On a personal level, I can wholeheartedly agree with the title of I Hate Running Backwards. Seriously, have you ever tried it? It’s killer on your calves! Honestly I don’t even like running forwards, even when I was in great shape I preferred my silly-looking speedwalking to a run. But I guess when you’re progressing vertically away from enemies and want to shoot ’em all dead before they annihilate you, running backwards isn’t so terrible.
I Hate Running Backwards is a randomly generated SHMUP (or, more accurately, SHMDOWN) with a sense of humor. Area titles are knocks on famous sci-fi (like Deep Space Mine), and you’ll be able to play as numerous characters from video games, movies and other media (like Serious Sam, Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior and The Bullet from Enter the Gungeon, as well as Chux – a take on Chuck Norris – and Rambro – a take on Sylvester Stallone’s famous role in Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot Rambo). Each character gets two weapons they can swap between whenever they want, along with special modifiers (some may have more or less max health, be able to use their melee attack more often or move faster than others). All the characters also get a melee attack (a swing around themselves that does great damage to enemies and deflects some projectiles), a charged attack and access to special weapons randomly lying around levels. Their primary weapons each require ammo that can be found in boxes scattered about randomly. If a character runs out of ammo, they each have a basic pistol that can keep them alive for a bit as well, although enemies are quick to swarm you when you have such a slow-firing, weak weapon.
Unlocking characters, special weapons and the ability to begin in different levels of the game are all one truly unlocks here. These unlocks are done by completing certain achievements; dying the first time unlocks Lo Wang, for example, while deflecting 20 rockets unlocks the Singularity Cannon. The game doesn’t tell you how to unlock various things, but a quick search online will give you this information very easily. My first disappointment with I Hate Running Backwards was with a lack of upgrading your characters. I’m typically rather awful at these kinds of games, but I live for getting more and more powerful with each run, so that not only am I getting better due to my skills improving and figuring out tactics, I’m getting better via stronger weapons, more health and various other perks. None of these exist here, sadly. You’ll unlock things as you go, sure, but unlocking a new playable character or special weapon isn’t always an improvement by any means.
The gameplay consists of the screen automatically scrolling up while you run around the screen shooting at enemies coming up from the bottom of the screen. You’ll also be running around trying to collect ammo to keep your guns working, using your melee whenever possible to help navigate through the destructible environments and to obliterate enemies, and dodging charging enemies from the sides of the screen. Occasionally you’ll come across special areas; for example, in the first level you’ll sometimes have to enter a vehicle and drive up while enemies charge at you from the bottom of the screen. These add a little bit of variety to the game, but for the most part you’ll just be swinging your melee weapon, shooting a lot and trying to keep your weapons loaded. Areas end with boss fights, and like most SHMUPs these consist of basically not dying while shooting the crap out of them.
There are some nice additional features as well. Offline co-op is a great touch, especially since if one player dies they can come back 30 seconds later if their partner is still alive, but ammo isn’t easy to share and there seem to be a great deal more enemies to make up for the second human player. There’s also a daily challenge that forces you to use a specific character, and I even managed to get top 10 on one of the levels despite doing an awful job. Sadly it only let me attempt the daily challenge once each day, so if I had a particularly off moment I was screwed until the next day.
I’ll admit it, I wasn’t even able to beat the first area of the game. I got to the boss a few times with only one life left, but between the stress of it taking about 4 minutes to even get to the boss and having to learn his pattern with only a hit or two left each time I simply gave up. To get a better feel of the game I watched a video of someone completing the entire game. I figured watching such a hectic, crazy game would be a wild ride, but even watching someone obliterate countless enemies with amazing skill nearly put me to sleep.
Sadly, as far as I’m concerned, the title is the best part of the game. I loved the concept of this game, and I almost preordered it before I received a review copy, but it was a huge disappointment. People who love randomly generated SHMUPs (or in this case, SHMDOWNs) with a great deal of challenge may still enjoy this, especially if they have a buddy to play with (offline) and don’t mind a lack of purchasable upgrades.
I Hate Running Backwards is available for: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One and Steam (Windows and Linux).
I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.