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Break Limit Review

Break Limit was one of the first Indie Games Winter Uprising releases, does it lead the charge or get shot down on the first hurdle? Read on to find out.

Break Limit is primarily an arcade style shooter which is played in both horizontal and vertical scrolling styles. You control a space craft whose task is to make it through in one piece to the end of a star system while amassing as much score as possible. Points are awarded as you progress as well as Gold, Silver and Bronze tokens and smaller value coins to collect which give you score. At the end of the star system, your final score is shown based on factors including your time taken to complete it. The level of difficulty played is also a factor, the higher the difficulty the more damage your shields take when you are hit, but you also deal more damage. The difficulties do not change the level designs or number of asteroids for example, but they certainly make every collision more deadly.

Two of the three star systems were at the time of reviewing the game available to play on. The third star system will be added between mid December and early January. Each star system comprises of branching routes which as well as changing the scrolling between horizontal and vertical they also offer different layouts of obstacles, tokens and coins. One route can reward you with easier to collect tokens though fewer in number, while the other may be more hazardous with the potential to collect more. Learning the best route is vital to gaining the best rewards and there are a few to remember on each star system.

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The level layouts can be quite devious at times, they are typically filled with structures and asteroids both of which can be shot and destroyed. Upgrades for your weapons can be collected such as a three way shot and laser. These can be collected again to improve the speed and damage dealt. You will however be confronted by massive structures than may also move and rotate, shooting them will not do much good. This is where the Break Limit comes in perfect use. The Break Limit is a feature that increases your speed and makes you invulnerable to damage. This can be activated at any time providing you have enough charge which is replenished by collecting blue power orbs. Knowing when to deploy the Break Limit becomes a tactic in itself as you may want to save it for the upcoming areas where it is necessary to use it otherwise you will end up dead.

Levels can be completed in as little as a three minutes if you are skilled enough with using the Break Limit at the right times. But there is plenty of scope for replaying them to learn the best routes to improve your scores. As well as a local leaderboard there is a fairly active online leaderboard with some decent scores to beat.

The graphics are quite average in looks, going for a more retro style than modern. There are a lot of games doing this at the moment and while it works well, I wouldn’t mind seeing a side scrolling shooter with modern graphics now and again. There is only the one music track which repeats but it sounds good and does not sound too repetitive, you may want to turn the music volume down a little as the sound effects can get a little lost in the mix.

Break Limit costs 80 :MSPoints: which is good value for money. Although at the moment you can only play two of the three star systems, the third will be available soon, and it will give you a chance to master the available levels. This is a great pick up and play game ideal for short bursts which is what the arcade style shooter is all about, well worth picking up and a great start to the Xbox Indie Games Winter Uprising!

You can download the trial or purchase the full version of Break Limit on the Xbox Marketplace.

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