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While many found the recent news of Googlepulling the plug on Stadia ’s internal evolution to be inevitable , it ’s still quite a letdown . out of doors of virgin technological oddment , Stadia has n’t offered much to lure gamers as far as exclusives outside of a few very small indie game and the homecoming ofOrcs Must Die!Developer Q - Games has changed that just a bit withPixelJunk Raiders , a spacefaring roguelike action biz that integrates one of Google ’s promised Stadia features to great event . alas , integration may be the most interesting thing about this colorful but rote adventure .
Players take command of an avatarwarping onto alien worldsto keep their residents from invading calamari creatures . commence off with just bare fists as artillery , players can soon scrounge up light swords , war hammers , and mines from the environment . They ’ll need all the help they can get becausePixelJunk Raiderscranks up the difficulty with rash abandon on several social function . Combat is as complicated as players need it to be thanks to an upgrade system that yield duple jump , aery strike , dual sword - manage , and more . While they all provide flourish to the ongoing action , most of the armed combat still feels rather mashy , necessitate just a few well - time dodges combined with flurries of strike whenever potential . This combined with the flood of enemies that readily arrive in any situation can make scenarios go from tense to drawn out very quickly .
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Giant swarms of foeman will also eat through aplayer ’s arm inventorying , which is limit both by weapon system degradation and peculiarity . player without weapon system are basically useless in any group fight , so they ’ll have to stray around the edges of the map looking for bureau and weapon drop far away from the independent mission objectives . get on a roll and leveling up can offer a good supply of weapon system to use , but die take them all off and forces the player to cast again . It turns what should be bite - sized missions into grueling scavenger hunts where the oddment goal is getting to flirt the main secret plan again .
Outside of the scrimmage weapon , players can deploy turrets , mine , and minion to fight alongside them , and these detail are the key toPixelJunk Raiders’support of State Share . Whenever a player takes a screenshot while playacting , Stadia also saves the procedurally generate charge . Players can post the inter-group communication to their missionary station to their friends or on social medium , and anyone who plays through that link will outright start the same commission with the original player ’s deployable items integral . In possibility , this is a neat community feature , but it does require an initially big audience to really make it work . Sharing between friend has its uses , but the lineament mostly stands as an impressive test copy of construct that another game will likely persist with years down the line . Each level also has a three - Scripture name that players can procreate in a level generation tool , which draw it seem like the developers can work around the Stadia - specific tech to share level ina future outlet on Steamor cabinet .
Of course , all these interesting community features rely on levels stand up out from each other , which is n’t really something thatPixelJunk Raidersaccomplishes . Q - Games does implement a standout manner here , featuring colorful nontextual matter and harsh buzzy audio that reflects broadcasts from distant stars . It also has intense boss battles that really make the fight shop mechanic come together . Enemies swarm the player at untold numbers alongside earth - shaking chief attacks , all in a tiny bowl with plenty of weapon cartridge . These fights really benefit fromPixelJunk Raider ’s intermixture of hack and whip combat and dodging roll , shortly turn the experience into something that ’s truly worth bear attention to .
From an donnish gumption , there is a lot to care aboutPixelJunk Raiders , but not enough to master its obvious defect . Combat slowly catch interesting over time , but run for weapons never feels like anything but filler . Levels change color outline , but the objective lens mostly remain static and further going through the motility to travail out experience and reward . There are n’t any treasure rooms or weird run - specific perks to make delegacy stick out out , and the funding of Stadia ’s State Share feels like a tech demonstration rather than something anyone would in reality use . Google is still searching for a killer whale app for its swarm political platform , and it ’s deplorable to say that thelatest from Q - Gamesjust does n’t fit out the bill .
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PixelJunk Raidersis available now on Google Stadia . Screen Rant playedPixelJunk Raidersthrough a Stadia Pro subscription for the purposes of this review .
