It’s always gotta be aliens. They come to Earth, swarm the skies, rain terror on the planet, and can only be repelled by a lone fighter with overwhelming firepower. Despite the inevitable defeat they just keep on coming, but to be fair the initial fighters thrown up against their forces tend to be unimpressive. The first powerup always comes quick, though, and after that the aliens' only hope is to throw an uncountable swarm against the unstoppable barrage, and whether that’s done vertical, horizontal, or free-roaming the result is almost always the same- eventual victory on the human side even if it takes a few dozen defeats to get there. They’ll always be back, though, and this time it’s GunSuit Guardians' turn to tear through the horde.
GunSuit Guardians released its demo today, showing off a horde-survival game that will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s played Vampire Survivors. There’s lots of them, one of you, and every possible stat can be powered up during a run. A pilot in a bulky flying suit has free reign over the endless skies, barring the many types of aliens who don’t want him there plus the occasional highly-damaging electrified zone. At the start you choose from one of three pilots, each with differing stats, then select a weapon and special ability before the swarm starts closing in. Enemies drop experience crystals, each level-up grants a selection of three gun or ability upgrades, and your chosen hero can only care so many of each. Once the run is inevitably over any collected gold can be spent on permanent power-ups, at which point you can do either a quick-restart with the same hero and abilities, or drop back to the main menu to choose something different for the next attempt.
What sets GunSuit Guardians apart is a couple of things. First up, the art and enemies are just a load of fun to see, with thick black chunky lines around aliens that feel like they bring their own theremin soundtrack to the fight if they were musically inclined. The action plays out in waves, ten total in the demo, and every few waves sees a new set of tougher enemies show up to make life a little more difficult than it had already been. The other major feature is that GunSuit Guardians can be played either as a more passive auto-firing horde-survival experience, or you’re able to go full twin-stick to choose your own targets. Both modes feel like they got equal attention, and the shooting action is frantic and punchy whichever one you choose.
GunSuit Guardians isn’t trying to put an original spin on the horde-survival genre, but instead is just a lot of fun blasting uncountable aliens out of the ever-more-dangerous skies. The demo isavailable on Steamwith the Early Access release scheduled for sometime in the next month or so, Q1 2023, and the final version’s release is dependent on how big it grows due to a combination of current plans and player feedback. It’s off to an incredibly promising start, whatever final form it takes, and is already a great way to show the horde of intergalactic visitors that there are better skies to dominate than the well-defended ones protecting Earth.
