If you’re like me and grew up in the 90’s then there’s no doubt that you’ll have had an old Windows PC. The giant behemoth that was home to such memorable iconography like the rolling green hills screensaver or Clippy, the paperclip that never left you alone. Those days are filled with nostalgia that I sometimes find myself oddly wanting to revisit, and now with Desktop Survivors 98 I can relive those memories – albeit not as chaotic as I remember.
Back to the 90’s
Desktop Survivors 98 sees your desktop overrun by little creatures that want to infest your computer with all sorts of nasty virus’ and bugs. Armed with an arsenal at your disposal, and with your trusty companion Swordy at your side, you must fend off the invading forces as best as you can for a period of time. Desktop Survivors takes a lot from similar games in the genre. The moment to moment gameplay involves dodging the plethora of enemies on screen whilst taking out as many as you can. Each enemy defeated will result in you obtaining XP to level up and some cash to buy new abilities to help you take more out. Abilities can also be obtained each time you level up. Three abilities will be given to you and you have to pick one or forget about the abilities and heal yourself instead.
These kind of decisions will be put forward to you around every corner. Do I select an upgrade for one of abilities to help me beat more enemies or should I get a defensive ability to help me keep more health. The game constantly asks you these questions and whatever you decide to pick could mean the difference between keeping your run going for a longer time or ending it earlier that you would have liked to. You’ll have to play smart if you want to survive. Manoeuvring around the enemies and lining them up to take out a number of them will require patience, skill and a lot of trial and error. Like most of these types of games, dying over and over again is all part of the process. You’ll find yourself learning more about the game mechanics, enemy types and strategies to go far in a run and it can be incredibly satisfying going for long stretches of time.
When you start a new run the game asks you to select a cursor. Each cursor has different stats and abilities that can either be really helpful or require more skill to master. For example, the basic cursor fires a single shot every couple of seconds so you’ll have to time it right to get a good shot at enemies. On the other hand, the recycle bin fires multiple shots instead making it much easier to take out the larger crowds. Defeated enemies drop money that you can use to buy more powerful items such as the classic Word Art or Binary Code that help you easily defeat the onslaught of enemies. Once you have a groove for the game’s mechanics you can find yourself surviving against impossible odds for a truly satisfying victory. Couple that with the nostalgic 90’s aesthetic the game displays and Desktop Survivors is one to surely lead to a lot of satisfaction.
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There isn’t a lot of flaws when it comes to Desktop Survivors, but that doesn’t mean it’s exempt from a few noteworthy drawbacks. The biggest example is that the amount of enemies on screen can be very overwhelming and can have you feeling lost and confused. So many enemies will be thrown at you at once that you’ll find yourself scrambling to get control and survive. However, sometimes it seems so impossible to dodge anything and you’ll quickly find yourself at the end of the run angry that all of your progress was for nothing. Whilst this is bound to turn some people off, it actually does play into the game’s design of practice makes perfect. You’ll slowly find yourself getting accustomed to the way that the game plays and those frustrating moments you felt during your first few runs will be a distant memory. That being said it won’t be for everyone, and a few people will find the crazy chaos to be a bit too much.
Another flaw is the lack of control in your attacks. Each cursor has a base attack that fires after a couple of seconds, but you never have control of where that attack goes or the freedom to fire whenever you like. So you’ll find yourself awkwardly going around and around in a circle waiting for the cursor to fire. Or you gather enemies in a pile and line the cursor up to where you think it will fire at the closest enemy but it instead goes for a completely different one. I’m not sure if other games in this genre allow you to freely fire your attacks when you play, but I feel as if Desktop Survivors could have benefitted from something like that. However, there are abilities to increase the fire speed of your attacks that you can collect in your run so it isn’t a huge flaw and instead comes across as a minor inconvenience when playing.
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Desktop Survivors is a great blast from the past with a immensely satisfying gameplay loop. There is something so exhilarating about going from one dungeon to another doing your best to survive whilst everything tries to kill you. It can be overwhelming at times and quite frustrating with the amount of stuff on screen, but that is ultimately part of the game’s charm. It doubles as a great nostalgic trip and an exhilarating, fast paced survival game that is not one to be missed – even if the annoying paper clip is still there.
The Review
Superb
