Wildcat Gun Machine review friv game – take care of the cats

Wildcat Gun Machine is Daedalic's unpretentious shoot 'em up with cute 2D art and cats, but looks are deceiving: the game is overrun with monstrous demons and is not as casual as it might seem at first glance.

Instead of a plot in Wildcat Gun Machine, there are introductory ones: a spectacular fighting maiden with a bandage over her left eye, a labyrinth of corridors and rooms of some high-tech complex, disgusting monsters and a desire to kill them, which successfully coincides with the possibilities.

The game from an online game developer Friv2Online has a well-drawn picture with a chibi heroine and opponents reminiscent of cybernetic monsters from Quake: biorobots with implanted guns, mechanized or mutated insects, machines controlled by demons.

The interface is organized minimalistically: a convenient mini-map, the selected type of weapon and a couple of abilities, a portrait of a girl with bars of health, armor and energy of the ultimate skill, as well as the number of bones collected - points necessary for character development.

Locations in the friv game are represented by a complex system of corridors and rooms in which you are locked alone with monsters, explosive containers and traps. Some areas cannot be entered without a pass - they are marked on the map with a color corresponding to the color of the key.

The progress save point is something like an obelisk, which is located in the center of the level. In combination, the obelisk is a store where you can spend bones to buy weapons, passive upgrades for skills and additional cats.

White cats loitering imposingly around the save point. The more of them, the more conditional lives you have, allowing you to resurrect near the body. When the seals run out, the girl will be transferred to the obelisk at death, all her progress (including access keys) will be saved, but the enemies in all rooms will come to life and you will have to clear them again.
At the same time, the player can carry one regular and one special weapon, which has finite ammo. Ordinary barrels, such as a compact flamethrower, blaster or whirlwind cannon, are sold in the store, while expendable ones, such as a beam rifle, machine gun, shotgun, are found in levels.

Since we have a traditional bullet hell in front of us, that flamethrowers, that energy weapons, that various guns of opponents, shoot either balls of different calibers, or directed beams. The difference is in the rate of fire, striking power and the diameter of the shells.

To choose which weapons and abilities should be in the girl's arsenal, again, you need a save point. Fortunately, igrodely provided a system of portals, most often located near bosses, which allow you to quickly jump to the obelisk, buy upgrades, change something in your inventory, and dive back.

After defeating the first, not the most, by the way, simple boss, the character receives a jerk and a throwing projectile (a grenade by default). Dash is vital when you're pinned down by a dense wall of projectiles, while Throwing allows you to deal area damage.

As the opponents are killed, the heroine gains something like rage points. When the scale is filled to the brim, a notification about the combat readiness of the ultimate pops up on the screen, when activated, the girl saddles a mobile robot, briefly becomes invulnerable and strikes at the enemy from large-caliber guns - by default from a homing machine gun.

In total, the game features about forty types of weapons, including conventional guns, expendable guns, varieties of explosives and installations for the ultimate robot. As you progress through the levels, the player's arsenal will be replenished with new tools for the effective annihilation of demonic offspring.

Wildcat Gun Machine is not the most expressive, but quite solid twin-stick shooter. Everything is as always: kite, avoid traps, flood the enemy with a hail of bullets and dodge oncoming fire.

The degree of tension in the friv game is growing rapidly, but the complexity of the rooms and bosses can be unpredictable - some are passed almost with your eyes closed, in others you die again and again, and then it becomes easy again.

I would not recommend Wildcat Gun Machine to veterans of the genre, it is very ordinary. But inexperienced players should try it: the game is simpler than most analogues, does not load the brain with unnecessary details, and it looks neat. Most for an evening or two.