By John @ Square Eyes Syndrome

Terrian Saga KR-17 attempts to resurrect the feelings of those 90’s games we’ve come to know and love growing up as gamers. It tries to execute the platform elements that have vanished over the years, going back to the roots of gaming and caused me to recollect the classic games I once played when I was a child.

 

You take control of a self-aware robot called Terrian, deployed in the wrong location, trying to make it back to your team. You embark on a mission to make it back in one piece. You operate a mounted gun, shoot explosive balls and employ jet packs with the highlight being a missile that too has feelings.

From the moment you boot up the game, you can feel the retro vibes.  It’s simple and easy to pick up and play. Using only 3 main buttons or keys to defend yourself with, it sticks to following how games used to be, no button combinations, just a simple face forward and shoot characteristic.

 

I never really had any main problems with it, the only issue I had at first was effectively using the jetpack for the first time. I realised after venting out my frustration, that using a directional pad for my control method made this a lot easier and in the end got the hang of it.

 

As you have guessed, the further you progress, the more difficult the levels become, but I found the frequently placed save points cancelled a lot of the difficulty at some moments, which made the game itself slightly too easy overall. Sure we all love checkpoints but a lot of the challenge was lost in my play through, which detracted slightly from the experience. The simple methods to overcome enemies and their overall lack of variety didn’t help things either.

A shining light on the title was the previously mentioned self-aware missile. Once this is shot, you can control it in one of four different directions. I found this a fun to use and distinctive game-play feature, which offers something new and something people, could easily get the hang of after only a few uses.

 

However you can’t go crazy with the weapons due to a weapons gauge, once that reaches zero, the only weapon you have is the machine gun, which itself is a decent weapon to still survive with, but not the weapon you want to go through the entire game with alone. Once the gauge is empty, you will need to hit a refuelling section to fill it up again. However similar to checkpoints these sections are also scattered frequently, which lead to me not really having to take into consideration my weapon usage.

 

Terrian Saga KR-17 is a solid game with only a few minor flaws due to its slightly simplistic design. Nonetheless I would certainly recommend this game. Its retro aesthetic and soundtrack will certainly entertain most.  However if you feel like you want game with a greater challenge, I would certainly look elsewhere.

 

 

7.5/10