[Mini Review] Altitude

[Pterosaur]

Pterosaur's Review of 'Altitude' (Steam)


Altitude Game


Platform : PC
Required Software : Steam (www.steampowered.com)
OS : Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Price : £5.99 (updated 12/12/2009)
Required space on Hard Drive : 200 MB
Download Size (Steam) : 117 MB

Initial Impressions
To start, I purchased it on Steam, the price wasn't too bad at £5.99, but as soon as I decided to play it, I noticed that the resolution wasn't correct (not too bad, most games start on default settings, 1024x768 at that) so, I changed it and restart the game. Then I get a patch, good sign, I love games that are updated, because I'm excited about what changes are made. After installing the patch, I head over to the 'Graphics' section of the Settings, and notice that there is an option called 'Stretch To Fill Screen', and it was ticked, that explained the stretched screen, so the developers couldn't be bothered, or didn't know how to make a game that can cope with all the new technology, what we know as 'Widescreen Monitors'...



Ok so, moving along, I proceeded to the tutorial, pretty good, much easier than what the actual game is like, when I played a game against bots, I was like, WOAH... Now one thing that bothers me, is that fact that it has, UNLOCKS... sure, its a good idea, but its a tired idea, its been done 100s of times, and I think in a small shooter game, its not necessary. To add insult to injury, they have PERKS and CHALLENGES, something I am sure we are all aware of from 'Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare' (and all the later games too). These challenges, aren't even hard,it's pretty much, "Complete this mission". Kind of like the Halo 3 Singleplayer Achievements.

Now, the online-play is pretty good, shooting down other players planes, getting powerups (or health boosts), may I add, that when you kill your enemy, you get like 50% of your HP back. However, with almost every good game, comes flaws... and this game has, perhaps not many, but BIG flaws

1 : The starting weaponry is pretty generic and do low-damage to your enemy. I am not joking, playing against higher-level people online is just not possible. I was playing a game (1 v 1) against this Level 39, which is just crazy, I never hit him, let alone killed him, he had all this cloaking technology and force fields... (what)

2 : It takes so long to level up. The first 10 or so levels are ok, just like World of Warcraft, but then it takes AGES to level up further, it took me an hour to get from 10 - 12 (and I wasn't doing too badly).

3 : Stalling your plane is undoubtably the WORST flaw ever. One thing I forgot to mention was the ability to change the speed of your aircraft. You have this red bar above you (much like MapleStory) telling you your speed (not much like MapleStory), if the bar empties, you stall. Now that all good, but there is NOTHING put in place to even warn you about it, except of course, when you are already stalling, in which case, you can kiss your ass goodbye. Its so difficult to recover from it. Another problem is how EASY it is to stall. Touching scenery, getting hit by EMP, and of course, slowing down too far.

4 : The Interface when you load up the game is just not inviting, its comes up with loads of windows (one saying Connecting..., another saying UDP Handshake #1 (goes to 3), and another saying 'Checking for Updates'... ONE AT A TIME...)


Music is good, it really matches the game and is well placed, the sound effects are nice and clear and really have nothing wrong with it... However a little sound cue about stalling would be nice.

Aside from the gameplay flaws, it is quite fun to play, once you get the hang of stall recovery and the online play is pretty quick and fast-paced (like it says)

OVERALL RATING :




TOTAL : 23.5 / 30 (78.3/100)

[Glynbeard]

Nice review! Sounds pretty neat, but I don't think I'd pay for it.

[Pterosaur]

It is, its a fun game. Just a few flaws that make it... not fun.

The idea is great, just poorly executed.