For over thirty years, the 2D shooter has maintained a strong sense of tradition. Wherever there is an alien menace or a war, there is always that one ship, that one person, who with no shields or health meters or a chance in hell, will singlehandedly destroy everything in thirty minutes. Eschatos is the hyper-kinetic story of mankind's struggle against invaders from space in the year 21XX. It's certainly a familiar plot, and long-time shmup fans will notice many similarities and references to other classics. Even the Eschatos logo is a call-back to Xevious. However, don't mistake this game as a mere nostalgia-fest, it does more than enough to stand on its own.

Eschatos works with a philosophy I like to call "choice and sacrifice". You're given two weapons, and can choose between the two of them at any moment. The forward-shot reaches all the way to the end of the screen, while the side-shot doesn't go nearly as far, but does cover two angles on both ends of your ship. Now in the thirty minutes it takes to save the world, you're going to switch between those weapons constantly. The situation is changed not just by the enemies you face, but also by the weapon you use to deal with them. The sacrifice comes from what you're giving up, in order to achieve your goals. Scoring and survival are tied to how you adjust to the decisions that you make.

First off, let's take into consideration the side-shot. When using this weapon, you can deal with adversaries that spawn from multiple locations, and cover a wider area. However, you can't affect what's directly in front of you. An enemy ship could barrel right into you and that'd be the end of that. In order to deal with this possibility, you have to move around, making absolutely sure that every enemy is appropriately dealt with. In simple terms, the scoring system is based around "no survivors". Your multiplier increases at various set points, but every enemy that makes it off-screen causes it to decrease.

Secondly, we have the forward-shot. This tends to be a go-to weapon, with its long reach and high level of power. Due to its lack of spread, you have to make up the difference through your maneuverability. This is where the speed-setting can come into play. By switching to faster speeds, you can cover ground (or air) quickly, moving to intercept everything that crosses your path. When the bosses and certain enemy configurations start flooding the screen with bullets, you'll want slower speeds to safely weave in-between the nastiness.

There are times where you will make the ultimate sacrifice. No, I'm not talking about dying. Upon completion of the game, you receive a hefty bonus for every player-ship that survives the onslaught. What I'm speaking of is your score, or rather, the decision to put survival over everything else. By holding both fire buttons down, you produce a shield. It's not often you get one of these babies in a traditional 2D shooter. By using this shield you can absorb a great many projectiles, or slow them down enough so you can move out of the way. Also, the weakest enemies -- the ones most likely to ram you -- are easily dealt with. However, if you're using the shield, you're not firing, and a handful of enemies flying away could take the entirety of your multiplier with them.

Now there are other factors to consider, such as the screen-clearing bombs that spawn every now and again, but for the most part, you're going to be making decisions, weighing the pros and cons of them, and reacting to how these decisions change the game. It's a lot to think about, especially for a game packed with aliens trying to destroy you, at every possible moment. Eschatos is also very situational. While it can said that the game is 5 stages long, it's really divided into 26 areas. Within each area you can expect everything from swarms of minor enemies, to a mini-boss, to some behemoth of a UFO, or something unique. Again, this is a thirty minute game, so the pacing is breakneck, and in a way it moves quicker than similar shooters. All in all, it makes for an awesome experience, as well as (more importantly) a challenging and very entertaining game.

You may also want to try the Advanced mode. This isn't a harder difficulty per se, but it adds another layer of complexity. The first thing you'll notice is that the weapons have changed, they've become much weaker. Now, you have to grab power-ups. Power-ups have the added benefit of increasing your multiplier, so naturally you'll want to be fully powered as often as possible. Now this is where it gets interesting; the power-up pods can also drop bombs. They have the same effect as in the Original mode, but with the added benefit of turning all enemy bullets into delicious point-filled crystals. However, by grabbing a bomb, you lose one level of power, along with the subsequent multiplier. Do you grab the bomb for the extra points, expecting another multiplier in time for a bigger bonus upon the defeat of the next boss? Or do you AGGGGGHHHHH! ...Oh I mean do you crash head-first into an enemy while mulling over the long-term affects of your score? This is why I consider the Advanced mode to be more difficult. It requires that you think more often, and thinking can be a distraction in itself, when you're dealing with the constant threat of UFOs and their many bullets.

One of the subtle, but very smart decisions by Qute for this game is the level-up system. Upon the end of a game, your score is counted as experience, which results in unlockables. This includes everything from extra credits, to new backgrounds, to an assortment of other goodies. Incentives to replay a game are always nice, since they give the player more opportunities to get better at it. Mars Matrix had a similar system, where you used points to buy everything. I prefer the way it's handled in this game, since there aren't particular stages that can be grinded for a higher pay-out. I played a lot of stages 5 & 6 of Mars Matrix, and let me tell you, I am still awful at that game. Since I start every game of Eschatos from the beginning, I have a much better chance of actually improving. Additional difficulties as well as Endless and Time-Attack modes round out this release.

As far as the port-quality goes, you've read it in most other reviews, and you'll read it in this one. There are some slight frame-rate issues at various points in the game. For what it's worth, I never died when those incidents occured. I've died a great many times elsewhere, but never when the frames took a hit. Hopefully those can get ironed out at some point (both the frame-rate issues and my deaths). Otherwise, I don't have any complaints. For the price, this is a very solid port.

Eschatos is an altogether remarkable entry in the 2D shooter genre. Needless to say, there are far more shmups than anyone could possibly have time for, but this game does enough to stand out. It marries traditional aesthetics and game-design, with a more modern approach. The scoring system is easy to grasp and immensely rewarding. It also understands the tricky balance that can come from appealing to its roots. All to often we get these throw-back games that are so buried in references that we don't see anything original or creative. Eschatos keeps the name-dropping to a minimum, and delivers on what matters most, a clear, concise, and enjoyable 2D shooter for gamers of all skill levels.

Disclaimer: For the purpose of this review, a key was provided by the publisher.

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This SHMUP is awesome!, that mix between the shield and the short/long range shot it's simply beautiful and organic; i'm not gonna lie, my first try in this game was via piracy, and it took me less than 5 minutes to decide that it would be mine forever!!!

P.S: Awesome, i repeat, AWESOME OST!!! (Original & Arrange)


A MUST BUY FOR ANY SHMUP PLAYER.

A incredibly addictive bullet hell shooter!

Packing in with multiple difficulties and modes of play. Tons of Replay value!

The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and it's composed by the legendary Yousuke Yasui!

Lots of unlockables to keep you playing such as extra ship colors, screen borders and other neat options to affect the game.

The game itself packs a good challenge and the scoring mechanics are pretty fun too.

Eschatos probably has to be my favorite shmup that is available on Steam at the moment so I highly reccomend this title for big bullet hell veterans out there!

I haven't played the Xbox 360 original but I have to say that Degica/Qute did a fantastic job on this port!

A really solid traditional vertical STG from Qute with an incredible soundtrack by Yousuke Yasui. Includes "Original" and "Advanced" modes with multiple difficulties for both. Definitely worth picking up. Wonder pack includes JUDGEMENT SILVERSWORD, which is also neat as heck so go for it

i love you yousuke yasui