Boomerang X Preview

I was lucky enough to get early access to the new Boomerang X game developed by DANG! This game is an action/adventure game with a lot of promise and a variety of unique elements. In this game the player gets to travel to different lands, fighting monsters while enhancing agility and aiming skills along the way.

Boomerang X has many distinctive characteristics but the visuals and attention to detail was my favorite part of the game. Set in ancient ruins, each arena is different from the last and each is equally impressive. Each arena is set up to be as beneficial as possible for each fight, whether there are a lot of trees, broken pillars, or hut-like features- these maps highlight the idea of being agile and being able to move around as needed. The art style is simple enough to not be overwhelming with the amount of stuff happening but detailed enough to make it feel as though you are part of the game. This is also in part due to the first-person perspective feature. The only features of your character that you see are their hands which are covered in bandages to make it seem as though you are a mummy.

When looking at actual gameplay I thought that it was very fun but there were a few things I struggled with. The game is very good at giving you detailed instructions and the tutorial is very helpful but even with all that I found that it was too fast for me to keep up with at times. Using the boomerang, you move, dodge, and slay the monster coming after you. The way the “matches” or levels are set up is that in each new arena there are waves of enemies you must compete. To pass the level, you must beat all the waves of monsters and stay alive by outmaneuvering and accurately hitting each monster. I love this style of gameplay and I think it is solid as of right now, I just wish that there were different difficulties to choose from since I felt like if it were slowed down a bit more I would have performed better and played longer. There is an option where you can be invincible and never die but I found in this game style I was just as overwhelmed, and I wasn’t getting the most out of the game. I did find this game to be very helpful in teaching me how to aim and move around better. I found the pace and accuracy to be a little hard for me to keep up with and perfect but with more practice, I got better.

In terms of mechanics, it is mouse and keyboard, you can use a controller as well and customize the controls as needed however I found the mouse and keyboard method to be the most productive. The controls are very easy to get used to and the game is very good at telling you what controls to use when to use them, and it doesn’t take long to get used to the flow of the game. I feel as though they nailed the controls and the number of ways you can use the boomerang throughout the game. For example, just by left-clicking, you can throw the boomerang but if you click it twice you move to the boomerang. If you right-click the boomerang comes back to you immediately. This allows you to optimize strategy and movement and I appreciated that about the game.

Overall, I think this game is fun and is off to a very strong start. My only issue was with how fast the monsters came at me and how quickly the game moved overall. This might not be as big of an issue to others who have been gaming longer or whose brain can process faster than mine. I can’t wait to keep playing more and strengthen my skills to beat the entire game.