Ubermosh Review

This time around it’s the turn of Walter Machado’s Ubermosh. Read on for more on this bargain of a game:

“UBERMOSH is an arcade game made to give you a shot of adrenaline in a couple of minutes, like a pinball table or a coin arcade machine. So, playtesting is extremely important for the balancing, adding new challenges and action feedback. It is a fast game shaped by the players.””

Introduction:

This is an arcade game with a difference. You are put in an arena for about 90 seconds, starting only with your sword and must survive from there on in. It’s an extremely fast paced game and quite addictive too. It has been designed and published by one individual only. Walter Machado. At the moment the game is currently in Early Access status on steam, meaning it is still in development, so features and or gameplay are subject to change. Currently the game has been set at a bargain price of £1.43.

Gameplay:

Gameplay is very simplistic on this one, use the W A S D keys to manoeuvre around, whilst attacking the enemy and their bullets with the right mouse button. However after killing them, you then need to pick up bullets from their corpses. Once you start doing this you can then press the left mouse button to start firing some kind of resemblance to a plasma pistol.

I found accuracy better with the sword and seemed to survive longer relying on this rather than the other weaponry. It’s very fast paced once you start moving around, slightly too fast for my liking, however that’s just me and my forever slowing reflexes. I feel that the sword fits in well and makes the game more intriguing and detracts the game from being just a standard ‘shoot em up’ survival game.

On the main menu there is an ‘extras’ menu, I’m not sure of its purpose at this moment in time, it just says “Work in progress”. So it remains to be seen what is going to be used for.

Graphics & Audio

Considering the game has been created by a lone wolf producer, the graphics actually aren’t that bad for what the game is. You’re too busy trying to survive rather than admire the breath-taking views. But seriously I am impressed.

The audio certainly gives a vibrant and dynamic feel to the game, it feels like it’s certainly designed to keep the adrenaline pumping. It actually makes me feel that I am in some kind of trippy but fun mosh pit. So again good work there. Minimum specs for this game are Windows XP or later, 1.6Ghz processor, 2GB Ram, 512mb Graphics Card and a tiny 250mb HDD space. Not forgetting the requirement for a mouse too. But come on, who doesn’t use a mouse already?

Conclusion:

I did enjoy playing this one, it’s always a challenge trying to beat your best score. I would like to see more map variety. Even though each time you play, a new level gets generated, it still feels a little stale on this point though.

The game seems to be gaining popularity and receiving only positive feedback so far on Steam. I find it hard to criticise too much knowing that it’s only had one person coding and developing it this far. Considering the very low price, you certainly get good value for money, even if you were only to play it for a few hours.

Currently the game is on version 0.0.0.3 so I suspect new features will be coming along as development progresses. I’ll certainly be following this closely through its lifecycle.

Have you played this one? All comments and opinons welcomed.