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Rating : 7.5 / 10 Developer : Game Republic Availability : PlayStation Network |
Artemis, goddess of the moon, needs to fight her way through the darkness growing in the corridors of the 12 unearthly labyrinths to be the glimmer if light and hope amidst the darkness.
Purely an arcade game, Dark Mist puts you stage by stage until you beat the whole game. If you die, you start from the beginning of that stage, and if you quit and decide to play later, you start from the start.
Straight up, Dark Mist contains the Main Game which puts you through the 12 labyrinths requiring you to run back and forth collecting the necessary keys to unlock the doors to push forward. Upon completion, you gain access to Hard Mode, which is the same thing all over again, but the stages are different and the first two bosses have an extra attack. The last boss is still the same, but after defeating him, in Hard Mode, you fight an exclusive boss right after.
If going through the game isn't your thing, then you can take the Ranking Attack to get scores as high as you can and get them onto the Online Rankings.
The 3 modes available is Time Attack, Hunting, and Endless. You will clear stages within an allotted time, kill as many spawns as possible within a time limit, and survive for as many labyrinth battles as you can.
That aside, the game is very simple. You run around using the left analog stick and shoot in the direction of choice with the right stick. You can use special attacks by pressing R1 and you can switch between the three with R2 and L2.
The 3 attacks are split, meteor, and lightning. Split is a shotgun effect, meteor will shoot a blast which will bounce of walls, and lightning will lob bolts over things and deal a small area of damage.
L1 will enable you to roll to dodge attacks and shaking the controller will cause Artemis to sweep away the dark mist around you, and also any enemies attached to you. And everyone's favourite, circle to use a bomb which will deal large damage and clear the dark mist.
Although very simplistic, to survive, you will need to use your dodge and increase your ammo for your secondary attacks by collecting Moon Fragments which enemies will drop.
Ammo will automatically recharge, only a matter of how many times you can use it before you need to charge.
Once all this becomes second nature to you, you can take time to enjoy the colours of the game.
While everything is 3D, Artemis is cell shaded and although the game isn't very detailed, it brings an artistic tone and also very old style to the game; fitting for 12 labyrinths based on the zodiac signs.
Music is a mix of majestic, eerie, and tribal themes. Above that, you will hear a lot of shooting, enemies bursting, and pings as you collect things.
While the game doesn't have a long lasting appeal, going for number on the score board is doable and something you can challenge yourself to. But other than that, there isn't anything more to Artemis and her quest than to fight on through.
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