Sine Mora - PlayStation Vita Review

So on my somewhat recent trip to Florida, I got to spend some quality time with my Vita at night and on my flights. The result? A bunch of games I have picked up over the last year finally getting off of my never ending backlog. Among those? Sine Mora - a shooter developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and set against a sort of steampunk or dieselpunk backdrop.

The visuals are gorgeous and the music pulses along nicely - but again, the graphics have a beautiful kind of painted look to them, filled with vibrant colors and details. It sure is pretty, though sometimes there is so much happening on the screen, you can take hits without fully realizing what all is coming at you.

The game itself is a side-scrolling shooter, but thankfully there is a bit more going on than just dodging bullets and shooting things. The power-ups, time slowdown and shielding mechanisms set against a timer and not a life bar make things feel fresh, even though the basic action is the kind of thing you have seen before plenty of times.

The biggest complaint is how short the experience is. There is some replay value here in gathering trophies and trying to rank up and improve upon your last time through, but in the end the content - though gorgeous - is fairly short-lived. If you need 'new' content then this might bother you - if you are someone who grew up on games like Lifeforce that challenged you to beat higher scores or to simply 'do better', then going back to the well here a few more times will be enjoyable.

There is a revenge story here, but it feels a bit oddly disjointed at times and honestly did not hold my interest. The difficulty can be punishing at times, but seldom feels completely unfair. It is the sort of game that is not going to appeal to everyone, but for those who enjoy a good shooter with drop dead gorgeous visuals, this is a pretty solid way to spend a few hours.

Review by Nick

We score our games on a scale up to 10. You can read more about what we look for in a game in our Game Library page. Want to know more about the people writing our reviews? Go ahead and meet the team. Agree? Disagree? We want to hear your opinions either way - so feel free to leave a comment below and thanks for stopping by!