One of the latest bite-sized releases from indie publisher Ratalaika Games is Gastro Force from developer Somepx. Gastro Force is a retro first-person shooter that immediately made me think of classic DOOM and Wolfenstein games. Here is my review of the PlayStation 5 version.
The story set-up in Gastro Force is that aliens from the eldritch nebula have invaded the galaxy. You play as the lone surviving member of the Gastro Force and will have to invade the insides of these aliens to destroy them from within. You’ll do this across 30 levels and be given a variety of weapons to do so that you can upgrade along the way.
You’ll start off the game with a melee pipe but it won’t take long to get your hands on some firepower like a pistol, rifle, shotgun, and so on. The game plays smoothly with movement on the stick, attacking with the X button, dash on the circle button, and weapon switching being handled with R1 and L1. You also have a map on the Triangle button that is useful for helping you find your way around. The core objective is to navigate the levels, interact with switches and such to open passageways, kill enemies, and stay alive. You have your health meter on-screen and can also pick up shields for additional protection.
The main problem I had with Gastro Force is you are pretty much doing and seeing the same things for all 30 levels. There isn’t much variety in the enemies nor the scenery in the levels. Personally, for a game about destroying aliens from the inside out why do the levels not look like you are inside a creature? I also didn’t find the weapons to be very exciting as most of them seemed like they dealt the same amount of damage outside the rocket launcher which felt overpowered. It’s pretty much what I used exclusively once I obtained it. Most enemies died quickly outside the boss battles which took a lot of ammo for me to bring down. If you do find yourself having a hard time there are a few difficulty modes you can toggle between.
The actual style of the visuals is something I liked as like I said it reminded me a lot of the original DOOM games. It just needed more variety to help it stand out more. The music and sound effects left a lot to be desired too which is disappointing considering the types of games this is inspired by. Trophy hunters will at least find an easy list of 15 trophies with a Platinum. It’s another of those games where you don’t even have to beat the whole game to earn them all either.
Gastro Force wears its DOOM inspirations on its sleeve but it doesn’t do anything to elevate itself to being as memorable. It plays well and looks good but doesn’t have enough variety in the visuals, enemies, music, or weapons to really stand out. Still, it’s less than $10 and if you really enjoy these retro FPS games then this isn’t a terrible way to spend an hour or two by any means.
*Gastro Force is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. PlayStation 5 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
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