Review by Richard Winstone
Beacon is a top-down sci-fi shooter, that allows you to collect and implement enemy DNA into your latest clone, curious stuff.
Image not recovered: Beacon. Archived image reference
Your ship crash lands on Kovus-18, as the protagonist Freja
Akiyama, your mission is to find your rescue beacon, with the trailer showing
the vivid colours and some interesting mutations, a pretty appealing game it
should be.
That brings me to one of the most interesting game
mechanics, as you kill your way through the levels, enemy’s will drop their
DNA, and when you die which is often, you get the ability to not only clone
yourself but splice the DNA you have found into your next iteration of
yourself. Giving a range of buffs and de-buffs depending on what you add to
yourself. Sone DNA will modify your dodging, allowing you to dash, replacing
your legs with flames giving a floating ability and many more.
This is where I get a little hung up on the game, the
character progression is purely based on DNA which are random drops, you can
spend an awful lot of time hoping to get the right DNA to make your character
powerful enough to really progress, yes you can find random guns that are a
significant improvement over your pistol, that’s helpfully but nothing in
comparison to DNA mods.
Image not recovered: Beacon. Archived image reference
Next on my frustration list you wander the map find a spot
with the right enemy’s or some good loot you die (it happens a lot) and the map
will randomly regenerate meaning you have to hope you find them again by
randomly and not die after you lost your riot shoot gun and your back to the
starter pistol.
Than brings me to the game play itself, now ill be honest
I’m not a regular top down gamer, its not really my bag so it could be me but,
with the isometric movements and the map design with a lot of thin paths and
connecting channels it turned into a massively frustrating “falling off the map
simulator” granted this doesn’t kill you, your respawned right where you were
but an incredibly frustrating mechanic all the same.
So in conclusion, it’s a good looking game with some very good features the DNA upgrades I really enjoyed, but the movement system for me was a massive let down, and some of the frustrating could be down to my lack of love for the genre in general. It was getting more enjoyable the more I progressed but it was purely a case of I had to play to give a fair review, I wouldn’t of elected to play after the first hour otherwise.
Overall 7/10
Graphics 9/10
Gameplay 4/10
Replay ability 5/10
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