GRIDD: Retroenhanced

Lasers, hacking, trial and error and replayability. Keywords that totally describe this arcade-like experience from GRIDD. Read on, while dodging the defenses from the firewall, to see if this game is worth buying! 

THE GOOD

• Hacking is the main influence from GRIDD: Retroenhanced, a big face immediately sets the mood while playing this for the first time. “You are not welcome here” and you can take that very literal. Things start of pretty slow but after a few minutes you are dodging and shooting like a fly avoiding electrical dead from a fly-catcher. Don’t expect easy gameplay from GRIDD, you will always be on the tip of your seat, full with adrenaline rushes. This makes the game insanely addictive because you always want to progress a little bit further than before.
• The game might not feature impressive gameplay elements but the simplicity makes it stand out from quite a few others in the genre. It all comes down to a very basic thing, a game needs to be fun, GRIDD: Retroenhanced is just that.
• You would expect that a game like this has a static camera but that’s not the case. The camera swings around, giving you new challenging views, this of course makes the game a little harder sometimes but who doesn’t like a (fair) challenge?
• You know that song from Daft Punk called “One More Time”? It’s a perfect fit for this game, I already said that the game is very addictive but I want to point out that you always want to give it another shot when you die. You always want to progress beyond that difficult to beat boss fight, you always want to beat that score from a friend…
• Knowing when and how to shoot is a big success or fail moment, playing this game as a “I will keep the shooting-button pressed” will cause insta-death after the first few minutes. Some objects return your fire, and believe me when I say that nothing feels worse than shooting yourself out of the sky.

MIXED FEELINGS

• You can’t go around the fact that a game like this will be compared with Tron. Hacking stuff and the same SciFi-like world, the difference is that GRIDD doesn’t really use this cool setting enough, I would have loved a little bit more storyline content or neat hacking-gameplay.
• GRIDD’s look and feel is great for gamers that have been playing for many years, but it might scare away a few millennials and especially generation Z gamers, or in other words gamers that haven’t experienced and loved the 80’s gaming style.

THE BAD

• Some level dangers are very confusing to dodge, even with hours and hours of experience. It’s a little frustrating that you lose chunks of health because the game doesn’t make it clear how to avoid a specific danger. The colorful explosions are a fine example of that, the point of impact isn’t clear at all.
• The shmup genre has one weakness and I’m sure you can guess it… ? Repetitive gameplay. GRIDD doesn’t escape this and people love or hate it. I love this genre and Antab Studio’s effort too, but be sure to know that not everyone will like the gameplay. I know that can be said about most genre’s but I think we all agree that it fits the Shmup genre more.

Damn, I really had some great times while playing this game! That could pretty much sum up my conclusion but it would be too short. GRIDD isn’t the most original or impressive game but the fun-factor never misses the mark. Love the shmup genre? Buy GRIDD right this instant!