Xenocider Demo

Shooters were a bit different back in the day, mainly because no one really bothered with realism. Even if they tried, the technology was not advanced enough to be worth the effort, so it was way easier to just focus on the actual shooting. Hence, this is how classics like Heretic and Quake were born, and they are still fairly famous amongst gamers.

Xenocider is even more basic than the two games mentioned above, since it doesn’t even allow you the luxury of free movement. Instead, your character is constantly running on a linear trajectory, and your job is to avoid the obstacles or shoot the enemies, depending on the situation. Granted, you can make a few steps to the left or to the right, but that’s about it.

The story is not designed to impress either, since it’s just there to make everything appear like it has a purpose. Thus, you play the role of a cyborg who must destroy everything in her path with her superhuman strength and reach the core of the planet in order to place a bomb. Not much else is known about the main character, and it doesn’t actually matter anyway, because you’ll be too busy staying alive.

Since your movement is so restricted, the road ahead is riddled with all sorts of traps and obstacles, plus enemies that shoot you on sight. You can either jump over these inconveniences or shoot them with your gun, but it’s better to use your skills wisely and combine the two as often as possible. Some enemies cannot be avoided, while others are much easier to dodge than to fight.

Speaking of which, boss fights are included as well, or at least they will be in the final version, and they should be pretty fun. As for the graphics, they are obviously retro, although the engine is still three-dimensional. In fact, the game is designed to run on Dreamcast as well, which means that it requires very few resources in order to run smoothly. On the other hand, you need to get comfortable again with choppy polygons and low-resolution textures.

All things considered, Xenocider looks very promising, especially if you are an older gamer longing for something to cure your nostalgia. On the other hand, the game probably won’t do very well from a sales point of view.