Grid Force: Mask Of The Goddess review – the tactics of bullet hell

metro.co.uk:

GameCentral reviews a new indie challenger that manages to mix action games with bullet hell shooters and Japanese-style role-players.

It’s not uncommon for indie games to mix and match different elements from multiple genres. Slay The Spire combines deck building, dungeon crawlers, and roguelikes to great effect; while Neon White manages to blend a first person shooter with a puzzle platformer. Now you can add Grid Force – Mask Of The Goddess to that list, with its unique mash-up of fast-paced bullet hell, tactical thinking, and role-playing into one of the year’s most interesting games.

Grid Force’s peculiar blend of genres almost sounds like throwing ingredients in a blender and hoping for the best. But in this case, the strange concoction that results is rather tasty. The first ingredient (yes, we are sticking with this analogy) is 2D bullet hell shooters. For those unfamiliar with games such as Radiant Silvergun, bullet hell shooters tend to involve a literal full-screen barrage of enemy projectiles to deal with, which at first glance seem impossible to avoid. Grid Force delivers that same high-octane action in its real-time combat, albeit in slightly less stressful scenarios.

It takes place on the aptly named grid, a series of tiles of various shapes that you move and dash around in real-time, to avoid the plethora of projectiles thrown your way, whilst also dishing out damage yourself. Visually, it’s reminiscent of the Mega Man Battle Network games and at first you might be a bit overwhelmed by the game’s frantic pace. However, you’ll quickly find yourself weaving through enemy attacks, managing force – your ability resource – and letting off shots with precision and style. Boss fights show the action at its best and