Tower defense fans should enjoy Kittypocalypse, as it has plenty of weapons, upgrades and interesting paths for the little evil kitten army to march through. However, the VR works even better than I expected here, and the game's visuals are a hoot, helping to create a better-than-average overall experience that I really enjoyed.
Kittens are cute, fluffy and absolutely adorable. Our family has five cats, so that first sentence was said with all seriousness on my part. So it only makes sense than an evil alien race hellbent on galactic conquest would use kitty costumes to help them take over unawares. However, you are on to their evil machinations and doing what has to be done: using a variety of high-powered turrets to splatter them across a variety of different locations to help ensure the protection of your planet.
If the above paragraph seems ridiculous - awesome! That is the vibe the developers were going for. (As an aside, it if seemed completely plausible, please stay the hell away from my cats). Tower defense is often a very challenging genre, and Kittypocalypse deserves credit for its introductory levels that make it easy to learn the rules and the weapons at your disposal. I never had any concern I was going to lose in those initial stages, but by the end of the game, the challenge was real and I had to pay attention to managing my money and my weapon upgrades and types.
The basics of the genre are all here. Winding paths waiting to be filled with hordes of your little brain-dead enemies, a variety of different weapon types from rapid fire, to piercingly intense single laser blasts to attacks that simply slow the assaulting army down and more. You have to worry about range, special effects and matching up the best towers to combat certain enemy types. Some enemies are heavily shielded and can thwart some weapons more easily than others. Some enemies are incredibly quick so as single, slow but powerful shot is likely going to miss. These are all elements that fans of the genre have come to expect and by and large they are pretty well represented here.
Another thing that gives Kittypocalypse a nice boost in replay value is unlocking and trying new weaponry. Towers can have a couple of different upgrade paths, so do you want a faster firing tower, or one that adds a negative affect on your targets? Additionally, each stage has certain goals to try and meet, so once you have beaten a level, you may decide you want to go back and attempt to win again by adhering to one of the bonus objectives such as not spending more than a certain amount of money or only building X number of towers. The core gameplay is solid, even if the game is a somewhat shorter one.
The VR is generally a hit here. Early on I did struggle a little with the controls, trying to figure out the best way to move around. However, with a little trial and error and experience, I was zooming and zipping around the environment, and while Kittypocalypse supports VR, it feels more like a nice addition than a true necessity. That being said, it looks good and getting up close and personal as one of your killer kitties is captured in a bubble, floating up into the sky so other turrets can open fire on it is morbidly entertaining.
Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity here is that you cannot take over a tower manually. Given the nature of VR as a first person experience, taking over a turret manually and mowing down the adorable little invaders might have been very cool. In other places a little more polish might have helped, but all in all the general experience in Kittypocalypse is a favorable one. Kittypocalypse takes a ridiculous, silly story, wraps solid tower defense fundamentals around it and provides a cool if perhaps underused virtual reality concept and it all comes together in a pretty entertaining experience.
Game Information
PC - Oculus Rift
Developer(s):
Bolvërk Games
Publisher(s):
Bolvërk Games
Genre(s):
Action
Strategy
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
None
Source:
Provided by Publisher
Article by Nick
