Zeitē
Innovative shmupping with a wealth of gameplay
Posted January 15, 2011
Shmups (or shoot 'em ups) have experienced something of a renaissance thanks to the arcade focus of many online game services, but in the end, they are still mostly the same to all but the hardcore fan base, with a multitude of twitch-inducing enemies, weapons and projectiles, differentiated mainly by the graphics or point of view. Any genre that can evolve into something called "bullet hell," where insanely difficult gameplay takes the place of true innovation, has an issue with standing out from the crowd. Then there's Zeit2 (that's squared, not a sequel), which brings something unique to the game, as you can time-travel during gameplay, adding a new level of strategy and challenge, while offering a multitude of challenges and modes that give you more bang for your XBLA buck.
For the most part, if you've played one shmup, you've played them all. You move forward, enemies move toward you and you shoot as many as possible, while collecting add-ons and weapons along the way. Zeit2 is mostly the same, but it has some added elements that make for a fresh experience. You have up to 4.2 seconds of reverse time travel available to you (along with unlimited forward time travel, which increases the difficulty and provides bonus scoring multipliers.) You can activate the time travel at any time you have some in reserve (your time recovers as you play or can be replenished by collecting items.) Doing so creates a shadow version of your ship that repeats your previous movement and attacks, fighting alongside you for the length of your time travelling. This allows you to back up and take care of two groups of foes on the same screen, as well as enabling you to shoot down shadow enemies that appear from time to time.
The addition of time traveling and your shadow wingman adds a layer of strategy you don't often find in shmups, as you need to think about positioning and sharing attack duties, as well as how you will utilize the enhanced attacks you can create by combining with your doppleganger, like a screen-clearing shockwave made from shooing your shadow self. But that's not where the innovation ends. In a traditional shmup, if a foe gets by you, the worse that might happens is you don't get points for them. Here, if a bad guy gets near or past you, they suck away your shield power until they leave the screen. Your attack also decreases your shield level (which can be boosted via collectibles), so you can't just fire away at will. While the memorization of wave patterns and quick reflex tests that are shmup hallmarks remain in play, as well as a small assortment of power-ups to help you out, the idea of single-player co-op and limited ammunition that effects your defense are pretty unique twists on shmups and a refreshing change for anyone bored with your traditional shooter offerings.
The traditional arcade mode, where you clear stage after stage with several boss battles along the way, is your main option (and the only one unlocked to start) and it is admittedly a short adventure, with just four four-stage levels (along with a four-stage bonus level.) While I'm not a big shmup fan, I cleared the entire game in just a few hours, and would have been done much earlier is my sleep-starved eyes didn't miss one boss' obvious tell, forcing me to play one final battle many times. There are some spots where you might get hung up by the increasing difficulty, and the bosses can be overwhelming, especially the last one, but for the most part it's a moderate, albeit fun challenge. Thankfully, the developers took the game's ease of completion into consideration and packed the title to the gills with alternative modes, making the most of the $10 purchase price. You need only play a mode once to unlock the next one, so you can quickly and easily unlock the whole game, giving you plenty of options.
First up is Wave, where you face down plenty of bad guys in an effort to keep them from getting by you, and as the game goes on, the screen shrinks to make it tougher on you, lending the mode a truly frantic feel. Time Limit is just what its name says, as you have a limited amount of time to rack up as many points as possible (but when you can control time, you can bend the rules a bit. There are no rules in Survival though, where you can't win, since you play until you die (though the player who dies with the most points wins.) Score Attack is a more traditional way to play the game, as you can choose any level you've beaten and go for a high score, a scenario likely to sit well with the more competitive players in the crowd. The most unique of the modes (outside of Challenge, which is discussed in the Achievements section) is probably Tactics, which combines the Shmup with puzzle-solving, as you have to figure out the right way to shoot a set amount of enemies in order to achieve a certain score. It points yet again to a developer that really aimed to push the boundaries of the genre and give the buyer a good value for their gaming dollar.
The only online play available is in the form of the leaderboards, of which there are plenty, for every mode and challenge, so you can push yourself to top the lists. I've never been much for such competition, but there was something very satisfying seeing my name high on the scoreboards after a particularly strong game.
There were plenty of complaints about the controls on this title when it launched, as they were inverted for many players, as your ship would go up when you pushed down or vice versa. The problem stemmed from the game using your X-Box 360 default settings, and if you used inversion as your standard, it carried over in this game. Once corrected, the game controls as smooth as silk, with a very responsive analog movement, while your button presses showed no issues. Mapping the time travel to the triggers was a smart move, as it's very natural to squeeze off a few seconds left or right, while firing away with the face buttons. Offering the option to hold down the A button to fore continuously is both a blessing and a curse, as you can drain your health quickly, but when facing down a screen full of baddies, you will want to have all the advantages you can get.
There are 200 gamerpoints up for grab in this title, split between 12 achievements, which range from the downright simple (10 for performing a shockwave) to the rather time-consuming (30 for compiling 30 minutes of time travel.) Most of these aren't awfully hard to complete, but they will take some effort. Though those are the official X-Box achievements, there's a whole set of 70 challenges in the game, including a mix of easy, yet obscure benchmarks and ridiculous feats, like playing entire stages in fast forward. These can be accomplished at any time during the game, or you can play Challenge mode, which hands you a randomly chosen challenge, sometimes unique dynamically-created ones. There's no reason to ever think you're done with this game.
Zeit2 sports a really clean, cool look, with an almost aquatic feel to it, as the graphics have a fluidity, while the enemy design is reminiscent of a geometric version of flOw. Though everything is attractive, it's also overly consistent, with little difference from stage to stage, until the last go-round, when someone decided we'd finally had enough blue. The whole things moves quite smoothly, with no noticeable frame rate issues, even when the screen is loaded with activity.
I can't quite explain what it is about the soundtrack to this game, but it's like the '80s burst in and exploded in awesomeness all over the affair, unleashing wicked guitars and raging anthems as you blast your way through the game. The sound effects are pretty well done also, which is a good thing, since they are frequently used as cues for things like weapon availability and approaching foes.
As someone who rarely chooses to play a shmup if it wasn't one of the classics, I was surprisingly drawn to Zeit2, probably because it's unlike the vast majority of the shoot 'em ups I've seen. I'll always give a game a chance if it's trying something new or different, and if it's showing a real effort to make it worth the cost, all the better. Hardcore shmup fans need to give this a look, if only to try something familiar yet fresh, while if you ever enjoyed a game of Galaga, this is your chance to see where the genre's promise remains.
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Gameplay:
For the most part, if you've played one shmup, you've played them all. You move forward, enemies move toward you and you shoot as many as possible, while collecting add-ons and weapons along the way. Zeit2 is mostly the same, but it has some added elements that make for a fresh experience. You have up to 4.2 seconds of reverse time travel available to you (along with unlimited forward time travel, which increases the difficulty and provides bonus scoring multipliers.) You can activate the time travel at any time you have some in reserve (your time recovers as you play or can be replenished by collecting items.) Doing so creates a shadow version of your ship that repeats your previous movement and attacks, fighting alongside you for the length of your time travelling. This allows you to back up and take care of two groups of foes on the same screen, as well as enabling you to shoot down shadow enemies that appear from time to time.
The addition of time traveling and your shadow wingman adds a layer of strategy you don't often find in shmups, as you need to think about positioning and sharing attack duties, as well as how you will utilize the enhanced attacks you can create by combining with your doppleganger, like a screen-clearing shockwave made from shooing your shadow self. But that's not where the innovation ends. In a traditional shmup, if a foe gets by you, the worse that might happens is you don't get points for them. Here, if a bad guy gets near or past you, they suck away your shield power until they leave the screen. Your attack also decreases your shield level (which can be boosted via collectibles), so you can't just fire away at will. While the memorization of wave patterns and quick reflex tests that are shmup hallmarks remain in play, as well as a small assortment of power-ups to help you out, the idea of single-player co-op and limited ammunition that effects your defense are pretty unique twists on shmups and a refreshing change for anyone bored with your traditional shooter offerings.
The traditional arcade mode, where you clear stage after stage with several boss battles along the way, is your main option (and the only one unlocked to start) and it is admittedly a short adventure, with just four four-stage levels (along with a four-stage bonus level.) While I'm not a big shmup fan, I cleared the entire game in just a few hours, and would have been done much earlier is my sleep-starved eyes didn't miss one boss' obvious tell, forcing me to play one final battle many times. There are some spots where you might get hung up by the increasing difficulty, and the bosses can be overwhelming, especially the last one, but for the most part it's a moderate, albeit fun challenge. Thankfully, the developers took the game's ease of completion into consideration and packed the title to the gills with alternative modes, making the most of the $10 purchase price. You need only play a mode once to unlock the next one, so you can quickly and easily unlock the whole game, giving you plenty of options.
First up is Wave, where you face down plenty of bad guys in an effort to keep them from getting by you, and as the game goes on, the screen shrinks to make it tougher on you, lending the mode a truly frantic feel. Time Limit is just what its name says, as you have a limited amount of time to rack up as many points as possible (but when you can control time, you can bend the rules a bit. There are no rules in Survival though, where you can't win, since you play until you die (though the player who dies with the most points wins.) Score Attack is a more traditional way to play the game, as you can choose any level you've beaten and go for a high score, a scenario likely to sit well with the more competitive players in the crowd. The most unique of the modes (outside of Challenge, which is discussed in the Achievements section) is probably Tactics, which combines the Shmup with puzzle-solving, as you have to figure out the right way to shoot a set amount of enemies in order to achieve a certain score. It points yet again to a developer that really aimed to push the boundaries of the genre and give the buyer a good value for their gaming dollar.
Online Play
The only online play available is in the form of the leaderboards, of which there are plenty, for every mode and challenge, so you can push yourself to top the lists. I've never been much for such competition, but there was something very satisfying seeing my name high on the scoreboards after a particularly strong game.
Controls
There were plenty of complaints about the controls on this title when it launched, as they were inverted for many players, as your ship would go up when you pushed down or vice versa. The problem stemmed from the game using your X-Box 360 default settings, and if you used inversion as your standard, it carried over in this game. Once corrected, the game controls as smooth as silk, with a very responsive analog movement, while your button presses showed no issues. Mapping the time travel to the triggers was a smart move, as it's very natural to squeeze off a few seconds left or right, while firing away with the face buttons. Offering the option to hold down the A button to fore continuously is both a blessing and a curse, as you can drain your health quickly, but when facing down a screen full of baddies, you will want to have all the advantages you can get.
Achievements
There are 200 gamerpoints up for grab in this title, split between 12 achievements, which range from the downright simple (10 for performing a shockwave) to the rather time-consuming (30 for compiling 30 minutes of time travel.) Most of these aren't awfully hard to complete, but they will take some effort. Though those are the official X-Box achievements, there's a whole set of 70 challenges in the game, including a mix of easy, yet obscure benchmarks and ridiculous feats, like playing entire stages in fast forward. These can be accomplished at any time during the game, or you can play Challenge mode, which hands you a randomly chosen challenge, sometimes unique dynamically-created ones. There's no reason to ever think you're done with this game.
Graphics
Zeit2 sports a really clean, cool look, with an almost aquatic feel to it, as the graphics have a fluidity, while the enemy design is reminiscent of a geometric version of flOw. Though everything is attractive, it's also overly consistent, with little difference from stage to stage, until the last go-round, when someone decided we'd finally had enough blue. The whole things moves quite smoothly, with no noticeable frame rate issues, even when the screen is loaded with activity.
Sound
I can't quite explain what it is about the soundtrack to this game, but it's like the '80s burst in and exploded in awesomeness all over the affair, unleashing wicked guitars and raging anthems as you blast your way through the game. The sound effects are pretty well done also, which is a good thing, since they are frequently used as cues for things like weapon availability and approaching foes.
And in the End...
As someone who rarely chooses to play a shmup if it wasn't one of the classics, I was surprisingly drawn to Zeit2, probably because it's unlike the vast majority of the shoot 'em ups I've seen. I'll always give a game a chance if it's trying something new or different, and if it's showing a real effort to make it worth the cost, all the better. Hardcore shmup fans need to give this a look, if only to try something familiar yet fresh, while if you ever enjoyed a game of Galaga, this is your chance to see where the genre's promise remains.
Discuss This Game on Our Official VGT Forum