Project Root

Anyone remember Zone 66? It was one of my favourite top-down "sandbox" shooters from the early 90s. This game harkens back to that era, both in terms of difficulty and gameplay. Be warned that if you are not experienced at this type of game and in particular, twinstick shooters, even on easy you will find this game an exercise in frustration. It is quite unforgiving...
- Missions last between twenty minutes and an hour and there are no checkpoints! Run out of lives, back to the start.
- Power ups seem to drop at times when you either don't require them (two repairs when I am already at full health, really?), or when it is practically impossible to pick them up without being destroyed. They don't hang around that long either.
- Enemies fire from offscreen, many projectiles will track you for a long time and later enemies lean towards a bullet-hell style. These traits combine to make the airspace very crowded and sitting still for even a moment will be enough to make you very dead. This is where the game really shines; the flawless control and responsive movement of your ship make it a joy to play. It is possible to avoid practically anything, using a good sense of placement and understanding from which direction the next salvo of enemy fire is likely to approach. Unfortunately, the lack of on screen prompts and lacklustre radar make this heavily reliant on the player's intuition. Irrespective of that, there is a real sense of skill and reward, both for careful and ballsy play styles.
There are a decent variety of enemies that are slowly introduced as the game progresses. There are both air and ground targets, which need to be destroyed with an appropriate weapon, similar to both Zone 66 and Xevious. Each enemy variant represents a particular threat and they do force certain responses to deal with them. When you get many types mixed together, the game is at its most difficult and hectic. There is an experience system that awards points at level-up. These points can be used between missions to upgrade your ship. However, even fully upgraded your fire power always feels underwhelming. Players are better off focussing on upgrades that increase agility; this is the main means by which you will stay alive!
Throughout, the graphics are decent and manage to keep up a good frame rate on a mid-spec machine. Enemy designs are standard fare and borrow from just about everywhere, but provide good variety. Explosions in particular are pleasing to the eye. Sound is a little bland, but does the job.
A few minor technical issues cropped up while playing...
- I was unable to confgure my Logitech F310 gamepad. Trying to change the controls in either mode (XBox 360 or F310 Direct Input) just didn't work. I ended up using the default XBox 360 control scheme, which did the job. You are basically forced into a twinstick control scheme to make the game playable anyway.
- Steam achievements didn't work. They are awarded as in-game medals, but the corresponding Steam achievement wasn't activated.
- Enemies occasionally get stuck in the scenery and cannot be shot. Usually not too annoying, but once the enemy was an objective and I couldn't complete the mission.
- I had only one crash to desktop in seven hours of play, which isn't too bad.
In summary:This is an enjoyable but slightly repetitive game that rewards skillful play and will be appreciated by top-down shooter fans who are not looking for a quick fix.

The first thing you need to know about this game is that it's been abandoned by it's developer already.
They have stopped updating/fixing it for over a year now.
I played for 4 level on hard and I must say i really enjoyed it.
It's a arcade style Jet shoot them up using a neat little plane that shoot air and ground targets.
There is a level/upgrade system as your gain experience.
Not a very fansy bullet storm but you can move 360% and have quite a bit fun explore and shoot enemy.
The graphic is pretty good and music is pretty good.
The upgrade system is not too effective but it does help you improve.
I only played hard but the difficulty is really not that insane compare to many other games out there.
You do need to rest a bit after each level since the over whelming amount of spinning does burn you out.
It's really sad to me that this game has been abandoned without fixxing the achievements cause many of them are really fun to get. It works in game but it doesn't link and work on steam.
6.5/10.
I would give it higher score if the achievement is fixxed.

Good old time shoot 'em up. Enjoyed playing it although the difficulty bar is quite high. The ability to constantly upgrade your ship gives it longevity. Controls are unique using mouse and keyboard which make it very intuitive to learn. Recommended as a blast from the past!

this is a surprisingly well made game and i enjoyed it a lot.
graphics and sound are very good indeed, maps and missions are interesting, the upgrade system is nice as well and it even comes with a story that's actually not that bad either. like you would expect from a game like this there is a variety of weapons and power ups for you to pick up during missions as well as three difficulty settings with profound impact on the gameplay.
there are some minor issues like single enemies being stuck inside mountains now and then while you can't hit them with your guns. or the text-only mission updates are sometimes impossible to read when you're in the middle of combat.
nothing really serious that would ruin the game for you.
sadly there are bad news as well.
for unknown reasons the devs abandoned a good game within a few months after release and there hasn't been any sign of them for years now.
so the small issues will never be fixed and the biggest issue is that the steam achievements do not work at all.
if you are one of them 100% hunters then this is a pure 0% nightmare for you.
but if you don't care about that and just want to play a decent shoot 'em up then this is for you.
there is no real reason to avoid this game, especially if you are a fan of the genre. i'm not and still i had lots of fun playing it.

Action without pause and a lot of adrenaline. The ship control is very precise and the motion of rotation of the camera is just perfect. Love it!

Project Root has a very good pace. Feels like old school games with an easier difficulty level (still could be hard for today standards) and a very responsive control. I do not agree with the comments about rear shots are not predictable. Just keep playing a while. When you get enough practice you can avoid any bullet. Just 45 minutes of practice when posting this. This is not a hardcore game from my perspective, but it may require some training if you are not shooter veteran. DIFFICULTY SPOILER: Go direct for the objectives to avoid losing unnecessary health.

A solid game for the approximately 2 UKP I paid for it. However a word of caution: if you suffer for motion-sickness the fixed perspective on the ship and spinning landscape will eventually start making you feel nauseous. This is why, unfortunately, I can only comment on the first level.