There are just three main stats – Navigation, Power, and Structure – that you can manually upgrade, but these feed into a range of secondary stats like health, defense, attack power, and so on. The integration of these different mechanisms is really quite ingenious. Drifting Lands puts a more practical spin on learning the ins and outs of the game’s scoring systems by tying that directly to ship progression – better play means more credits earned and better, more frequent loot drops. That’s certainly enough motivation for the sorts of hardcore players that the genre usually courts, but for the more casual player, such goals can seem esoteric and not particularly exciting. In a typical shmup, good play and mastery of the game’s systems all lead to high scores and topped leaderboards. Defeated enemies leave behind credits and loot, which can be used to improve your ship’s stats and abilities, or even buy entirely new ships. However, the damage you deal, your defence, and your available weapons and tools are no longer set in stone with the ship or character you choose at the outset. The basic idea is simple: while on a mission, Drifting Lands plays like any other horizontal scrolling shmup, as you dodge bullets by the hundreds and take out an onslaught of enemy ships. That’s what French indie studio Alkemi decided to do with Drifting Lands, and it works well – for the most part. Take the hectic action of a shmup and layer RPG loot and progression systems on top of that, and you’ve got a fresh new take on both. I’ve enjoyed it for countless hours.I’d never really thought about before I heard about Drifting Lands, but RPG and shoot ‘em up are two genres that should go together really well. If you are a fan of the classic side scrolling genre and have always wanted more from it, but also sticking strongly to its roots than look no further, Drifting Lands is the game for you. The only thing I wish they did better was changing the game mode option freely, because I deeply regret being blown up, I lost a really awesome Guardians of the Galaxy Easter egg which was a old cassette. It stands out to me as one of the best if not to date the greatest side scrolling title to date. So if you want to play it safe you got to make that choice very early on at the start of the game or else you may run the risk of losing your really good stuff.ĭrifting Lands is one of the best side scrolling action games I have ever played with its very in-depth customization features, toppled with its beautiful scenery and exciting soundtrack.
My only wish is that I would like an option to change between the two game modes while in game but, that is not do-able. Never to be able to get it back again and you got to grind all over again for hours and hours on end if you hope to find it again OR you can do a safe mode which items will only break and you can repair them in the market place.
Now, to this extent they have given the option to go classic mode where you will lose your equipment like I have. Which at this junction breaks my heart, because I got a really amazing rare item that boosted my ships stats through the roof, but upon fighting a enemy boss my ship was destroyed and I lost that part never to see it again. That being you can lose your ship and all the rare parts you get while you play through stages. However, this also presents a problem because with multiple ships to own, build and customize with a variety of weapons there is a downside to it all. They added the ability to buy and build a variety of ships from parts you scavenge from destroyed enemy ships. But that is where the comparisons end, they have added level select, they have added in stage difficulties, they even added a currency system and what I most absolutely love. All the while you are madly dodging lasers, bullets, bombs, and explosions and everything else that is trying to kill you from giant space worms to other alien ships.ĭrifting lands takes from its predecessors in the basics where you got the ship, its bullet hell in dodging and fighting.
Humble in their beginnings they created one of the first genre of game where you have a ship of some kind that you got to blast through hordes of enemies that generally spew in from the right side of the screen. Now in my time I have played a lot of side scrolling games, starting from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) all the way to the glorious Sega Genesis and despite my enjoyment of those titles they never felt complete to me, they never felt like they were what the genre could be and what Drifting Lands accomplishes.