You will only need a second to realise that Gastro Force has been heavily inspired by the likes of OG DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D. The first-person perspective and graphical style are instantly recognisable. But Gastro Force also has a Y-axis and a crosshair, which sounds trivial in games nowadays, but something these retro FPS games lacked. However, more is not necessarily better.
Gastro Force does have an interesting concept up its sleeve; you must defeat the aliens from the inside out. This race of aliens has a taste for metal and you flying round space in your huge space stations are the tastiest morsel on the menu.
As a member of Gastro Force – a team of elite troopers set-up entirely for this niche mission – you must get swallowed in order to infiltrate the aliens. Once there, you must travel through the intestinal system of said alien, fighting several other smaller aliens on the way, to set up a bomb.
Of course, none of this is explained in the game. As far as you can tell – without reading the Xbox Store description – you may as well be exploring some non-descript location. That’s because the vast majority of levels don’t exactly scream alien innards, with most taking place in corridors resembling the old Microsoft maze screensaver. There will be the occasional bit of green goo that apparently is there to resemble alien viscera, and later levels have walls that could be described as fleshy. But overall, the level of detail is pretty poor.
The same goes for the aliens you will be fighting too. You will quickly grow tired of the four or five aliens you need to fight. New areas bring about new aliens, but these are simply reskins of the same ones you’ve already been taking down.
There is some variation in the bosses, but these are few and far between. And they’re very spongy, meaning a lot of ammo will need to be expended into them.
Gastro Force borrows heavily from the likes of DOOM. You have a health meter and can pick-up plenty of armour crates as you wander around as well.
There is Y-axis as well, which comes in handy for the multitude of floating enemies you need to defeat. They’re tricky customers, but you best get used to them. There are taller enemies that require less aiming and then some that scuttle around on the deck.
You will have a decent arsenal at your disposal. Starting with just a metal pipe, your weaponry will soon expand to pistols, shotguns and even a rocket launcher. Yet, aside from the rocket launcher, these all provide the same level of power. You quickly gain access to a pistol and not long after, a rifle. The only difference between the two is the rate of fire, their damage per bullet is identical. Same too for the shotgun, it fires off three bullets in a single shot – range doesn’t appear to hinder this weapon – and if they all hit, that’s three hits. On easy mode, that is usually enough to take down many enemies.
Other weapons become available the more you progress but once you have the rocket launcher, newer weapons can’t beat it. Your reward for defeating the first boss: a new combat knife.
Levels are set out to give the impression that they are procedurally generated, but they appear to be just the same corridor assets used over and over, again and again. You can toggle a map on and off to see where you have been and haven’t, which comes in useful. A major portion of your time in Gastro Force is spent finding switches to open new doors or remove energy fields blocking access. In later levels, the switch placement gets more and more obtuse, searching for switches that open up new areas further and further away.
The default mode is medium. That typically means enemies need one extra hit before dying. It doesn’t appear to reduce their damage output however, and they can pack a hefty punch. Dying means you need to restart a level; out of sheer boredom and frustration I whacked it down to easy mode pretty early on.
Unlike other Ratalaika Games titles, to get the full 1000G in Gastro Force, you will have to play a significant portion of the game. Significant in comparison to the many others at least, with the final achievement not popping until you have defeated the first boss; roughly a third of the way through the game. But even by that short time, Gastro Force will have gotten very repetitive.
The other achievements are for picking up new weapons and the traditional key cards dotted throughout for the first time. Other than having to play a little bit extra, it’s a fairly traditional Ratalaika list.
Gastro Force is quite obviously a DOOM clone, but after playing it, you will probably find yourself better off with the originals if you want that retro hit. If the addition of a Y-axis is the best it can do, then that is a clear sign of how poor the rest of the game is.
Not even the promise of some easy Ratalaika Gamerscore can help save Gastro Force.
