Release Date: 7 December 2017
Date Played: 19 November 2021
Dimension Drive is a vertical shmup developed by 2Awesome Studio that really tries to innovate on the same old formula we've seen again and again in shooters. They took the tried and true method that has worked for the last 3 decades and threw it out of the window to usher in a challenging and brain melting new concept that is actually more of a puzzle game than a shooter.
It's the year 6545 and you play as Jack, an orphaned girl from a destroyed planet, who has fled her pursuers by jumping to a different dimension. These pursuers called the Ashjul are warmongering villains who will only be satisfied by not only conquering the known universe, but ALL universes. They have recently jumped into the dimension where Jack is currently living and begun their campaign. Jack, who is armed with a special ship, the Manitcore, that can jump at will between two dimensions sets out to fend off and destroy the Ashjul empire while protecting her friends along the way.
You may have noticed that I spent more time talking about the story in this shmup far more than I normally do. The reason for this is because the developers have really tried to create a fully fleshed out story with interesting characters. This, of course, is an oddity for a shmup and is rarely attempted and usually glossed over. The reason for this is because the story in a shooter often feels forced and serves as nothing more than a distraction from the focus of the game... which is the gameplay. Unfortunately, this is also the case for Dimension Drive. Between every stage, we're given an animated series of static screens with dialog in the form of text at the bottom of the screen. These cut scenes go on for far too long and really feel like more of a nuisance more than anything. I personally didn't find the character's art style or their personalities to be that engaging or interesting and I eventually lost interest in the plot all together. If I were to describe it, I would say it has the depth of a Saturday morning cartoon.
As for the gameplay... oh, the gameplay. I'm not going to beat around the bush, I hated almost every second I spent with Dimension Drive. I don't know if I'm just too stupid to get the hang of the gameplay or if it's just poor design; but, I could never get into the flow of playing this game and eventually rage quit and almost threw my controller. I'm shocked this happened and I don't remember ever getting this frustrated or angry playing a game EVER. Now, I'm not the best gamer of all time and never claimed to be. But, in terms of similar games, I have 1 credit cleared Ikaruga, Ketsui, and Mushihimesama Futari (all considered to be some of the hardest shmups ever made) and I never came close to being as frustrated with those games as I was with this one. So, what's the issue with this game? Basically, it's just that the mechanics are so mind scrambling that I could never get the hang of them. Let me lay it all out for you in a way where you can get a glimpse into what it's like to play this game without actually having to play it yourself. I would never want to subject anyone to such a curse.
The screen is split into 2 separate playfields; one on the right, and one on the left. You essentially have to play both screens at the same time. Your ship exists on only 1 screen at any given moment, but the enemies and hazards for both screens are always progressing whether your currently on that screen or not. You press a button to jump from one screen to the other and this is the main mechanic of the game. The screens don't match and there are different enemies, bullets, and barriers on the two screens at the same time. You have to try to focus on the screen you're currently playing, but you need to be mindful of the other one at the same time because you never know when you're going to have to warp over there. You'll be constantly flipping back and forth between the two dimensions to maneuver your way through the hails of bullets and to sneak around barriers that will cause you to crash. The whole experience is like trying to carry on two conversations at once. You try to focus on listening intently to one person while also trying to catch the gist of what the other person is saying. Anyone who's every been to a party an experienced this nightmare knows exactly what I'm talking about. It isn't fun, and no one ever wants to do it. You may ask yourself, "what's stopping you from mainly staying on one side all of the time and ignoring the other side?" Well, you have an energy gauge that depletes as you shoot. When it's empty, you can no longer fire. The only way to refill it is by collecting green orbs from fallen enemies or by switching to the other dimension for a little bit while the gauge for the other side recharges. So, if you stay one one side for too long, you're forced by the game to jump to the other side. Having to keep track of this energy bar becomes a huge focus of the game and sucks the life right out of the whole shooting experience. Luckily, it doesn't even matter that much because shooting the enemies and dodging their bullets isn't really the focus of this game. Instead, the developers decided to make the meat and potatoes of the game be centered around avoiding walls and other obstacles by having to carefully position yourself in the correct dimension so you can circumvent a collision in the wrong dimension. This makes the game feel like Velocity X2 , another similar game that had you teleporting around the screen to avoid obstacles. It, too, felt more like a puzzle game than a shmup and I didn't care for it either. But, at least in that game, you could focus your eyes on the same screen without having to dart your eyes back and forth to see what's going on like in this game. Having to deal with teleporting between the two different dimensions was miserable and I didn't like it at all. You're given some shields that negate a few hits from bullets and laser beams, but they don't help when you broadside a wall. If you want to know what it feels like to do this, toss a ball up and down repeatedly with one hand while trying to type at a keyboard with your other hand. Keep your eyes focused on the ball while trying to type out the lyrics to your favorite song. But, every time you type the letter R, you have to switch your eyes over to look at the keyboard for 5 seconds while keeping the ball tossing going and never missing a beat on the keyboard. Try it, I dare you.
In addition to this, as you progress into the game, you unlock EVEN MORE mechanics that throw additional wrenches into the gears of any fun you may have. The first of these is the ability to slow down and flip your ship around to shoot behind you. At first, I thought that this might make things easier and would work like slamming on the breaks before you crash into another wall. But, instead the game starts adding in this remarkably stupid mechanic of having to shoot switches that are scattered around the levels and that unlock doors blocking your way. Often you'll be focused on playing in one dimension and you'll come to a dead end where you'll be forced to teleport over to the other side, turn backwards, shoot the switch, turn back round, then teleport back to the other side to continue. This sort of thing is constantly going on and it's so brain scrambling to me that I was constantly panicking and making careless mistakes.
Let's talk about these mistakes a little more. Truthfully, I don't think I EVER died to an enemy or an enemy shot. Instead I would constantly die by teleporting to the other screen while my ship was in the middle of a wall or something which results in instant death and sends you back to a checkpoint. Or, I would quite often think I was playing on one screen while I was actually over on the other one and I would accidentally crash into a wall. Many other times, I would be in the middle of a situation where I'm having to perform a bunch of teleports and ship flips while fending off enemies and I would accidentally press the teleport button instead of the flip button (or visa versa) and crash into another wall. I could NOT keep the controls straight and I could never get the hang of things. Even after HOURS of playing this game, I only marginally improved. Just when I thought I was getting better, the game would throw another new mechanic at me and all of my hard work would be thrown out of the window. I know there are people out there who really enjoyed this game, but I cannot figure out why. Also, I know there are a lot of people out there that really didn't stick with the game for very long and became just as frustrated as I did. How do I know this? Well, after I finished the 5th of 20 stages (just a quarter of the way through the game), I unlocked a trophy for making it that far and only 8% of the people who had ever played Dimension Drive had also progressed up to this point and unlocked that same trophy. How long did it take me to unlock this trophy? About 30 minutes. That means that 92% of the people who played this game didn't even make it half an hour into it. If that doesn't tell you something about how frustrating this game is, I don't know what will.
As for the aesthetics, like I mentioned earlier, have a very Saturday morning cartoon look to them. This is especially true for the still frame cut scenes. The gameplay itself is pretty uninspired and is just basic 3D models with nothing that really stands out. There's nothing in terms of visuals to give the game any character and the whole art design falls very flat. This is in direct contrast to the game's soundtrack which is actually outstanding. Stages 1-2 and 1-4, in particular, have some rocking and catchy melodies and hooks. It's nice to hear some guitar based music in a sci-fi game instead of the typical EDM music that's been so prevalent recently. I'm glad the game came with a copy of the soundtrack because I actually want to listen to these songs again outside of the game. In my opinion, quality of the music is the only positive I have to say about the game.
I made it about half way through the game before rage quitting. I got stuck at one spot and I tried over and over to get past it without success. The problem is that I knew EXACTLY what I had to do to succeed and I just couldn't muster the coordination to do it. I would keep looking at the wrong screen, accidentally press the wrong button, or brush against a wall causing my ship to explode. I was frustrated with myself at first, but more and more I became frustrated with the game developers for taking an interesting mechanic and using it in the wrong way. They should have make the game about timing incoming waves of enemies and flipping back and forth between the screens to keep a chain multiplier going or something like that. Instead, they turned the game into a puzzle game about positioning and grabbing collectables. You know the old saying, "easy to learn and difficult to master?" Well, this game is difficult to learn and difficult to master. It asks too much of the player too quickly and focuses on the aspects of the game that are frustrating and instead of the ones that are fun. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone and would advise you to steer far clear of it.
Final Status: Played (... and rage quit)
Final Score: 3/10 (miserable to play)
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