As an homage to lightning-paced shooters of old like Quake and Unreal Tournament, STRAFE certainly looks and plays the part. This indie shooter coming from the Devolver Digital publishing tool wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. The artwork is nailed–look too quickly, and you might just mistake it for its inspirations. But below the pixelated surface is something deeper and a bit more interesting.
Of course, all the hallmarks are there. You’re exploring an abandoned space station or some such stel labyrinth when an invasion of hellish creatures breaks out. Movement is swift yet floaty, and there’s no cover mechanics or iron sights to speak of. This is old-school simplicity at its oldest and most simple, demanding that you run and jump wildly to dodge hordes of astonishingly accurate enemies while trying to remain highly accurate yourself. Health is limited and doesn’t regenerate. Weapon, health, and ammo pickups litter the level.
What’s interesting and potentially compelling about STRAFE is procedural generation. Borrowing from the likes of Spelunky, the campaign levels of STRAFE are randomly generated, with different layouts, enemy placements, and challenges every time. Like Spelunky, you likely won’t make it far on your first, second, or even tenth attempt at finishing the one- or two-hour permadeath campaign. Indeed, it may take as many as 15 hours to even see the end for the first time. But in the space between, you’ll be polishing your mastery of the game’s demanding mechanics and frantic action while understanding more about STRAFE’s randomness and how to achieve success.
For my part, I thought STRAFE played well. Despite a rough framerate clearly indicative of very early development on the PS4 port, I was able to get a bead on my enemies and survived for longer than I expected. I played a great deal of Unreal Tournament back in the day, so I immediately felt comfortable with the game’s shotgun, its grenade-lobbing alt-fire, and the laser-shooting pulse rifle I picked up later. If you’ve not played those classics and have been weaned on the snap-to-target generosity of modern shooters, STRAFE may be a rude wake-up call. But in terms of gaming history, it’s a necessary one. Such classics are influential and beloved for a reason, and STRAFE positively nails the feeling of old-school PC shooters.
That, combined with the procedural generation at its core, should bump STRAFE to the top of your indie watchlist for 2017. The urge to keep shooting, to jump right back into the fray for more pixelated bloodshed, is an almost primal gaming instinct at this point. STRAFE boils that feeling down to its historic essence, with an important twist: replayability. And any excuse to spend more time with the classics is alright by me.