One of the cool gameplay “tricks” of the latest God of War is associated with the main character’s ax. Throwing it into walls and enemies and calling it back does not get bored until the end credits. The Boomerang X protagonist is trained in about the same trick, only not with an ax, but with a boomerang. In general, he is much more agile and faster than Kratos – his abilities allow him to literally fly across a large location using only one single weapon.
Speedone
Roundtrip
The game does without long introductions: the main character wakes up on a sandy shore, goes to the cave, finds the same boomerang there and immediately collides with opponents. He is locked in the arena and forced to defeat enemies – not all, only those who have yellow symbols over their heads. One wave has passed, and immediately after that the next one starts, and after all the waves, you can open the door to a new location.
At first, the hero has practically no abilities – he just does not move very quickly and jumps at unusually long distances. But after the first arena you start to get new skills. First, you will be taught to call the boomerang back – it can fly by itself, but it does not always do this while you are on the move. Then you will be able to teleport to the thrown boomerang, then you will start to slow down time while aiming, you will receive bonuses for killing two or three enemies at the same time – in general, the skills are enough so that the gameplay does not seem monotonous.
Killing enemies at the same time unlocks an attack that deals damage in a small area.
If the first arenas are flat and boring, then over time they add significantly in verticality. You no longer just run from side to side, throwing a boomerang at everyone you meet, but you fly over the ground and may never land. They threw a boomerang, after half a second they were transferred to it, began to charge it, activated time dilation, chose a direction and flew on. After each roll, the slow bar is fully restored, so there is no inconvenience.
Along with the skills, new opponents appear. First, these are spiders and strange flying creatures, then – “rocking”, huge giraffes, teleporting magicians and other monsters. To kill some, you just need to throw a boomerang at them, and the rest require a special approach – either they need to fly behind their backs, or pre-stun them, or wait until they jump or do something else.
Landing is for weaklings.
When you stop messing around with buttons and feel more confident on large maps, the gameplay of Boomerang X is immensely enjoyable. The idea is, without exaggeration, great, and they did not twist the difficulty here – there are no impassable sections. The great freedom that the game gives, without having to keep track of timers and other interface elements, makes the gameplay addictive.
Didn’t have enough
But there is one problem – structurally, Boomerang X looks more like a techno demo than a full-fledged game. It’s like you’re going through a “gamejam” creation, where you have a great idea, but a lot is missing. Here everything happens according to the same scenario: they passed the arena, ran along the corridors, jumped into the portal, passed the arena …
The style of the game is special.
As such, there is no plot – guess for yourself what is happening here. There are dialogues with one friendly character, but they do not help much to understand what is happening. All locations have big names – Deliverance from Tyranny Kenak, Quarry of Malice, Valley of the First Nymphs – but these are all arenas that do not tell any stories and only look different (often cute, yes). There is nothing that would connect events with each other, which makes it difficult to get rid of the feeling of incompleteness.
After passing (takes about three hours), it is proposed to replay the same chapters with all the unlocked skills or try yourself in the mode with one life, but this is not so interesting anymore. It seems that such a delightful gameplay idea has remained underappreciated that on its basis one can come up with a much more diverse and memorable game that you will want to return to after the credits or a few months later. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the Boomerang X.
I didn’t really want to.
But as entertainment for the Boomerang X eveninggood. It is unlike anything, so it feels very fresh. Even with one type of weapon, you can come up with a lot of interesting things – the main thing is that the arenas are diverse, the enemies differ from each other, and the gameplay remains fun and dynamic. The novelty copes with all this perfectly – you just need to try not to think that it strongly resembles a technodemo.
Pros: original gameplay mechanics that develop throughout the game; fun battles during which you can constantly stay in the air; unusual visual style.
Cons: Monotonous structure, which makes Boomerang X look more like a tech demo rather than a full-fledged game.
