Solstice Chronicles: MIA is an aerial view shooter in which the player takes control of a space soldier as he and his flying robotic companion, fight off hordes of demonic zombie like creatures from devouring you. As you progress, the companion describes to the player any specific weapons or other items of special significance that lay before them.
One thing that was immediately noticed was that Solstice Chronicles appears to be heavily influenced by the DOOM series. The atmosphere of this game and the previously mentioned franchise are very much alike. The creatures that attack the player also draw a heavy resemblance. However, Solstice does do an admirable job of being able to separate itself from the popular franchise.
While Solstice may not introduce anything revolutionary to its genre. It does feature an interesting feature that controls the number of enemies that come after you. A threat level is introduced several minutes into the game after the player gets accustomed the controls. Players will be able to raise and lower this threat level depending on the actions they take while playing the game. This can be determined by what weapon they choose or by how much ammo they are wasting on various enemies. While the game does come with the traditional difficulty options, it is nice to see a way to manipulate the difficulty without having to pause the game.
The level I was introduced to was linear and didn’t appear to have many hidden objects spread across the map. As of right now, there isn’t much reason to explore the areas. Once I completed the first level, I noticed that the second was quite like the first. I’m confident this won’t be the case with the finished product and that eventually the game will lead to larger areas that will reward exploration.
Overall, the alpha version of Solstice Chronicles was a fun time that I can see myself coming back to. The only issues that were noticeable were an occasional glitch in the loading text and showing of the area before it had fully loaded. The game crashed on me during my first playthrough, but after multiple times playing it, I’ve realized that this was a onetime occurrence. I have no doubt that the finished product will be a great deal of fun once everything is polished up.
