Booster Trooper Review
Booster Trooper lands in the Steam store front to help fill in a gap we probably didn't even know we were missing. Allow me to take you back to the year 2002, when a little known game called Soldat was released. Soldat utilized a unique 2D platformer game design, and still carries somewhat of a cult following to this day. What Soldat lacked at the time (and still today) is a strong aesthetic background. Don't get me wrong, it's a shareware game and for the price (free) it's a great value. Fast forward to 2010, and the DnS Development team has stepped in with a beautiful solution.
Like other games in the 2D jetpack-platformer-shooter-deathmatch-whateverelse genre, Booster Trooper gives you control of a soldier that has the ability to move in pretty much any direction with the assistance of rocket pack. WASD controls will get you around the map along with a mouse controlled reticle that can be aimed wherever you please. The keyboard inputs seem to be well balanced, but I could never quite get the mouse sensitivity to a level that felt just right. I also lost track of the reticle during some of the more intense fire fights, which may just be a color setting for most, but I definitely needed some sort of contrast adjustment to keep it from disappearing into the carnage.
As I mentioned before, the biggest thing that DnS Development has done with this title is raise the aesthetics bar of the genre in a big way. The backgrounds and map detail are incredibly gorgeous. The layering effects of everything make it feel like you are playing in a completely 3D environment that will probably leave you yearning to explore every nook and cranny that you can't actually get to. The character models themselves leave something to be desired with their bland and fairly static animations, but luckily this isn't all that noticeable unless you're wandering around by yourself. The multitude of ordinance animations and blood effects are done with a surprisingly high level of quality for each player and weapon, which is especially true when you consider the scale of everything on screen.
Almost every single piece of audio included with Booster Trooper seems to have been designed to match the games intensity and in most cases it might even kick it up a level or two. The music selection has a great tempo, and if nothing else is probably the developers way of attempting to rock your eardrums while you wait for the firefight to take over. Weapon sounds maintained a slight hint of realism, but mostly sounded like guns from any movie set a century or two from present day (and understandably so, the guys are hovering around in jet-packs like it's a normal mode of transportation). No audible taunts from what I was able to hear, but the handful of screams and deathly grunts when someone is finished off give the characters a little personality and round out the audio set nicely.
Even if you're a pro in this area of gaming, the number of weapons available to you would take at least a few dozen games to get a basic handle on the entire set. The inclusion of a single player (bot practice) mode is something I always appreciate because I don't have to drop into a game and have my butt handed to me for the first 46 matches while I figure out what gun I'm holding. Multiplayer mode doesn't really have a leveling or upgrade system unless you count leader boards, but if that appeals to your domination appetite it's nice to know that you can rule the top spot for as long as you want. All things considered, it's difficult to dock points for the little things that need only a tiny bit of polishing when DnS has stepped up in such a big way for almost every aspect of the game. If you've been a long time fan of this game type, or even if you're new to the party and are simply looking to test the waters, Booster Trooper is a solid choice.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
84%. Eight out of ten gamers agree: Guns,
jet-packs, and beautiful scenery all make for a wonderful day at the office.
