Gravitron 2 Demo

Simple arcade games still have the power to become bestsellers even today, regardless of whether they feature an amazing graphics engine, or it’s all just a pixelated mess. As long as the gameplay mechanics are tricky and they require good coordination in order to master, the players will strive to get better and better, especially if the rewards for beating the levels are worth the effort.

Gravitron 2 is about as simple as it can get when it comes to video games, because it only features the outlines of the environment and the ship you get to pilot. Thus, you must fill in the rest using your imagination, although you certainly won’t have time to do any of that with all the explosions and bullets flying around you at all times.

The most tricky part of the gameplay is piloting the actual ship, because it takes a lot of skill and coordination to get it right. Even if all you have to do is press one button to fire the thrusters and gain momentum, the physics-based mechanics make it quite difficult to keep a straight trajectory and avoid being hit by stray bullets as you go along.

Unfortunately, it must be mentioned that the game gets repetitive and quite boring rather soon, because the missions start repeating themselves after a short while. In essence, the only things that change are the number of people you have to save and the density of enemy turrets, while the maps get a tad more difficult to navigate. Various death traps and enemy types make an appearance as well, but the variety is not enough to keep one entertained for too long.

As previously mentioned, the graphics are definitely nothing special, but they were designed this way to begin with. Hence, even if all you see are the outlines of objects, the explosions are quite mesmerizing and so are the various other special effects that appear on screen every now and again. The soundtrack is also made to resemble old arcade games, so it should bring back some memories as well.

In the end, Gravitron 2 is not a masterpiece of the genre, and it certainly won’t win any awards. However, it can be very enjoyable in short bursts, because the challenging mechanics make it difficult to put down without passing a level or two, just to make sure you’ve still got it.