Rocketbirds HardBoiled Chicken is a action platform with a difference…
Don’t forget to checkout our YouTube video for a first Impressions review of Rocketbirds!
Rocketbirds has perhaps one of the oddest plots I’ve seen in a game for a good while – reminding me heavily of a lot of the retro games of old (Robocod anyone?).
As far as visuals go, Rocketbirds is fairly gorgeous. Despite having little in the way of graphical options (aside from the usual resolution and windowed mode) you don’t really feel you are missing out due to the machine needed to run the game being so modest (2GB of ram is recommended, although you can get away with 1GB, with pretty much any 2GHZ dual core CPU). The art style is nice, in particular forest sections look reasonable, with great shadows and detail, and with the more urban and industrial areas having their own unique and distinctive look. While not as beautiful as Trine 2, RocketBirds HardBoiled Chicken certainly is not a visual slouch.
Animations are also fairly pleasing, with the enemies reacting in humorous ways as you pump them full of bullets. This leads me nicely onto the gameplay.
The gameplay of Rocketbirds is fairly solid for the most part – although it is not without faults. But what it does well is a delivering a fairly solid platforming experience with a twist of quirky humor. You can juggle enemies with gun fire (with rapid fire weapons such as the Uzi making this more amusing) until the enemy dies. Weapons in the game share the same clip – meaning that you have to manage the resources the best you can. Fortunately you won’t find yourself short on ammo that often.
Puzzles in the game generally fall around either trying to find the relevant keycard for an area or finding your way past a tricky section in a certain time (for example, an airship is about to explode in 30 seconds and you must make your escape before you bite the bullet).
The main character is reasonably well controlled, but sometimes a little stiff when turning around during facing several enemies on opposite sides. It isn’t a huge issue, but one that I personally noticed.
Floating enemies with gunfire – standard for a hardboiled chicken!
There are certain times where the game switches from the platformer element and you can use say a jetpack to blast into the air and fight enemies. I personally felt this to be the weakest part of the game – as you are unable to fire in one direction and fly in another meaning aiming can be a little frustrating. It certainly was not frustrating enough to cause me to just want the section to be over though – and still provided a diversion from the regular gameplay.
Overall I am fairly impressed with the package – especially given its cheap price point. Despite the fact that I don’t find its sense of humor to my exact tastes I enjoyed my time with the game. It is visually pleasing, with solid gameplay. If you are a fan of the genre you will like it, but if you like the games sense of humor you will love it!
