Bezier

Bezier is a great twin-stick shooter with a campaign that doesn't outstay its welcome along with extra content and progression for those who want more out of their experience

Twin-stick shooters (TSS) are a dime a dozen. They are one of the easier game genres to make, many of which are similar. The key to a good TSS is presentation, controls, mechanics, excitement, and challenge - Bezier excels at these. I already had Bezier in my library for a while, but gained more interest in it when I found it on the Youtube channel The Future of Videogames, which developed Death Ray Manta.

Bezier plays alike like other TTS's, but it has it's own flair.

Typical twin stick movement controls guide your ship, but you manually shoot (on Mouse and Keyboard). Primary fire shoots shots in an "upside down Y" pattern from your ship, covering your direct front and part of you back from an angle. Secondary Fire auto-targets nearby foes and more efficiently use your shot power before it overheats. Overheating doesn't kill your guns outright, but it weakens your shot, so outright infinite bullet spam isn't effective here. A special weapon key activates the ability you pick up from defeated bosses with limited uses. Tutorial objects that can be picked up describe the game mechanics like the Radar, Fireflies that assist you and other general mechanics.

The player has a health pool called OUCH that is drained in almost RPG fashion, as you can be affected by random critical hits. Green gems from enemies and and limited pick ups in the arena restores OUCH.Firepower and point multiplication is determined by your OOMPH, which can be increased by picking up blue gems from defeated enemies. There is a persistent leveling system across every mode which grants a skill point upon leveling up after killing enough enemies. Skill includes such things as reducing your overheat, increased special weapon charges, higher critical chance against foe and more. The upgrade that reduces Shield count on each level is a boon due to the strict time limit of each Zone.

I really like the fact that Bezier has a very strong variance of enemy types.

While all enemies still ultimately boil down to swarms of small enemies that will eventually die or be out of range, the enemy types have enough variance to keep you engaged and on your toes.[ You have fireball like ships that float a bit aimlessly, but rush towards you when you're in their sights. There are some that have short range, flamethrower style shots. There are some that retreat than return, some pink, squarish ones that follow the arena's grid and make damaging walls that fade in and out along the gridlines. Some are squiggly lines that are slow and weak, but are high in number and can overwhelm you. Some swarm around you like vultures. Enemies have various speeds, armors, flight patterns, attacks and behaviors. One set of enemies are mostly harmless and in fact, grant you chain score, but they can distract you from other enemies or goals. The store page claims nearly a hundred enemy types and they are pretty smartly implemented and keep you thinking about how to engage them.

The visual presentation is based off Bezier curves, the kind of line tools you see in digital illustration programs that make vector art.

Of course, Bezier has that spacey/neon/cyberpunk/TRON-like look that so many of these games have, but its unique enough with its curves and bright white lights to stand out. Bezier has alot of visual noise, so this game could be an issue to anybody with photo-sensitivity. Plus, the chaos is a distraction when listening to the tutorials, so you might miss the explanation of the mechanic that resulted in your death. There is a sort of comedic value with the "OUCH" and "OOMPH" meters presented by the announcer, and the Final boss shouting various quips before arriving on each zone and after leaving, which is a strange contrast to the serious story bits between each stage and the potentially pretentious quotes in load screens and outside the arena. It's hard to absorb what they are saying in such a frantic and vibrant game and I really can't tell if they are supposed to be important, so I just ignore them so I can survive.

Bezier has an orchestral plus electronic soundtrack that I'm not sure fits a genre, or rather, it probably fits one, but I don't think there is a well know name for it. Tracks can be unlocked for a Jukebox and the soundtrack can be bought separately.

Campaign mode has about 12 stages before the final boss that bothered you at the end of every level. You need to destroy stationary objects called Shields before the boss arrives in a time limit. Failing to do so will have him cast Judgement on you and instantly kill you. Endurance is a seemingly endless mode to pit your score on the worldwide leaderboards. Daily is a challenge/map based on the day of the year in which you can hop on the leaderboard as well - I'm number one on February 22nd.

I completed the campaign in about 3 hours with some deaths. It's when I started forcing myself to rush the Shields and not aimlessly kill enemies which made it faster, but some Shields have defensive measures that can really slow you down. By this point, you can still gain more level (thus skill points) to improve yourself for future runs and other runs. Also, achievements have an actual purpose here, giving you various supplemental upgrades, giving players a reason to come back.

Bezier is a pretty great twin stick shooter, albeit another one in a sea of great shooters. While it isn't a must buy, shooter fans can't go wrong in giving this a purchase.