Digital Shorts: ‘Remote Life’ Review (Xbox Series S)
In DIGITAL SHORTS we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition, we take a look at Remote Life, a one-man produced shmup now available across all formats.
Remote Life is billed as a display of the expertise and talent of a one-man developer and as a salute to some of the amazing shmups that have been released over the years in arcades and on home consoles…
That’s what the game is billed as however in hand, yes this is a great effort on a part of the developer, but it plays and looks – even on the Xbox Series S – like a mobile game. A very early mobile game, the kind of game that you would’ve played on the original iPad back in the day. I get that, graphically, the developer was undoubtedly trying to recapture the pre-rendered style of graphics that proliferated 90s shmups but, at least for me, there’s a sheen to the graphics that make everything look very mobile-esque.
In terms of controls, Remote Life is a twin-stick shooter that seems, in terms of other reviews I’ve seen/read, to have thrown some reviewers for a loop. This is nothing new, although side-scrolling shmups using twin-stick technology is rare, but to say it’s a fantastic execution of such gameplay is a massive overstatement. Everything about Remote Life is average at best – thought the audio is rather sub-par compared to other games in the genre, where the soundtrack often adds to the action. Which is not the case here.
Whilst Remote Life resembles the like of R-Type, what the game does is TRY TOO HARD to be R-Type. The enemies (as you can see above) look like they’ve stepped out of that franchise and, given how tricky those games are, the difficulty is ramped up to ridiculous levels. Again, seemingly throwing reviews off… Even more so given how the levels are designed – with tight spaces to navigate being trickier than even defeating the many enemies in the game! And that’s the thing, when you’re struggling to pilot a ship through a level, even with decades of experience with the genre, across a myriad of generations (8-bit, 16-bit etc.), then there’s something wrong with the game you are playing NOT with the gamer themselves. What’s worse is that some enemies and more importantly, their bullets, can blend into the background – killing you – and you’ll have no idea what hit you. Literally.
You have to commend anyone for making a game and getting it published, it’s one hell of a feat. But when a game suffers from the aforementioned errors/issues, you have to wonder if more people should have been involved – especially in the QC’ing of the game!
Remote Life is available on PC, Xbox Series S/X, PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch now.
