Shoot Them All

Shooters have come a long way over the years, especially when you consider how simple games like Doom and Half-Life were back then. Realism plays an important part in today’s new releases, although you can still find a few arcade shooters out there. In essence, it’s all about providing the players with a fun time, regardless of realism levels or the complexity of the gameplay mechanics.

Shoot Them All is a first-person shooter that puts you in the middle of an open map and challenges you to stay alive for as long as possible while being assaulted from every direction. You can find weapons and health packs by killing enemies, and there are plenty of buildings to take cover in if you do not want to be out in the open.

Unfortunately, the mechanics can be very frustrating and annoying, given the fact that enemies spawn randomly around the map, sometimes right in front of you. The shooting gets repetitive after a few minutes as well, because the challenge does not increase, and you do not get to take on new enemies later on, which is quite the bummer. On top of that, the lack of a clear purpose makes things even worse.

Another big issue is the fact that enemies appear to spawn only when you roam the map, since you can wait for minutes on end in a building without seeing anyone. Although this technically forces you to go out and explore, the map is just a maze of boring streets with nothing to see, so exploration is not as much fun as it should be. Thus, you quickly find that you lack reasons to keep playing.

Lastly, the graphics are actually decent, but there’s not a lot to see except for the buildings and the empty streets. You can tell that the designers tried their best in this regard, but the whole thing lacks feeling and attention to detail. The enemy animations are wacky as well, not to mention the fact that almost every building interior looks the same, with minor exceptions.

All things considered, Shoot Them All is not the kind of game you can come back to every now and again, because you see all there is to it in the first couple of minutes. However, the potential is there, so maybe a sequel can set things right.