Games check: Biota – The almost-like-before-run-and-gun – News

biota welcomes you straight away with a pixelated still image intro, a chiptune theme hums meaningfully, a deep narrator’s voice describes the current state of the earth in the year 2077 and the goal of your mission: On a distant asteroid, an extraterrestrial organism has control over the Infrastructure taken over and no trace of the investigators who were supposed to investigate the incident. As part of Squad Gemini II, you travel to the asteroid to free them.

At the beginning there are four characters available to you, as the game progresses more characters join the Gemini II Squad.

Alien-controlled asteroids are no pony farm

After landing on the asteroid “Frontier Horizon” you choose one of four mercenaries that are available to you at the beginning of the game. Each squad member has different character stats and abilities. After visiting the Black Market and (optional) small talk with the remaining employees of your client, you plunge into exploring the underground facilities.

You reveal the respective area screen by screen, a practical map always shows you where you have already been and which areas you are still missing. In the sections you will encounter monsters with different attack patterns, which will attack you on sight and which you will clear out of the way with your weapons. You can also ignore them and quickly enter the next screen. Your skill is regularly required, as there are jump-and-run passages that require good timing on the way to the connection diagram, walls to be climbed via wall jump or corridors peppered with traps.

However, only pacifism will not get you very far in Biota. Because the monsters leave behind a currency that you can use to purchase upgrades for your character and items in the Black Markets of the mission areas. You need the latter to unlock more areas and progress in the story.

In some sections you dodge objects – Biota never gets difficult, it rather requires your patience.

Little frills – also in the gameplay

Overall, Biota plays very familiar and uncomplicated: In addition to the direction keys, the jump and shoot buttons are the evergreens. You also have to remember two buttons for the management of the special abilities. The controls are easy to use, but prove to be their own. Which, coupled with arrogance and impatience, led to many screen deaths for me. Thankfully, you can create a quicksave point in any enemy- and bullet-free room with the push of a button. As a result, you rarely mourn lost game progress – you just can’t forget to press the button. If in doubt, there are enough fairly set checkpoints in the levels.

As I fought my way through the game world of Biota, however, it became increasingly clear that the title lacked variety and depth. The fights against the standard opponents quickly become routine, and the attack patterns of the area bosses are not overly demanding. And the Metroidvania elements and special abilities are within a manageable range. But Biota surprises you with many successful interludes that remind me of past hours of play in my youth.

On the map you can see which screens you have already entered. Wild shooting around sometimes pays off, because there are also some secret rooms whose walls you have to destroy first.

Color palettes that take some getting used to and a successful soundtrack

Visually, Biota is limited to four colors, believe it or not, but gives you a considerable number of color palettes to choose from, in which the game world “shines”. In the German version, these listen to such euphonious names as Graustufen, Neuziger, CGA, Alter Computer, Arcade and many more. You can also enhance the retro effect with two CRT filters and a low-res mode. A nice but double-edged sword. Because the graphics in Biota are coarse-pixelated and in full-screen mode on my 24-inch monitor, many palettes blur into pixelation before my eyes.

The fabulous sound effects and the chiptune soundtrack will melt you away. Of course, Biota doesn’t reinvent a single tone or sound, but it still inspires me with its minimalist effect noises and the various chiptune pieces. But, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”, so I’ll save myself further hymns of praise in text form.

Once you’ve gathered fuel for the mech, you’ll fight your way through a shoot-’em-up section with it.

Retro fun with prints

Biota fully relies on the nostalgia factor. Graphics, sound, controls and gameplay remind me of the day before yesterday. I don’t ponder which key (combination) performs the desired action again. I save myself tedious optimization tinkering in the graphics settings. Instead, I discover a manageable and atmospherically coherent game world. Just playing a round of rousing chiptune music, that’s what I enjoy in my more than six hours of playing with Biota.

But there are also downsides: Despite some in-game time, I have a hard time deciphering some of the color palettes in full screen on my LED monitor. Although I enjoy the simple and fluid gameplay, I miss playful variety and more depth in the systems. Biota shines with many funny ideas, but far too often sends me through far too long sections that have the same effect.

On the scales, however, the positive side clearly outweighs me, I appreciate Biota for what it does: I simply enjoy this coarse-pixelated, charming and imaginative title.

• Run and Gun for PC
• single player
• For beginners and advanced
• Price: 8.99 euros
• In one sentence: coarse-pixelated run-and-gun with a high nostalgia factor and light Metroidvania elements.