Yesterday, right before I got off work, I was talking on the shoutbox when a certain, hammer-wielding moderator (who shall remain nameless
) threatened me with impending bodily harm if I continued to bag on his favorite shooter, Deep Blue.
Long story short, he convinced me to give it another whirl, and so I did. The first time I played it, I popped it in between several A-list titles, thought it sucked, and went my merry way. So, last night, I made myself sit down and play a game or two to see if my first impressions were wrong. Here's the result:
At first, my impressions were the same. The first level is bland, the powerups are awful, and your fish/sub thing moves slower than a fat lady with an oxygen tank at wally world. I died pretty quick. Now, the advice i was given was 'don't judge before you get to the second level', so I was determined to do just that before I gave up. So I played a few more games.
As I played it, I discovered that it plays kind of different from your regular shooter. First off, the powerups have this kind of rock/paper/scissors relationship with the different schools of fish you shoot. A power up will suck against one kind of foe, and obliterate another. unlike most shooters, the strategy seems to be to switch weapons frequently in response to whatevr enemy you happen to be facing. Once I figured that out, I began to like them. Also, I noticed that the game is less about flying around and dodging madly, and more about positioning and fine adjustments of your sub. Once you get that down, the difficulty (which was murderous) tones down to something more manageable.
Next thing I knew, I was flying through the first level like a pro. The boss was pretty simple, but neat looking. The second stage was much better. Lots of totally new enemies, prettier graphics, and a much better flow. In fact, about halfway through that, I noticed something: I was having fun. It's not the best shooter on the system, not by a long shot, but it's fun, and it's different, and it's FAR better than my first impression indicated. It really does put it's worst foot forward in the first level, and it suffers because you will get killed if you try and play it like, say, one of the Star Soldier games.
Much to my surprise, I got home today and the first thing that popped in my head was "I want to go play some Deep Blue". Who would have guessed? It's actually pretty fun, you just have to change your approach, and be willing to grind through the first level and learn how the game plays. Sure, it's no Lord of Thunder or Sapphire, but it is exactly what it tries to be: a unique, rather fun little shooter, with an odd take on powerups.
Like the man said, don't give up on it until you've seen a few levels.