Review by Richard Winstone
Beacon is a top-down sci-fi shooter, that allows you to collect and implement enemy DNA into your latest clone, curious stuff.
Your ship crash lands on Kovus-18, as the protagonist Freja Akiyama, your mission is to find your rescue beacon, with the trailer showing the vivid colours and some interesting mutations, a pretty appealing game it should be.
That brings me to one of the most interesting game mechanics, as you kill your way through the levels, enemy’s will drop their DNA, and when you die which is often, you get the ability to not only clone yourself but splice the DNA you have found into your next iteration of yourself. Giving a range of buffs and de-buffs depending on what you add to yourself. Sone DNA will modify your dodging, allowing you to dash, replacing your legs with flames giving a floating ability and many more.
This is where I get a little hung up on the game, the character progression is purely based on DNA which are random drops, you can spend an awful lot of time hoping to get the right DNA to make your character powerful enough to really progress, yes you can find random guns that are a significant improvement over your pistol, that’s helpfully but nothing in comparison to DNA mods.
Next on my frustration list you wander the map find a spot with the right enemy’s or some good loot you die (it happens a lot) and the map will randomly regenerate meaning you have to hope you find them again by randomly and not die after you lost your riot shoot gun and your back to the starter pistol.
Than brings me to the game play itself, now ill be honest I’m not a regular top down gamer, its not really my bag so it could be me but, with the isometric movements and the map design with a lot of thin paths and connecting channels it turned into a massively frustrating “falling off the map simulator” granted this doesn’t kill you, your respawned right where you were but an incredibly frustrating mechanic all the same.
So in conclusion, it’s a good looking game with some very good features the DNA upgrades I really enjoyed, but the movement system for me was a massive let down, and some of the frustrating could be down to my lack of love for the genre in general. It was getting more enjoyable the more I progressed but it was purely a case of I had to play to give a fair review, I wouldn’t of elected to play after the first hour otherwise.
Overall 7/10
Graphics 9/10
Gameplay 4/10
Replay ability 5/10
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