Reviews
Xbox Live Arcade has delivered us a many classic titles. Most people of age will be brought back to their childhood with these classic releases so it’s only inevitable that good ideas from the past get recreated for today. That’s exactly what Schizoid does. The creators have claimed this is the “Greatest CO OP game ever made” now that’s a pretty big statement. I think it’s fair to say it is the best co op game of the XBL Arcade games but GoW seems to pop into mind. Anyway think of Galaga cross with Geometry Wars. Interesting mix I know but it does pay off. So grab your wingman and let’s go!
The first thing you will notice with the game is that single player gets boring real quick and the game has been designed with co op in mind. The game really takes off in co op as you have to work together as a team to kill the enemies. You start off as Red and Blue ships and you are going against waves of Red and Blue ships however the catch is you have no weapons. All you have is the hull of your ship. It is time to get a ram on. This is the only way you can kill your enemies and just to complicate things you can only kill the same colour to your ship. So if you are red you can only kill red and if you are blue you can only kill blue. If you touch a blue enemy as a red ship you lose a life and also the same in reverse. The lives are divvied up from a pool of 10 lives per seven rounds. This is why team work is a must and subsequently why single player fails. As with most puzzle adventure games as you progress the levels get harder and harder. As is also true with the enemies, as they last longer on the screen they evolve into harder enemies to kill. Also as levels progress the enemies are harder to kill and there are more of them
The game is broken down into 100 levels which you can play through by yourself (with an AI counterpart) oh yeah good luck with that, CO OP which is defiantly the way to go or if you are a stat whore you can try UBER Schizoid which puts you in control of both ships using one analogue stick per ship. This requires an immense concentration level and some freakish coordination skills. This mode is near impossible through the later levels but provides to comic relief if you can’t find a friend to play with or get sick of the AI and if you do manage to finish the game on this mode you will make your partner very happy because clearly you have skilled hands.
The game does have some flaws; it seems ever since Geometry Wars introduced the big flashy graphics with the explosions everyone has copied them. This game is no exception and with these prolific graphics comes blockage of the screen. This is especially true at key points such as higher levels with many enemies it can cluster the screen and you can not see what you are doing because of it, which can equate to pointlessly lost lives because of an easily avoidable problem. The single player also is a problem as previously mentioned because the AI is so bad. This is where it is a double edged sword for Torpex games because although it offers fantastic CO OP it doesn’t have the single player to encourage people to spend 800 points on a game they can only effectively play with a friend. This is where they may lose clientele to Geometry Wars as it offers a much stronger Single player element. Anyway in my opinion it is defiantly worth the 800 points if you can find someone to play it with. So if you are into the over the top view fighter game then this is defiantly for you. See you in airspace Maverick!
Xboxzone Score 7/10
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