SturmFront by developer Andrade Games and publisher RED ART GAMES—Sony PlayStation 4 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Do you like shooting at things and not having to accurately aim? What about loads of enemies that don't let up? Combined with both the elements of a Shoot 'Em Up and a Bullet Hell and SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition is for you!
What I really like about titles such as SturmFront is that they provide some good old fashioned arcade challenges in short bursts but with modern day refinements. Taking control of the semi-organic battle unit Siegfried von Hammerstein, your only job is to take this 80s action hero inspired combat machine on a no holds bar rampage through hordes of alien forces until there’s nothing left.
Unlike other arcade based Bullet Hells or Shoot ‘Em Ups, SturmFront moves at your pace instead of having to worry about a horizontal or vertical autoscroll. It takes a bit to get used to as enemies can come from any direction and even if you’ve moved on by, it is possible to have enemies come from behind you and ruin your day as by that point you quite literally have nowhere to go!
So for your combat prowess, you’ll be by default equipped with a gun that as you power it up will shoot both more bullets and streams of bullets either in a full 360 arc with the joystick or top, down, left, right with the four buttons on the controller. One method offers you a lot more flexibility while the other lets you specifically shoot in exactly the right direction which can help you out when moving in tighter quarters and you want to use the walls to your advantage.
Adding in a bit of its own flair, by default, Siegfried will also have a flamethrower that can be refueled with gasoline in order to both burn enemy nests as well as to act as a defensive barrier against enemy fire. It’s not uncommon to have a method of defense inside of bullet hells and shoot ‘em ups however having the ability to simply burn away enemy fire was pretty cool as it’s an ability that you get to use repeatedly without having to worry about a numbered limited usage. Yes, you can run out, but more often than not, if you play your cards right and use it only when really needed? You’ll be fine.
So for your rampaging pleasure there are several stages split between a main stage and then the path to the boss that can be tackled on either easy or normal before being able to move onto hard mode. For achievement hunters and sadists, there are also challenges such as making it from the beginning to the end without dying once. In either case, there’s plenty of old school arcade fun to be found for players of all types as while there is still a pretty crazy amount of bullets flying around in easy mode, there are more health packs making the journey a little less perilous than in normal mode.
Summary
Overall, SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition is a quick and fun arcade title that you can challenge friends to beat your score like in the good old days. The only difference here is that you won’t need to worry about mortgaging your house in order to sink a colossal amount of quarters into the machine for one more playthrough as this train doesn’t even game you over! It simply throws you right back in for another go from your latest checkpoint.
Score: 7.5 / 10
