Under Defeat PS5 Review. GAME OVER! We don’t tend to see these screens much in games nowadays. In the arcade era of credits, continues, score chasing and finite lives, it was addictive gameplay and mastery of games that gobbled up our coins. The birth of the home console changed everything with game saves, memory cards and endless respawning. The Sega Dreamcast came with a different manifesto – the promise of bringing true authentic ports of Arcade games to our TV screens.
One of the final releases on the ill-fated Sega console was Under Defeat, a shoot ’em up in the ilk of the arcade classic 1943. With very fond memories of playing it on the Amstrad CPC, 1943 is one of my all time favourite SHMUP’s (Shoot-Em-Up). In fact we don’t tend to see many new SHMUP games released, with the masterful Resogun from the arcade gameplay wizards at Housemarque being the king of modern games in the genre.
Well, Under Defeat has returned with a release for modern consoles and it certainly scratches that 1943 gameplay itch to say the least.
Under Defeat (PS5) – It’s 1943 Again
Gameplay Is King
Just one more run! A line that has been bleated by many a gamer who’ve had an arcade game get its hooks into them. Under Defeat is no exception. It quickly gets you laser focused, adjusting your seated position more and more to the edge of your seat and into the “this means business” mode with every failed attempt.
While the included arcade mode is a faithful recreation of the original arcade experience, it is the New Order mode though that will no doubt see most of the non-stop action. This essentially modernises things for our screens – gone is the narrow vertical look with the visuals filling the expanse of the 16:9 display.
Unique Movements
Under Defeat has some tricks up its sleeve that are not typical of this genre of game. Firstly altitude is taken into account. When facing ground-to-air attacks enemy fire must fist reach your height in the air before it can cause damage. It gives that split second of invulnerability right above ground attacks. Secondly most games in this ilk have a simple four-direction movement (Forward, Backward, Left & Right). Here you have helicopter style movement that matches your vehicle, allowing you rotation of the nose of your craft in 45 degree angle to either the left or right.
This added movement ability can only be done when not firing and once firing you are locked into the set position of rotation until the fire button is released. This adds a slight tactical element as you are playing with teetering between attacking and strategically positioning your aircraft for oncoming enemy attacks. This is also where the mastery side of things comes in as knowledge of optimal position and rotation can stifle your combatants barrages before they even begin.
Note that in the menu when starting a game “Normal” or “Reverse” rotation can be selected. For me the “Reverse” option fit best as my brain understood the movement as correct for the helicopter. So experimentation with both options is advised.
Aerial Assault
Each of the four available aircraft have differing fire patterns and arsenal of weapons. The addition of rockets makes a big difference dispatching enemies with relative ease. After experimenting with using each one I found that the bottom one on the list felt more overpowered than the others and became my go-to choice on each run. I couldn’t notice any discernible difference in movement speed or agility between the crafts so it was always an easy choice.
Likewise with co-op play both players are free to choose the same aircraft so again the choice was easy. To mix things up it would be nice to have some noticeable difference between the vehicle choices and also limit to one of each craft in co-op play.
Extra Challenge
Ramping up the challenge for the player is the “plus” mode. Here the movement ability is tweaked to allow for full 90 degree rotation to either the left or right. Enemy attacks feel more constant and to the point of bullet hell in some of the more challenging spots.
The extra mode along with the arcade modes and the option of co-op gives a decent amount of replayability. Plus if you are Trophy hunting then you will need to master all levels in each mode on both easy and normal difficulty to pop the platinum Trophy. It’s not too much of a grind but practice makes perfect.
Under Defeat is a serious shoot-’em-up that is up there as one of the very best of all time. Hopefully we get more from this team as I would love to see what they would do with a more modernised spin on this formula.
Under Defeat is out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.