heard of the company. It had little buzz in the industry. I went in going, well this should waste a few minutes. How wrong I was, as I was greeted by some sprite art that clearly had quite a bit of effort put in.
From the very start the game shows clear effort and hard work. The menus are well designed, the art is delightfully retro and I only experienced one crash in all my time playing. Not normal for a larger game, let alone an indie game. But then you start playing and are in for a real treat.
This game will take some players back to the good old days.
You start off with a standard ship with beam, spread and bullet nullifying powers. Later on you unlock everything from a ship that detonates its bullets to a ship with an orbital shot you can control. All of them handle well and remind you of the shooters of old. You fly through well animated stages that have excellent backgrounds, in a signature art style you don’t often see today. But enough about that, let’s talk about the gameplay.
Old school all the way.
The enemies follow standard patterns at first, with bosses average for the genre. Beam weapons, multiple parts, etc. While the gameplay isn’t particularly revolutionary, it’s extremely smooth and well executed. Easily even better than Genetos, one of the better indie shmups out there, although perhaps not the best. But what makes you keep playing is that the game rewards you. There is a monetary system for your points that unlock extra missions, ships, modes and even a comedy mode for the story.
Not quite what I expected her to look like.
But Jamestown rewards you on another level by asking you to progress up the difficulties to reach the final stage. The reward is in the fact that enemy patterns change from difficulty to difficulty and some of the enemies even gain new animations. So basically, you’re sitting there thinking “well this is going to be boring, it’s all the same. Wait, that beast just had a new, larger piece and shot a different pattern.” It keeps it rather fresh and exciting.
This boss who seems incredibly easy is actually a bullet canceling exercise, to see just how high you can get your score.
On top of that, the difficulties go all the way up to the absolutely brutal “Judgment” mode. No doubt decent players will find the standard modes a bit too easy, as I am only slightly above average at shmups and finished it in less than 2 hours. That’s alright though, because they included bonus missions to test your reflexes and knowledge. The game is a tremendous value for the price.
One of the bosses exploding, we won't spoil the final boss for you.
Some players may find the story nonsensical, which it is. It’s a tale of mars, Jamestown, Brits and Conquistadors. All with hyper tech, flying ships and the heart of mars. This isn’t particularly a drawback, as some of the most famous shmups of our time had the same type of stories. Look at the Dodonpachi series. Your commanding officer kills his army to make you a great pilot.
So what is the problem with this game? Why is it not perfect? It’s pretty darn close, to be honest. Two things keep it from being perfect, the story sequences are not as pretty as the rest of the game. They decided to keep them in bit style, which was a poor choice. Just take a look:
One minor gripe is although the pixel art looks great in-game, it's not quite as good for the storyboards.
But the major reason is this: I wanted more. Finishing off the last boss came too soon. I would love to see some extra content for this game, DLC or otherwise, because the creators deserve it and I believe in time the fans will want it. Even with the significant extra content, I wanted to see at least 8 stages. You don’t want to miss this game if you are a shoot-em-up fan, at any price. But lucky for you, it’s on steam special for the moment.
