Beta Review: Paranautical Activity

          Indie games have become an increasingly common morsel in my gaming diet; almost always different from their AAA counterparts with but a glance. The indie movement has become rather huge lately, with Steam Greenlight encouraging it's users to vote on upcoming indie games to be added to Steam for purchase. One particular game caught my eye last week, a twitch shooter with voxel graphics in the likes of Doom, Quake, and The Binding of Isaac. Though this game is still currently in beta it captivated me with its sheer addictive gameplay and wickedly precise controls. Prepare yourselves, for this week I am bringing Paranautical Activity to light!

John Carpenter would be proud.

Story

          To be perfectly honest I have no idea what this game is about. From what I can tell from three playthroughs it seems to be centered around one particularly unlucky person who has ended up in hell. Or something like that. I don't know if they have rocket launchers in hell, or monsters that are blatant homages to older movies. What I do know is that you better pray to whatever deity you believe in, because you'll need all the luck you can get in the randomly generated levels. Its safe to say that the storyline is not important to this game, its solely about blazing through rooms chock full of blocky monstrosities and horrible, horrible monkeys. I cannot stress how awful these monkeys are, just know that you will need hammer that Space key until it is firmly stuck within the keyboard. Perhaps once this game is out of beta there will be some sort of coherent story. Would it make the game less enjoyable if they neglected to explain the situation which your character is in? Not one little bit. This is in fact one of those rare games in which having a complicated story would detract from the entertainment value. Its just explosive, stupid, circle-strafing fun. Go with it!

Demons just love a rocket to the face.

Graphics

          Paranautical Activity is a voxel based game. Voxels are essentially the next step-up from pixels, requiring powerful hardware to effectively harness its full potential. Fortunately this game is a simplistic retro-FPS in which you fight enemies of varying blockiness. Textures are extremely low res and there are scant few surface details on anything in the game. Monster details are also absent, with the only differentiating factors being color, size, and shape. All of this is fine. The game is not trying to be Crysis 3, it is trying to deliver a blazing fast experience at a persistently smooth 60 frames per second. Where the textures fail the lighting makes up for, with bright, vibrant colors cast across the rooms from explosions and various laser projectiles. Another interesting touch is how all the particles are rendered as voxels, casting their own shadows and being affected by gravity. The game uses sharp shadow rendering, which brings back fond memories of Doom 3 for me and makes battles all the more hectic when the shadow of a monster dances across the walls as it pursues you. I am very interested in seeing how the game continues to evolve visually throughout its development cycle, though I wouldn't complain if the graphics stayed the same. The focus is on the combat, not how pretty that 4K wall texture over there is.

DO NOT PET THEM!

Gameplay

          The beauty of this game lies in its simplicity. You start the game by picking one of several different weapons, then you progress through a floor filled with randomly generated rooms, some of which contain a gift shop or optional mini-boss encounter. The ultimate goal is to kill the floor's designated boss, collect their loot, and descend to the next floor via elevator. Along the way you collect gold from dead monsters which you can use to purchase up to three randomly selected weapons or items in the gift shops. I suggest saving up your gold for the M4 carbine or rocket launcher and loading up on speed boosting powerups, they will be essential when the more powerful bosses are spawned. Your class choice heavily determines whether or not you can beat the game. A fast, low-health build means nothing if you can't avoid the nimble melee enemies. I personally went with the Tank class, which comes equipped with a powerful shotgun and lots of health at the expense of relatively ponderous movement speed. This weakness was quickly abated as I came across several speed powerups, transforming my slow character into a monstrous lightning bolt of unmatched fury. And then I came across the rate of fire and jump height powerups. Much fun was had as I assaulted my enemies from the sky like some sort of horrifying shot-gun wielding hawk person. This effectively broke the game for me as I was able to cruise right to the final floor's boss with virtually little effort. Astonishingly the game was still a blast even though I was majorly OP due to random drops. But that only adds to the game when there is the chance to be crushed by the difficulty or soaring on the wings of luck. I died plenty of times, and I never felt the game world was too hard or rigged against me. My own skill and plenty of good luck is what saw me through the game multiple times. Lightning fast reflexes and a keen sense of direction are paramount skills needed in overcoming the many strange obstacles thrown at you over the course of a run-through. As you progress into the final floors the game takes on a more unsettling nature. Swastika-painted walls and unusually agile nazis populate these lower regions along with everything else you have encountered thus far. It feels extremely awkward running through these final sections, as if the developers just decided to randomly plop down some nazis amid the demons and humongous moths.  If I might bring up a point of criticism: I feel that most of the weapons are completely useless aside from the shotgun, laser gatling-gun, assault rifle, and rocket launcher. Every other armament feels archaic and hilariously out of place. But maybe that is the point, to tempt players into taking the hardest route possible to feel a greater sense of accomplishment. I still would not fight Poseidon with a crossbow.

This guy either.

 Sound

          I must really give the developers credit for crafting such an awesome soundtrack. Heavy techno and dubstep await you upon entering a new floor and really not much else. The monsters are reserved about growling but not about killing you apparently. Aside from the weapon sound effects there is little else to offer in this department, though as I've stated earlier this game is still in beta form. Did I mention the excellent techno soundtrack?

Even the whales hate you.

Conclusion

          Paranautical Activity is one hell of a good time. Having grown up on the Quake and Doom series has honed my skills with a mouse and keyboard to the point where twitch-shooters just feel second nature to me. This game is all about the luck of random generation and the player's ability to adapt to new, sudden threats. Though currently not a very long game, I am greatly anticipating the addition of new floors and challenges. In its current form I must say this is one of the more impressive betas I have played, with very few bugs encountered in my three playthroughs barring one game breaking bug that forced me to restart. You feel a sense of accomplishment when you clear a room full of monsters, knowing full well that it was due to your precise aim and sporadic movement rather than your eagle-eyed A.I. partners present in bigger budget titles. I highly encourage my readers to try out this little gem and support the developers, as this game is only going to improve with time. Though currently only available through the download service Desura for $6, Paranautical Activity is currently involved in Steam's Greenlight project and should be available shortly. 8/10 (Only PC version available)