Booster Trooper Review
By - Richard J.
It seems that every year shooter games find a new gimmick to add. Just look at Gears of War's hoard mode. How many games have taken that mode and slapped their own coat of paint on it? Starting with Halo: Reach, it appears that this year's gimmick is jet packs. Halo will have them, Kill zone will have them, and there are many more shooters that have yet to be revealed.
At this perfect time to jump into this gimmick and not seem unoriginal, Booster Trooper has taken it and built a pretty good low budget game. While it's not an amazing game, Booster Trooper does satisfy that crazy jet pack-filled kill spree itch that some games may have.
While Booster Trooper does have a single player mode, this game is all multiplexer. The single player is just the multiplexer modes with boys. Unfortunately there are only 3 multiplexer modes:
- Death match
- Team Death match
- Capture the Flag
The basic game play through all of these modes is taking your character with a jet pack and some weapons, and flying it around shooting at other players. The game doesn't move from this path at all, it is still pretty damn fun.
The flying is controlled using buttons on the keyboard. The basic W - A - S - D is used for movement, While the other keys are used for your primary, secondary weapons, and different attacks and special movements etc. To fire your weapons, you simply move your mouse to control your ridicule and push the left button on your mouse to shoot. For the most part, the controls are quite easy to use, but there are definitely some hiccups.
The graphics in Booster Trooper look nice, but they are far from spectacular. The game takes place in various 2.5D locations, and the character you control and the boys are 2D. The locations aren't very complex in their design, so most of them end up have a very similar structure. Things like snow and lava in these locations also look good, but the awesome explosions are the most visually appealing part.
Frame rate in the game runs fairly smooth and I only came across a few hiccups. Like most low budget games, when the action gets frantic with tons of things happening on screen, the frame rate will drop a bit. Overall, The graphics are pretty good for a download able game, but 2.5D characters a less repetitive structure to the levels, and a lack of frame rate drops could have made the visuals a lot better.
With Booster Trooper being a game that is so focused on online multiplayer, the replayability of the game is arguably endless. Until the servers shut down, or the community disappears, there will always be a reason to go back to Booster Trooper. However, the lack of modes and solid gameplay may keep people away from playing the game, essentially killing the replay value for those who want to play with others online.
Overall Booster Trooper is a good game with a few missteps. The cheap price on Steam ($6.69 USD) makes it an easy recommendation for anyone who is even slightly interested in the game. If you can look past the very small problems with the game, and you can enjoy it for what it is, I highly recommend the game. However, those small problems are still problems and that may push people away who already have their go-to online multiplayer game.
PROS
- Interesting and Unique Gamplay
- Fun Online Multiplayer
- Fairly Good Graphics
- Large Amount of Replay Value
CONS
- Single Player Isn't Fun
- Lack of Multiplayer Modes
- Repetitive Level Design
RATING: 7.5/10
