WE ARE DOOMED is an action packed twin stick space shooter with a very loud name that hurts my ears every time I read it. In this game you take control of a spaceship-alien-germ looking thingy (I can't tell what it is) flying through a space, blasting away though waves upon waves of bizarre looking aliens. Very simple concept that sounds like that it comes straight from a classic game found at your local arcade back in the 1980s.  The concept sounds really promising because I just happen to like classic arcade games with simple concepts ("Retro" is in my name after all). Will this game live up to my expectations or will it be so bad that it'll leave me saying, "WE ARE DOOMED!"? (Click on "Read More" to read the full review).


The way the game plays is that you are a simple spaceship trying to survive waves upon waves of aliens.  All you have to combat yourself with is a high powered beam that extends a short distance and acts like a sword more so than a laser beam.  You don't just battle aliens in this game, you'll also have to collect little boxes that'll spawn on the field and what these do will give you points and charge up a special bar.  This special bar is your ultra powerful weapon, The Superbeam, what the Superbeam does is make your regular beam much more longer and much more stronger. This Superbeam is good for earning some mad points but don't go wasting it, there'll be times where you'll really need it.  The special boxes will also boost up your score multiplier and this is good for gaining more points and losing a life will make the multiplier drop.

This is a kind of game that has no story, this is also a game where it doesn't need a story in order to be fun and/or interesting due to it being all about the gameplay.  The setting itself is very generic and doesn't set the bar very high and aims for a functioning game rather than a flashy game.  You know what? It works.  The gameplay is incredibly smooth and incredibly fun to the point of being super addictive and you'll be playing this game for quite some time.


There are two modes of gameplay, the first being Waves Mode, a mode where you'll be trying to get though thirty levels of battling aliens.  The other mode is Endless Mode, this is for those that want a more authentic arcade experience of trying to survive for as long as you can and gain a high score.  Both modes are very fun and fun for different reasons and is a good game for having high score battles with your friends and for testing out your gaming skills.

Difficulty in this game starts off as moderate but sharply becomes harder as it goes along but it is the fun kind of hard, where you'll want to replay to see if you can get better at the game.  The reason why this game becomes harder is due to more aliens of many kinds will show up.  All of the aliens have their different abilities and that will make the aliens difficult to avoid.  Another reason why this game becomes harder is that objects other than aliens will pop-up to get in your way.  These objects will be unbreakable and it gets very tough trying to kill hard aliens all while trying to avoid unbreakable objects.  Another thing to be careful of is that your beam doesn't do piercing damage on a lot of aliens, so if you are attacking a chunk of them, make sure you have some room behind you to make your distance between you and the aliens.


Controls in this game are specifically made for an Xbox 360 controller but works just as well with a classic mouse and keyboard setup.  You control the ship with the W,A,S,D keys, you fire the weapon with the left mouse button, and you can move the weapon around by moving the mouse around.  Controls were incredibly smooth and responsive to where if you were to die, it'd be your very own fault on that one.

A problem with this game is that it plays much better than it looks and looking at the screens I bet you are thinking, "this game doesn't look all that great, why listen to this crazy cracker?".  Yes, looking at screenshots and video did make me get a bit bored of this game before I had even played it, however I deeply regretted thinking that as the gameplay is really cool and now I can't get enough of it.  It is also a shame that this game doesn't have an arcade cabinet release as the game really captures the vibe and feelings of playing an old arcade machine, especially the classic Atari ones like Asteroids (1979) and Missile Command (1980).


Graphics in this game are very basic and are also very generic and unmemorable, that doesn't mean that they are bad though as they are very clean and it is easy to identify what are enemies and what are collectables.  The animation is incredibly smooth and consistent to where it helps make the smooth gameplay to be even smoother.  The only real memorable thing about the graphics are the animations of firing your sword-laser and the rubbery ripples of the screen that happens when you die.  The reason why they were memorable is simple, they look incredibly bad-ass and fun.  Music in this game has a nice electronic styled sound to it and it goes really well with the sci-fi theme of this game and helps build up an atmosphere.

Overall, this is a very neat little game that is no-frills on looks and gameplay but ends up being a quite flavorful experience that does the twin-stick shooter genre a lot of good  Ignore the boring look of the screenshots and go out and give this game a go.  Simple but fun.

Game: WE ARE DOOMED
System: PC/Steam
Developer/Publisher: Vertex Pop
Genre: Shoot 'em up
Price: $9.99 (Steam)
Recommended: Yes