***Written using a key provided by the Developer for review purposes***

Zotrix is an arcade, space shooter that is inspired by arcade games from the 80's and 90's that has just launched on Early Access. In Zotrix you assume the role of a captain tasked with escorting different cargo ships to what remains of the human race all living in different space stations. Completing missions grants you rewards in the form of credits and materials, credits (and sometimes materials) are used to purchase upgrades and materials can be bought and sold to earn more credits. I've never played a game like this before and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

+Nice retro graphics and everything is designed well
+Great soundtrack
+Simple controls which your ship responds to very well
+Projectiles can be shot and destroyed as well as the ships firing them
+A wide range of upgrades can be purchased for your ship
+Simple yet very addictive gameplay
+There are already 40 missions and more will be added when the game releases
+Good variation of mission length
+You get powerups in the missions which make your weapons stronger
+Quite a lot of different enemy ship types
+It's nice that you can make money from trading as well as completing missions

+/-The only replay value (once you've completed all 50 missions which will take you a while) comes from replaying missions you've already done to get a higher score

-The missions feel pretty similar to each other
-The asteroid texture looks out of place to me
-Quite a few grammatical errors in the game and on the store page

Verdict:
7

A good arcade space shooter with addictive gameplay, I'm looking forward to see how it develops through its Early Access stage.

El K.

Zotrix:
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Zotrix is a retro arcade shoot’em up with a twist of strategy.

At the start of the game you will be at your mission control. There, you’ll have options to upgrade your vessel, go to the trade resources, see your current position by using the map or you can start a mission.

Essentially, you have to go to another space station with a specific cargo. Upon success of your mission, you will be rewarded with space credits and resources too (Gold, Nickel and others). With credits, not only you will be able to buy resources to go towards upgrading your vessels (weapons and other gizmos) but you can also assess which destination (space station) is buying resources at a higher price that you bought it so you can make a profit.

During mission you can move your spacecraft all around the screen which takes a little time to master but if you are used to this type of arcade game you will have no problem whatsoever.

Nice retro graphics and really good soundtracks.

To be honest, this game is surprisingly good for an early access game.

Positives:
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- Good Retro Graphics
- Lots of upgrades
- Trade Resource Room
- Fun, Fast and Addictive
- Great soundtracks
- Trading cards

Negatives:
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- A bit repetitive (mission)

All I can say is bring on the full version ASAP!

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Vince Rowe Reviews

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This Arcade Shooter is a pretty damn good game, it has a great progression system, a ton of different enemies and bosses, and the whole structure of the game itself is laid out really well.


Graphics - 7/10 - Good
Sound - 3/10 - Bad
Music - 8/10 - Great
Level Design - 7/10 - Good
Combat - 8/10 - Great
Progression - 8/10 - Great



+ Pixel Graphics
+ Great Music
+ Old School Arcade Shooter
+ Lots of Enemy Variation
+ Fun boss fights
+ Responsive Controls and Gameplay
+ Extremely Fleshed-out Gameplay
+ Great Progression System with Upgrades and Resource Management
+ Trading Cards


- Repetitive Gun Sounds
- Little-no Storyline
- Resources need a little balancing




It's nice to see an Old School Arcade Shooter game again, it really reminds me of when Newgrounds was the thing, these types of games dominated back then - and they were free. Now though, it seems like free games are really a thing of the past... I mean, why bother making the game for fun and release it for free when you could charge people to play it too!? It's a bit of a shame but at least it supports the people who do make video games...

I can honestly say that it's fun, it's a pretty typical game though, you shoot 'aliens' - basically spaceships - to get money which you can spend on making yourself more powerful and in turn you can challenge the harder levels. The game-play is pretty simple but fun with a few mechanics in there to keep you on your toes.

The gun-play(?) is fun, every level you start with a single-shot gun and during the next few minutes upgrades will drop from the top of the screen which gives you another shot - I'm pretty sure the max number of shots is 3. If you get hit, you'll lose life and you get bumped down to the previous level unless you're on level 1 that is, then you can't drop - at the end of each level you lose the temporary gun upgrades but some permanent gun upgrades are available from the store. In order to keep your temporary gun level and not be attacked you need to buy a shield which you get the money and resources to buy one by beating levels. Shields block enemy projectiles and recharges overtime, however if you get rammed by an enemy ship you will lose the entire shield for the rest of the level - basically you're screwed at this point.

Expect yourself to take a lot of hits though, the shield tanks a ton of damage - level 4 shield that is which isn't even expensive (which is why I think the store needs a little rebalancing) - it's not the type of game where you have to squeeze your way through enemy shots... At least not at the moment anyway.

The audio is half and half, the music in the game is great but it's really let down by the constant 'pew pew' from the gun, it completely blocks out the music and you can't hear anything - as soon as you're in-game I recommend you turn the SFX down and keep the music loud. That being said, the music is pretty damn good so my guess is that we will probably see a soundtrack released for this game sometime soon.
The graphics is a 'meh'. You won't be focusing on the graphics that much when it gets towards the higher, more hectic levels but there's no real reason for the graphics to not be better. The Pixel Art style doesn't really add that much to the style of game but like I said, it doesn't matter towards the later levels anyway. Saying that though, the game does have a terrific use of colours!

Overall, this Arcade Shooter is a pretty damn good game, it has a great progression system, a ton of different enemies and bosses, and the whole structure of the game itself is laid out really well. I recommend this game to anyone who's a fan of Old School Arcade Shooter games.



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It's trully a blast to the past. Zotrix is reminiscent of the finest golden-era shooters that us veterans played in 80's :) Though the basic premise of 'shoot everything in your sight' is still the same, it works suprisingly well on many levels, succesfully incorporating trading mechanics as well as some basic economics. Seeing this as a first game of this genre from this young Croatian studio, I can only look forward to future updates and refinements!

You could have told me that this was a port of an actual arcade hit from the period, and I'd have believed you.

Zotrix has fast response, interesting enemy wave patterns, a killer soundtrack, and a good working upgrade system. The only letdown is the graphics department, but in a game like this you focus more on surviving than on how shiny everything is anyway!

The game is still in early access, but is fully playable and looks to me to be really complete as is.
Zotrix is simply fun to play.