I managed to score a few rounds on Aperian Cyberstorm, the glowing, twin-stick shooter, at the recent PC Gamer Weekender. Admittedly the time was spent muttering and exploding through the arena death match multiplayer, but there was a decent show of the core mechanics.
Aperion Cyberstorm features 12 ships to choose from, each one possessing different health, armour and speed stats which are no doubt as essential when they unlock in the game’s campaign as they are in the multiplayer. Each one features wildly different designs, and to add to the ability to tell them apart during the chaos they’ll also be emitting a bright, neon glow based on your player number.
Once you’ve picked your ship you can then pick two of the fourteen secondary weapons to deck your ship out with. These can generate a mass of lethal combinations, as they count in their numbers sentry turrets, mines, multi-directional fire, and – the never to be underestimated – rapid fire. For one of the matches I cowered in the corner, spawning in a turret, and a sentry bot to defend me – it didn’t do me much good as a developer dashed into my corner and dropped a nest of mines, then dashed away leaving me to take a mass of damage.
Pick-ups appear throughout the battle as well, encouraging players to spread the battle out. Alongside the expected health drops there’s also 6 different element pick ups which have different effects on the player’s ship, with plasma skipping shields as to do direct damage, ice slowing enemies, et cetera.
If you do succumb to the dangers of the arena – whichever of the sixteen available that has been chosen – then you’ll be turned into a spinning wreck, whistling around with minimal control for about 5 seconds. In that time you can choose to detonate the ship manually which might just cause enough damage to take out another pilot foolish enough to pilot near your spinning-top of a wreckage.
As I said, we only played around three matches of the timed multiplayer of Aperion Cyberstorm, and that was in four player, however during that time there was a massive change up in Dan (of podcast and occasional video fame) and my own play styles as we changed up from bullet flurrying tanks into more agile and evasive ships, using the layout of the arenas as an extra layer of defence.
Aperion Cyberstorm is launching on the Wii U, and Steam, later on in the year. However their Steam launch date will be heavily dependent on when they manage to get through Greenlight, where they currently reside.
As you’ll see from the [Greenlight page], the game is set to come with a whole bunch more features than I touched on above. For one there’ll be a campaign mode which can be played solo, or up to five players – this will also apply to the onslaught wave defence mode that’ll also be included.
If you’re much more interested in the multiplayer side of things there’s actually 8 different game types which can actually see further customisation through adapting the rulesets. These modes include the aformentioned timer mode, a king of the hill mode in which the current king becomes a massive Titan ship, as well as modes which see you shooting shared targets or capturing zones on the map.
It’s a fantastic little game that really stands out amidst the Greenlight hordes, if you get a moment then please do head over to the page and vote for the game – and if you’re undecided then maybe the videos on the page, with their wonderful aesthetics and soundtrack, will sway you.
