This is going to be one of my tougher reviews. N.E.O. is a hard game to play, not because of difficulty mind you but because the controls didn’t make any sense at all to me. I couldn’t figure out how to move and when I did, the controls suddenly shifted. I am not sure what the developers were trying to do but it just made the game a chore to play.
The game is ostensibly a shoot em up like Asteroids but was very unplayable because of the control issues I mentioned. The music was fine, no complaints there. And the visuals did well to capture the feel of Asteroids done in a modern way but that wasn’t enough to save this. It just made me want to play Asteroids. Or maybe hope for an asteroid to hit Toronto so I wouldn’t have to play this anymore. Fortunately for the rest of Toronto but unfortunately for me, no asteroid collision happened and I continued to try to play.
I previously complained about Skeasy but there at least I could play it even if it was incredibly dull, monotonous and boring. I couldn’t do that much in this game, again because the controls were insane. I felt like a guy who had his first hit of acid and went crazy trying to understand basic concepts. This just didn’t work.
A patch is needed badly to try and give a bit more control. Until then, stay away.