Review: Salvation Prophecy
By Andrew Powell, published 13/12/2013 in Reviews
If you love a good space romp and shooty shooty lasers you owe it to yourself to try this one.
First off It's best not to play the first half hour or so and judge the game right away. Yes, it's an indie game (made by pretty much one man, no less) and the graphics and animations won't impress anyone in 2013, but they are more than satisfactory and should not detract from the experience. However, I'd say the dev did a very good job with the artwork and resources he had.
This is more arcade than sim. When you're in ground combat, the fighting is relatively simple and more about how you approach the battle and manage your stims (health packs/power ups essentially) as well as focussing your fire with your teammates (instead of going Rambo on your own, good luck with that) rather than being some futuristic simulator. Same for space fighter battle, your ship controls are tight and direct rather than some floaty monstrosity. I think it's a whole lot more fun the way it is though and makes battle very satisfying and intense.
It's getting all Doctor Who in here!
Yes, there is both ground combat and space fighter combat. As well as this, the game has an RPG-lite element to it with leveling up and skill allocation. It's fairly simple, but effective (read: addictive).
There is a storyline too... but it's presented in a more dynamic and organic way than most. This is not an RPG with tonnes of dialog or cutscenes. But there is a storyline and things just... happen, as you go along in the game, progressing your character and upgrading your kit. It's difficult to explain, but to me, it's pretty ingenious.
Not sure if pretty or if world about to end
I couldn't really talk about the storyline without any spoilers, but it's certainly worth checking out and as I said, it feels natural in the way that it progresses, rather than scripted.
To my original point about not judging the game too early things start out fairly slowly and seem quite easy. But trust me, keep playing and progressing and battles, whether ground or in space, just get more and more intense, plus more tech is unveiled as throughout the game adding more dangers and strategies to your battles (i.e battleships protecting space stations in space, or buildings that can shoot lasers and defend themselves on ground or flying troops etc).
The game is described as a "space military epic" and that's pretty much what you get, because it does get epic. But you know what else? Get to the highest rank in game and you can control your own faction, GIVING orders rather than taking them. Suddenly the game takes on an RTS element, with troop, buildings and resource management and the like.
I do loves me a successful invasion
Finally, from a Linux perspective, I'm pleased to say the port is actually very good. In my playtime, I never experienced a crash or slowdown and the game just runs as you would expect it to. A big thumbs up for that one, especially as, again, we're talking about a pretty much one man effort here.
In summary, you just about get 3 games in one and for a price that is less $20, I'd suggest is easily worth it. Highly recommend.
You can purchase Salvation Prophecy on Steam.
Note: I originally reviewed this game a little while back on Metacritic, so this was mostly a copy of that review rather than rewrite the whole thing.
Pros:
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Verdict: | 9/10 |