Guest reviewed by McPortugalem
Looking at them on the E-shop, not knowing better you might have thought that if you own an Ubermosh title then you really own them all. Surely, with how similar the aesthetics are, they are more expansions than full on sequels, right? When you look at screenshots and images online, further complimenting your research before spending money on the title you might even have a hard time distinguishing between the titles. It’s something I would not blame you for even if, in fact there’s a difference.
It’s always hard to describe gameplay and how it differs from any other title to someone without giving them the opportunity to hold the controller and try it out themselves but, given I’m unable to do that with anyone currently reading this I’ll have to make one thing clear. While there are many similarities, enough to make it confusing where Ubermosh: Omega and Ubermosh: Sancticide differ the experience feels like a totally different one.
Where the original Ubermosh: Omega feels much like it pits you and your overpowered weapons against a hundred different enemies and more after until you fall, Sancticide takes the same idea and runs with it in a way that makes it so that you actually feel as if you progress. It’s something that wasn’t really lacking in the original Ubermosh: Omega, not when you could upgrade weapons with kills but it’s something that’s much more apparent, ever present in Ubermosh: Sancticide. Why is that? What about a small change make it so it’s very much more rewarding to destroy large groups of enemies in this version, even as the original version already made it feel great?
It’s the fact that the more enemies you kill the more spawn. Really when you fist boot up the game and see the giant numbers ticking down, a timer you might not expect this design decision to be the one made and yet as you play game after game it becomes apparent. Sure it might take you 10 to 15 seconds wandering around to find the first enemy, but after you kill that one two or three appear and in the minute or so you have left you start getting dozens, hundreds of kills.
It’s the most striking thing that separates different games in the Ubermosh series, while the one I’ve previously reviewed asks “how long can you last until you die?” this one asks instead “how much mayhem can you make in such little time?”.
Because that’s the thing of course, while you are fragile, and can easily get swamped the fact is that you’re the most powerful entity in the game. It’s possible, and it did happen to me a couple times, that you could die if you get too confident and get cornered, but when you have the ability to literally cut their shots in half and your weapons can cover a third of the screen killing twenty enemies in one go the odds are very much stacked in your favor.
It’s the thing that attracted me to the original Ubermosh, repeated all over again with a new formula. There might be little in the way of narrative (though there is a story), no cutscenes or character development but that wasn’t what I was looking for in it. No, instead the truly genius thing Ubermosh: Sancticide does is pit you against yourself.
You aren’t playing because you want to achieve a goal, something defined by the game besides a rank which seems almost like an afterthought, no, you keep pushing yourself because you want to see how far you can get, how many you can take. It’s similar to the idea of racing against your best times in a racing game trying to peel just one second off the clock. There is nothing forcing you to continue, there isn’t a single person holding you against your will forcing you to do it and yet…
And yet you find yourself going again and again and again, trying to increase your number of kills in the time you’re given. It’s partially why I think that the switch is the best place to host the game, the fact that you can start a finish in about two minutes means that you can just pop the Switch out of the case and play it while waiting for something.
In truth, Walter’s games had always sorted of blurred together for me. Though I’m a fan of his work and own most of it on Steam it is somewhat easy to be confused at what Ubermosh game is which. It is a mistake that I feel, is easy to make, after all the titles are not exactly numbered, so it becomes easy to see a progression.
After playing Ubermosh: Sancticide again however, and having it be my main distraction, even more so than Animal Crossing: New Horizons which called to me however I don’t think I’ll be making that mistake anytime soon. No, Sancticide might have a lot of similarities to other Ubermosh titles, the pumping soundtrack, the quick gameplay, the feeling that you’re overpowered as all hell, but in concept it differs. It’s a small change, one that doesn’t hide the fact that 90 percent of the aesthetic and energy is the same, but, to me it makes it a wholly different experience. Much like Ubermosh: Omega Ubermosh: Sancticide is loud. It makes you feel like a badass when you’re good at it, and it punishes you when you fail to be fast enough…but even, even carrying much the same characteristics it’s a whole new experience. One I’d recommend.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.