Gigapocalypse [Xbox]
Goody Gameworks’ Gigapocalypse has clearly been inspired by games like Rampage, but instead plays more like a clicker with you directing attacks with your pointer. There are three ‘lines’ of Giga available for you to choose from: The First Primevals, A Void in the Space and the Old Gods, with three Gigas to choose from in each. Gigas have their own individual Lore that you can read through, giving you backstory on each beast, and some are of a higher difficulty level than others. The actual gameplay-story remains the same no matter which Giga you choose, however, which was a little disappointing to discover when playing. As any of the Gigas, you’ll escape from a facility, and be on your way to destroy everything in your path.
As well as destroying the various cities, it has a tamagotchi-styled aspect to the gameplay too, where you can pet, feed and take care of your Giga, decorating their little home and purchasing various items to upgrade their health and other stats. Within the tamagotchi-mode, there are sections for Quests & Achievements, with Quests able to net you mutation points and experience, and Achievements gaining you stickers to decorate your Giga’s little world; Mutations & Pets, where you can use mutation points to customise the appearance of your Giga with a variety of different colour schemes, and this also enables various alterations such as extra laser beams, etc.
You can also unlock Pets for your Giga, which range from actual mini-pets that will help out when attacking cities, and various objects that will grant you stat buffs and other upgrades. From here you can access Cities, which are all of the level locations available for you to take on. Events will also pop up, such as ‘Spooky Month’ that offer slight alterations to the attack gameplay. As well as the typical ‘Annihilate’ mode, there’s also an Endless Mode that you can take on if you’re brave enough.
Different Gigas have different forms of their attacks, so where some may use Rage, others use Aqua, some have Rocks, etc. and you’ll need to utilise these in order to generate power for more attacks: attacking buildings, cars and bystanders will reward you with the power, but you need it in order to attack them in the first place. Thankfully this does slowly increase over time if you run out, but it can feel quite cumbersome at times - and on occasion you’ll just find yourself a bit stuck as you wait on this, leaving you vulnerable. You’ve got a health meter that will drain the more damage you take, though finding snacks along the way will replenish health. As you progress through each level, you can pick up power-ups that grant time-limited perks such as 2X Damage, and you can also unlock pets, with any pets you’ve already equipped helping you out by either dealing damage to enemies or replenishing your health.
The pixelated art style is visually appealing, with levels having appearances that vary between the Wild West, urban cities and space-stations, and the enemies range from humans who’ll shoot at you from ground-level, robots and gunships that will attack from above, and big mechanised robots who’ll come in towards the end of the levels to try and wipe you out. The soundtrack is fantastic, with a rocky-vibe to it to amp you up for all of the destruction you’ll cause.
As you work through each of the Cities, you’ll have Boss battles to take part in. Each of these can vary, with different mini-games to complete in order to defeat the Boss, ranging from puzzle-based battles (including Maths!), to ‘Space Battles’ where you’ll need to shoot to fend off enemy projectiles, and more. There’s a news reporter that appears at the end of each level, who will make fun of you if you’re not doing so well… comparing you to an ‘overgrown Chihuahua’ among other things.
Overall, Gigapocalypse is fun in short bursts, with the tamagotchi-segments being the most enjoyable aspect. The gameplay does feel quite slow to progress, and you’ll often find yourself hitting a bit of a brick wall which can take a lot of the fun out of things, and with each of the Gigas following the same basic formula for the levels - this leads to it feeling rather repetitive. Taking care of each of the available Gigas and decorating their little worlds, with the unlockable items having upgrades that make an effect on the Annihilation mode is an interesting inclusion. So if this sounds like something you’d like to try, you can nab it for £7.99 on the Xbox Store.
In the end, we decided to give Gigapocalypse the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Are you interested in Gigapocalypse? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Plan of Attack for the Gigapocalypse Xbox review code!
