As a 90s kid, if there was any game I sunk my time into other than Super Mario, it was Contra. Incessant shooting, amazing weapon power-ups, solid and creepy level design and some memorable boss fights (that Alien, amirite?). Did it have a story? Probably, but nothing comes to mind. I was a gun-slinging-jumping-shooting-everything-in-sight maniac. With a solid background score, that still gives me chills almost 20 years later. With that nostalgia trip out the way, here comes Valfaris, trying to take me back on another nostalgia trip which mixes ultra-viscera alien-hunting with death metal. Does it get the job done, or is it another feeble attempt? Let’s find out…

Story & Setting

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: You’re not playing this game for the story. Sure, there’s a story-line in place, but it rarely ever matters. You’re Therion, son of Valfaris, and you’re going into the citadel of Valfaris to destroy the evil within. All that matter is you get to kill bad shit. The game is mostly a linear romp with a couple of hidden branches which contain weapons and upgrades along the way. Moving on.

Gameplay and Mechanics

Valfaris is a 2D side-scrolling action-platformer, with a strong emphasis on the action part. You start off by crash landing your spaceship, because you’re a badass, obviously, and then move through a short tutorial level. There’s a ship AI that guides you through the first few minutes of gameplay, and introduces you to the mechanics. It’s not very convoluted and is simple to learn.

There’s the basic move; jump, shoot baddies in their stupid face, but you also have a melee weapon, which helps when the enemies get too close. You also have a shield which can, with patience, be used to deflect enemy projectiles as well as negate damage. The shield’s energy bar can be refilled by killing enemies with your melee weapon, which reminds me a bit of God of War, blue orbs floating from dead enemies and all that.

As you progress, you also gain a special weapon of sorts, that also uses your shield’s energy bar, but is much more effective at mowing through of hitpoints in one go, or a dozen aliens in a single shot. Aside from this, there’s machine guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers; you name it. You also gain weapon upgrades to your primary handgun and sword, with badass names like “The Bastard” or “The Destroyer”, because again, you’re badass.

There is a lot of mini-game styled ‘events’ in the game, such as one of the earliest you’ll find, a section where you have infinite energy meter. This means you can just go constantly blasting your special weapon at the waves of enemies that swarm. I’ll leave the reader to find the others and explore, as each find is sort of a callback that you’ll want to discover on your own.

Each kill is accompanied by copious amounts of sweet, low-poly gore, which is obviously very satisfying. Teleporting aliens with massive guns are hard to shoot at, but getting close and slicing them in half is, then again, very satisfying. It’s also a solid mechanic I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work, as there should have been a way to cancel the swinging animation mid-swing. If you’re trying to hit an enemy and one suddenly appears behind you, you’ve got no choice but to wait for the animation to finish before turning and hitting the guy. This also happens when there are multiple enemies, especially when one gets to close to your hitbox while your sword has already crossed the enemies. Not really a dealbreaker, but still mildly annoying.

The other main meat of any action shoot-em-up is the boss fights, and Valfaris delivers with flair. Each boss has unique mechanics and unique powers. One trash monster (literally made of trash) uses a moving shield made of junk that you have to destroy before getting to him while avoiding his projectile attacks. This adds a bit of the Cuphead feel, where you’ll die, go back to the checkpoint, and come back with vengeance. The checkpoint system of the game is unique. During gameplay, you pick up resurrection idols, holding which will give you a bigger health pool and energy meter.

When you find a checkpoint slot, you can either decide to set the checkpoint, where you can also upgrade weapons with blood metal (something you also find during gameplay), or save your idols for the health boost. However, you can only carry a set number of these idols, so choose wisely. Will you risk replaying the last 45 minutes with a massive health pool. or will you play it safe?

Visuals, Performance and Sound

Valfaris features hand-drawn pixel art, and it does a great job of transporting you to the 8-bit era sidescrollers. The animations are fluid and make every movement and kill satisfying to look at. The art design gets a huge thumbs up from me for the attention to detail in the levels and the bosses. However, sometimes, the visuals can come off as too blurry and the character looks like they’re trying to timewarp to 1985, which is a tad jarring. Some of the animations also look a tad too basic for my tastes. A minor gripe, however, and it doesn’t take away from the experience.

The game performs as you would expect, and the frame rate was a solid 60 with next to no drops or crashes.

On to the sound design, the highlight of the game. Keeping with the badassery, the entire soundtrack is filled with heavy metal goodness. It’s the right amount of heavy metal, and it gets the juices flowing, making you want to rush and charge the next alien. The rest of the sound design is great as well, with each slice of the sword and each clang onto metal coming through. Your character even does a frigging headbang after discovering new weapons. Props to the developers on this.

*Slipknot intensifies*

VERDICT

Valfaris provides a satisfying gameplay experience to anyone who enjoyed the sidescrolling shoot-em-ups from the old days. There are a ton of different enemies to slice open, and a good boss variety to keep you guessing what comes next. It’s just pure, unadulterated fun. And at the asking price of ₹512, it’s a great deal. The game gets a solid thumbs up from the Noobs.