Indie Game Pick: The Thrill Of Combat (messhof)
If you've played Messhof's most recent and excellent free offering Party Boat and thought to yourself "I'm not entirely sure helicopters really control like that" (and you'd probably be right, unless it's a helicopter on a string) then you'll be reassured to discover that the not quite as free The Thrill Of Combat seems to offer a far more normal feel to the helicopter control. Well, providing you're in a helicopter that's spiralling towards the ground at high speed. In a disco.
As with Messhof's previous work, you can expect to be taken a little outside your comfort zone. Ok, ok, perhaps a lot outside of your comfort zone. It seems a simple, if reasonably bizarre set up at first. Fly your little helicopter around, shoot people, slice up their organs and dump the organs in your boat. You know it's not going to be quite that easy though, right?
Designed for two players but fully playable by one if you choose (as I'm sure most people will do), it's quite an incredible experience. I've never played anything quite so intentionally (and successfully) disorientating before for one thing. The combination of the pulsing background, the quite wonderful music, the glitch aesthetic and well, the entire world spinning around you as you to try to pilot your helicopter to harvest the organs is exhilarating.
Considering it was only a few days ago I was lamenting in the RPS comments section that Messhof's tricks have so far had little effect on me, it was enlightening to discover that 20 minutes after closing down The Thrill Of Combat I was still getting flashes of a helicopter seemingly burnt into my retina. I think we can safely say that it definitely worked this time round.
It's a punishing game for sure but one hell of an experience.
The Thrill Of Combat is $4.99. There's a video to watch of the game in action, but really, it doesn't do justice to the craziness you'll endure whilst actually playing it. - Oddbob
Comments
Wow, this looks pretty ridiculous.
Posted by: Chetyre | May 25, 2009 5:03 AM
So my guess is that epileptic people will die from this
Posted by: bob | May 25, 2009 5:10 AM
Bought this earlier today. I love it. Well worth the $5 I paid for it.
Posted by: Fuzz | May 25, 2009 6:29 AM
Where is demo version?
Posted by: VladErmakov | May 25, 2009 9:07 AM
I must admit, I was given the opportunity to write this up and I decided to pass due to the fact that I didn't really like the game at all.
After about 10 minutes of play my eyes felt like they were bleeding.
Posted by: Michael Rose | May 25, 2009 9:34 AM
And that's a bad thing? ;)
Posted by: RobF | May 25, 2009 9:49 AM
If the only thing that's bleeding is your eyes then you should consider yourself lucky.
...oh, we're talking games here. Oops. ;)
Posted by: Sokurah | May 25, 2009 3:29 PM
i'd been putting off buying this for a few days. but its cheaper than a pack of cigs or a crappy burger, so why not just do it? anyway, its awesome and the music is really cool.
Posted by: farik | May 25, 2009 3:52 PM