Project Sylpheed Demo hits Marketplace
The all-singing, all-dancing Project Sylpheed demo hit the Xbox live marketplace today. The space-shooter, set in the 27th century, has been out for a while in Japan, but will be released in other territories soon. We took the demo for a quick spin, here’s what we thought:
The first thing to note is the characterisation. All through the demo level other pilots are chattering away, usually providing useful information, rather than the ‘I shot someone’ messages that you often get in this type of game. Those messages are in there too, but a demo is too little time to see how repetitive they will become in the full game. Characters seem pretty well designed, and we’re prepared to bet the plot will end up being a complex web of intrigue and deceit, quite possibly becoming more complex than War and Peace by level 3.
It’s a pretty attractive game, largely due to the amount going on screen. There are all sorts of engine trails and missile vapours floating around the place, and enough ships to create a suitably epic space battle feel. The ship designs themselves are a bit underwhelming however. Nothing evocative or memorable on show, although the Space station design seemed pretty good.
Shooting down the enemy fighters seemed pretty easy, but things changed when we went after the capital ships. Our tactical approach of charging directly towards them firing our weapons as quickly as possible resulted in a swift death, and a lot of swearing. We’re going to take that as a sign of depth.
To sum up then, well it was pretty fun, but nothing to set it apart from any other competent space shooter you can think of. Of course, it’s the only space shooter on Xbox 360 at present, and there aren’t many others on the horizon (unless you count the live arcade Wing Commander game), so if this is the kind of game you want to play, this is the one to buy. A seven out of ten, but the best available at the moment.
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