EPOCH

Developer: Uppercut Games Pty Ltd | Publisher: Uppercut Games Pty Ltd | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Action / Indie / Shooter | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Things don’t end very well for humanity when they are caught in the crossfire of warring robots. As EPOCH, a guardian robot tasked with protecting a very important human, you enter this post-apocalyptic world and try to figure out what went wrong and if your human charge is still alive. Standing between you and your goal is an army of angry robots determined to stop you dead in your tracks.

EPOCH might appear to be a third-person shooter, but it has more in common with light-gun-based arcade games of old. Originally a mobile title, the game used a swipe-based control method to move your character between cover points and take potshots at enemies before ducking out of sight again. This means that the game revolves entirely around shooting at enemies while making the best use of cover instead of running around or puzzle-solving. It might sound restrictive, but it does provide some intense gunfights without the usual camera and control problems found in some third-person shooters.

The game offers a ten-level campaign mode set in locations such as a recycling depot, residential complex, military checkpoint, freeway, and tunnel before a showdown with a final boss. Along the way, you will earn credits to buy new equipment, gain experience to improve your robot’s attack and defense bonuses and unlock data intercepts that reveal more about the story. These intercepts can be read between levels, and there are many more of them than what can be unlocked in a single playthrough, so fortunately, you can replay previously completed locations and unlock more challenging difficulty settings. Redoing levels or playing on higher difficulty settings also has the benefit of earning you more credits so you can buy better weapons, armor, counters, missiles, and boosters from the scrap yard. Credits cannot be bought via in-app purchases like in the mobile version, but playing on higher difficulty settings rewards you with enough cash to buy the good stuff.

If you tire of the campaign, you can jump into the endless “Arena” mode, which is all about survival and raking up big kill counts. The game’s PC version has leaderboards, so you can see exactly how well you measure against the other players. The Arena mode also has mini-missions such as achieving certain kill streaks, attaining a certain amount of kills without taking cover, and more to keep things interesting. You also earn credits and unlock data intercepts while playing the Arena mode. It is a pity that there are only four arenas compared to the ten campaign levels. Still, the arena levels also allow for some vertical movement instead of confining you to a horizontal plane.

The control setup may have been created with touchscreen devices in mind, but it works just as well using a keyboard and mouse. The game also allows you to create your own key bindings and adjust the mouse sensitivity, which is not always a given with mobile ports. Full controller support is also included, but we found aiming with the mouse to be much more accurate. Some precision when it comes to aiming is required as, unlike the mobile version, your shots do not automatically lock on to enemies. You can move your robot between three cover points set in the left, middle, or right of each level and then pop up to shoot or duck to stay out of danger. Some enemies will try to flush you out by lobbing grenades behind your cover or slicing through everything with lasers. This means you must stay on the move and carefully time your shots to keep out of their crosshairs. You can also perform a special move that allows you to instantly jump from one side of the screen to the other, which is helpful in avoiding lasers. The level select screen indicates which types of enemies you will face, allowing you to pick the right gun for the job if you can afford it. Counters, missiles, and boosters offer further aid during battle and are all available from the salvage screen at a price.

The game runs on the Unreal 3 engine, so the visuals are not bad for the time despite the game’s mobile origins. You can select between three preset detail levels and adjust the resolution. The developers have also added some visual enhancements, such as dynamic lighting, bloom, DOF, motion blur, and overhauling the existing visual effects. The result is a good-looking game that performs well even on older machines. We didn’t encounter any bugs while playing, and the developers appear to be actively looking into any reported issues, so this is certainly not a quick mobile cash-in. The audio is decent, and thankfully, the music and sound effects volumes can be adjusted independently, which is often lacking in these types of ports.

EPOCH will probably not tempt players away from the latest big-budget shooters, but it offers a nice arcade-like alternative that can be played and enjoyed in short bursts. We would have liked to see a few more levels and more boss encounters, but the game has plenty of replay value, and the inclusion of the Arena mode definitely adds to the longevity. Having to unlock the harder difficulty settings might be annoying to some players, but it prevents newcomers from jumping in at the deep end and biting off more than what they can chew. Uppercut games have addressed all the issues that usually plague the release of mobile titles on PC, and it will be interesting to see what else they have up their sleeve.