Relic Hunter zero at it’s core is a 2d top down shooter that came out last month on Steam. It features five unique human characters and one animal appropriately or possibly inappropriately so for younger players named ass. It is fast paced tactical action where the enemies always outnumber you.
The goal of the game is to defeat the enemies and enter through the hubs to the next zone. With the ultimate goal, which I didn’t get far enough in to have see any story line, is to defeat the ‘Ducan Commander’. Says the makers of the game Rogue Snail. You will start out with two characters available a girl Pinky and a boy Jimmy with flamboyant spiky hair styles. The whole game looks kinda like a retro cyber punk feel in art, sound effects, and music, which works quite well.
The game starts off with a simple tutorial to get you started. Game play is pretty straight forward either with a game controller or keyboard. I will discuss the controls as they mapped to my Xbox remote. You have a shield and health bar. You will use various buttons like dash, knife stab, punch, aiming with one joystick, and firing one of several weapons with the R button trigger. The game can tell how well you aim and will put pop ups giving you extra points and faster kills for better shots, which makes precision a fun goal to achieve.
You have the choice of a spreader shotgun, pistol, and later on several other weapons as well as several grenades available. Upgrades come in the form of Relics hence the relic hunter name which are found throughout the levels as treasure chests which you will hold ‘X’ over to uncover. They give you upgrades like more healthy, shield, extra ammo etc. Enemies from flamboyant colored turtles with guns to brown large toothed monsters that according to the Steam page are ducks though I could not tell.
The game is fairly short but each play through leaves you more powerful, with new characters, weapons, and challenges to keep it interesting. Unlike most free to play games on the phone, pc, etc, I saw no preemium content to speak of or any payment transactions of any kind. Although this may come in the future with updates. I was surprised at the quality of something that is under 100mb, open source, low spec requirements and free for anyone on the steam platform. So give Relic Hunter a try!