From the deck of the Claw of Individual Merit.
There’s a certain kind of game that has you running in circles.
This isn’t because it’s poorly designed or lacking waypoints.
It’s because it’s frantic, endlessly generous, and loves to throw horrible things in your path.
It’s unfair in the very best way.
It’s an arcade game.
Specifically, it’s a twin-stick.
When you’re going in circles you get to see the emergent heart beating at the centre of everything.
Different enemy types, obeying slightly different rules of engagement, break into separate patterns.
Grunts flock together into a bait ball.
Brains seek out family members.
Enforcers work their way to the corners.
Hulks just hulk about, the big idiots.
This stuff is never far from my mind.
This third-person sci-fi shooter really felt like a twin-stick.
And here’s the thing.
It’s not the only non-twin-stick I’d encountered recently that had that feeling.
Let’s dig in.
Let’s start running in circles.
This is all very Robotron from the off, and that’s worth reflecting on very briefly.
The gap between how they saw themselves and what they actually were suddenly revealed itself.
I laughed out loud.
There’s more to the DNA I think.
Much of that arcade thrill has seeped into the sequel, even if it’s a third-person behind-the-character affair.
Why does it feel so twin-sticky exactly?
I’d say there’s a couple of reasons.
Helldivers 2 has the panoramic intensity of a twin-stick.
It also has the right kind of enemies, and this is something I should really have noticed earlier.
A twin-stick doesn’t just give you movement on one stick and aiming on another.
It gives you the kind of foes who make sense of this.
That is, glass cannons.
(Okay, not the Hulks, but they really are their own thing.)
This is the kind of combat that keeps you moving.
You’re always in danger, but you’re always being reminded of how deadly you are too.
Survivor’s an auto-shooter, which is what I gather we’re now callingVampire Survivors-alikes.
You move around an open space, firing automatically every few seconds.
Use XP to become more deadly and unlock more weapons that also auto-fire.
A few years back, twin-sticks were everywhere.
(A few years back it was wonderful.)
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor offers many of the same pleasures of a twin-stick.
You have to find space for yourself amongst hordes of enemies.
Running in circles still counts.
Deep into it and Survivor brings back many Robotron memories, in fact.
You are so utterly outnumbered, so mobbed and harassed.
you’re able to’t help but cheer.
So what do you do in any of these games?
Well, you could do worse than start running in circles.
