Forced Showdown (PC) Review

Forced Showdown is hard; Nintendo-hard, break the controller hard, and this is perhaps its biggest flaw in an otherwise pretty solid package. It starts off in a tutorial where you learn to move with one stick, aim with the other one (standard twin-stick shooter), while adding RPG elements such as spells/abilities. Generally, there are a couple of enemies that must be engaged using a regular attack and a couple of skills until the board is clear. It takes place over a series of short rounds in a random 'dungeon' of sorts before the next level. It adequately explains how everything works… except the fact players are likely to die a frustratingly high amount and may not even make it out of the tutorial.

Difficulty is nothing new in a genres like shmups, which are built around precise manoeuvres to avoid death, but games that are this way - if well done - make it obvious what was done wrong, or how it's possible to do better next time. In here enemies vary so wildly from one level to the next, that a fully-healed, fully loaded character can get ploughed down before there is any indication something is going wrong. In the reverse direction, occasionally only being one hit away from death and multiple levels can be cleared simply by bull rushing enemies who stand around idle.

This is quite unfortunate, some its aspects are pretty cool, such as the when the 'mana' the player has to spend/equip new cards constantly increases. What this means is that, out of each deck of cards a player customizes, he/she will receive a few of them, something like "Increase spell damage by 30," "Cost 2," or "Heal 100, Cost 2," a decision that must be made carefully, given that most cards comes late. It is a fun concept to see the deck-building out of combat come into play, hoping that just the right card drops at the right time.

What this means, is each run in a dungeon could be very different, sometimes it is perfect where the cheap cards come early when there is little mana, and the best cards late; compared to a bad deal that has to be endured because the right cards aren't coming. It is a good balance of a risk-versus-reward element that is fairly well handled.

Time clearly went into this with the depth of cards, multiple characters to pick from, and various status effects, but at this point the very harsh curve will drive many people away. The developer seems open and responsive, which is a rarity in the gaming world, so this might be a title to look into if any of the genres it is mixed from have any appeal.