14 DAY TRIAL // After quite a few twin stick shooters, like Ballistic or Inferno+, Radian Games has delivered a new title, called Fireball, which may be similar to its predecessors, but doesn’t actually feature any shooting.
Instead, players are tasked with avoiding swarms of enemies, while triggering mines that can eliminate the actual opposition.
As this premise is quite interesting, we decided to have a quick look at Fireball and see if such changes to a tried and true genre can attract gamers or if they only serve to spoil something that was perfect from the start.
Fireball has quite a few different modes, from a regular Wave mode, in which players need to survive increasingly difficult waves of enemies, to Countdown, where you need to stay alive a certain time, or Survival, where you need to withstand for as long as possible.
The Waves mode has two settings, either a normal or a chilled level, which impacts your score and the gameplay speed. While you don’t have lives to worry about here, each death will send you to the beginning of that current wave, so it’s quite aggravating to die just before the end of a lengthy one.
In terms of actual gameplay, Fireball may sound a bit awkward, taking away the possibility to shoot at enemies, but you quickly get used to it. Sadly, the enemies are quite challenging, spawning from all sides of the level and converging on your location.
As such, you’re forced to keep moving at all times, while trying to reach mines and trigger their explosion, thus eliminating some of your pursuers. For quick getaways there’s also a boost system that’s refilled every time you kill enemies.
Speaking of opponents, they’re quite varied, starting off pretty small, but quickly evolving into much more formidable adversaries, so you’ll soon be tempted to try out a Chilled setting, just to handle the fierce enemies at a slower pace.
For a look at Fireball in action, check out the video above.