Posted March 22, 2014
I can't find an official forum for LUFTRAUSERS, so I'm just going to vent here. Feel free to ignore my rant - I just want to get the comments and criticisms out of my head.
LUFTRAUSERS is a really fun shmup plagued by rough features. I am a huge fan of bullet hell games, and the customization provided in this game is awesome. I'm especially fond of the 'Random' part you can unlock - it makes every run fresh, forcing me to use parts outside my normal selection. The enemy variety is also great, but I keep running into a problem regarding enemy strength and spawning.
First, re: battleships. I'm level 10 in the game, and the way the game seems to ramp up is less a 'slope' and more 'brick wall'. I'm at the point in the game where after I've killed a few fighters and boats, 3 battleships will appear simultaneously. You can imagine how difficult it is to kill even one of them when they are all staggering their fire along with the normal slew of background boats and fighters. It doesn't help that all enemies spawn just off screen, despite a very wide looping ocean. Inevitably, two of the battleships will become stacked, causing even more hell.
I also have a beef with the aces. I have no problem with their rapid fire machine gun - as deadly as it is, it IS avoidable. This does not seem to be their favorite method of attack, however! They primarily like to ram me. From what I can tell from the spawning patters, after I kill the first ace, a very short while later 3 aces will spawn simultaneously. This is absolutely ridiculous - I only very rarely survive them, usually when I get a lucky shot with Cannon or the Bomb part. The three musketeers just charge straight onto me, and they have huge health bars; they literally kill me with attrition. Overall, I think they'd be a lot more fair if their hurtbox was increased in size. Using the laser, you can tell that their hurtbox is actually about half their graphic's size, which seems a little... I dunno. I lack the word. What is the opposite of excessive?
On a related note, SPOILER ALERT the laser aces are OP lol. No way to get that laser off you, but they show up so rarely I'm not sure if I can find a way to combat them. Does anyone know what triggers their arrival?
There's also a few incredibly difficult achievements, and I'm open to suggestions on how to complete them. First, how the heck am I supposed to kill a sub at max combo? Subs only surface for 10~ seconds - there's not even a guarantee I'll be there when it does! It's impossible as far as I can tell. I don't want to grind for hours waiting for the stars to align. The 'Encounter a Blimp' achieve is bugged too; I have run into it before, fired on it and everything, but did not get the achieve until the 2nd or 3rd encounter.
Small piece of advice to anyone who's made it this far: the easiest way to combo kill two battleships is to use the Cannon gun. It takes 3 shots to kill a battleship, so hit two of them twice and then go for the kills.
Lastly, the Homing Missiles are definitely the most sub-par weapon. Their homing is, frankly, quite lousy. It is very difficult to activate - when the missile's engines kick in one second after launch, it pretty much has to be pointing straight at an enemy or it will just whiz ineffectively past. In practice, the enemy has to be a good half-way across the screen, meaning anything close to you (which all flyers will be) or outside a narrow angle is very difficult to kill (looking at you, aces). I feel like they could be a great weapon if they just weren't so strict. Feels more like spear throwing most of the time.
Ok. Sorry about that, I just had to get it out. I'm still going to keep playing because I love the gameplay, love the graphics and style, but I've hit a brick wall in game that seems insurmountable. Everything up to this point seemed in reach, I just needed to get better, but now my skill is failing me. Maybe I just suck. Maybe it really is possible. I don't know. Still a fun game would buy again :P
Edit: Forgot to say the music is amazing. Fuckin' love it.
LUFTRAUSERS is a really fun shmup plagued by rough features. I am a huge fan of bullet hell games, and the customization provided in this game is awesome. I'm especially fond of the 'Random' part you can unlock - it makes every run fresh, forcing me to use parts outside my normal selection. The enemy variety is also great, but I keep running into a problem regarding enemy strength and spawning.
First, re: battleships. I'm level 10 in the game, and the way the game seems to ramp up is less a 'slope' and more 'brick wall'. I'm at the point in the game where after I've killed a few fighters and boats, 3 battleships will appear simultaneously. You can imagine how difficult it is to kill even one of them when they are all staggering their fire along with the normal slew of background boats and fighters. It doesn't help that all enemies spawn just off screen, despite a very wide looping ocean. Inevitably, two of the battleships will become stacked, causing even more hell.
I also have a beef with the aces. I have no problem with their rapid fire machine gun - as deadly as it is, it IS avoidable. This does not seem to be their favorite method of attack, however! They primarily like to ram me. From what I can tell from the spawning patters, after I kill the first ace, a very short while later 3 aces will spawn simultaneously. This is absolutely ridiculous - I only very rarely survive them, usually when I get a lucky shot with Cannon or the Bomb part. The three musketeers just charge straight onto me, and they have huge health bars; they literally kill me with attrition. Overall, I think they'd be a lot more fair if their hurtbox was increased in size. Using the laser, you can tell that their hurtbox is actually about half their graphic's size, which seems a little... I dunno. I lack the word. What is the opposite of excessive?
On a related note, SPOILER ALERT the laser aces are OP lol. No way to get that laser off you, but they show up so rarely I'm not sure if I can find a way to combat them. Does anyone know what triggers their arrival?
There's also a few incredibly difficult achievements, and I'm open to suggestions on how to complete them. First, how the heck am I supposed to kill a sub at max combo? Subs only surface for 10~ seconds - there's not even a guarantee I'll be there when it does! It's impossible as far as I can tell. I don't want to grind for hours waiting for the stars to align. The 'Encounter a Blimp' achieve is bugged too; I have run into it before, fired on it and everything, but did not get the achieve until the 2nd or 3rd encounter.
Small piece of advice to anyone who's made it this far: the easiest way to combo kill two battleships is to use the Cannon gun. It takes 3 shots to kill a battleship, so hit two of them twice and then go for the kills.
Lastly, the Homing Missiles are definitely the most sub-par weapon. Their homing is, frankly, quite lousy. It is very difficult to activate - when the missile's engines kick in one second after launch, it pretty much has to be pointing straight at an enemy or it will just whiz ineffectively past. In practice, the enemy has to be a good half-way across the screen, meaning anything close to you (which all flyers will be) or outside a narrow angle is very difficult to kill (looking at you, aces). I feel like they could be a great weapon if they just weren't so strict. Feels more like spear throwing most of the time.
Ok. Sorry about that, I just had to get it out. I'm still going to keep playing because I love the gameplay, love the graphics and style, but I've hit a brick wall in game that seems insurmountable. Everything up to this point seemed in reach, I just needed to get better, but now my skill is failing me. Maybe I just suck. Maybe it really is possible. I don't know. Still a fun game would buy again :P
Edit: Forgot to say the music is amazing. Fuckin' love it.
Post edited March 22, 2014 by biomatter