Official Synopsis
The year is Meio: 048, on an alternate dystopian future of Earth. The whole planet suffers under the oppressive, iron-fisted rule of the mysterious and omnipotent Grand Master Meio. An expert in sabotage and assassination, Hiryu is the youngest ever recruit to attain a Special A-Class in the hellish Strider training program, and is the only man capable of achieving the mission to eliminate Grand Master Meio.
While I do miss the ‘evil’ communist undertone to the game, I understand that it may not be exactly politically correct in this day an age (Putin is trying to bring it back, though). The story itself is a bit shallow and disconnected when compared to the original. It feels more like something you could find on an anime rather than on a game. The focus of the story is more on the action than the narrative, but again that’s just the sign of the times and people want less story these days and more run and gun. Strider certainly brings that to the table, so this generation of gamers should be happier.
The gameplay mechanics in this title is everything the original brings. You have Strider climbing on walls, hanging from ceilings and doing beautiful acrobatics everywhere to slice/dice enemies. The controls, at least for the PlayStation 4, are on the level with what you might be expecting. They are smooth, intuitive and at times make it really fun to just run and climb everywhere. I have no complaints about how they work and how Strider is controlled.
In addition to the smooth controls, there are power-ups that the game provides to make the experience a little deeper; at least deeper than the original material. You’ll gain items after beating bosses and enemies that allow Strider to do things like deflect enemy projectiles, launch a powerful eagle attack through a combination of controller strokes and other neat, yet simple things. There’s enough upgrades to keep the game interesting — at least in terms of attacks.
Now, with those promises fulfilled by Double Helix, where does the game stumble? Well, in terms of level design it’s a bit shallow. You will certainly get a lot of depth and feel like the world Strider is literally running through is big, but the look and design of it all is bland. It feels the same from one level to the next. Worse, it looks like levels that you would see in Capcom’s other remake, Bionic Commando (didn’t care for it, though I appreciated it). The levels consist of a lot of metal everywhere and some very questionable (and sometimes out of place) obstacles in the levels as well.
What makes this design even worse is when you see loads of repetitive enemies (even though they change in color to represent their difficulty — yellow is tough, red is really tough, etc.) and random enemies (out of nowhere you will find alien creatures appear in the sewer level) that really hurt the experience. It’s fun to run and slash, but the enemies just endlessly show up. To add insult to injury, when you leave a particular area the enemies respawn when you return to that area — even if you simply leave the room for a few minutes and come back, they’re all back. Shout out to old school? Maybe, but in this day and age, even in remakes, this is a bit of an annoyance.
When you’re not killing bunches of enemies, the bosses will give you sporadic trouble. Some of the bosses are a smooth transition from the area you’re in and the level you’re at, while others are off the charts difficult. The arc that forms the difficulty is all over the place. There’s not much gradual build to it, which will pose some unnecessary frustration for some gamers out there. On top of this, you get some repetitive bosses, which seems like lazy design in my opinion. For instance, you will run into a trio of lady bosses, at first they’ll fight you individually, but later they will build into teams. I don’t mind fighting some bosses over again (Piston Honda! That’s a shout out to you, old sport), but it all seems like a copout when it happens in Strider. The story doesn’t really lend well for this type of boss repetition, but the game doesn’t seem to worry about that one bit. It simply does what it wants in this department without rhyme or reason.
All of this might seem harsh and complain-y, but it’s how I feel for it. It doesn’t feel like a particularly well planned game in terms of difficulty and design. It has some great moments in it when it comes to action, but it seems so shallow in overall design. I wanted more and I wanted to connect, but I understand that it’s more about jumping around and slashing then it is about substance. I understand that just fine and I know a lot of gamers will be satisfied with it.
Shifting gears to something a bit more positive, the presentation in the game is impressive. While it won’t win any awards or be compared to games like The Order, you can see some PS4 love in the title. For example, when you’re jumping from rooftop to rooftop, the foreground-to-background depth is pretty impressive. It’s a lively world that feels like it’s huge. It contains a lot of NPCs that react to your movements and deeds, which helps with feeling visually a part of the story. This huge world also allows you explore a bit, so you’ll find a tiny bit of sandbox element to the experience.
In addition, you’ll see little things like reflections on the floor that are perfectly done, particle effects that are just right and fantastic shading and lighting. Again, it’s nothing huge, but it’s enough to know you’re playing a PS4.
Onto the summary!
