Caelus Trident | a Review
originally published on 30/12/2023;
Hello everyone, I am the spacefarer, G.E.M.Simov, a goon who has been everywhere, here to tell you about the game “Caelus Trident”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
Caelus Trident is a top-down space-ship game. The Player controls a ship that can be swapped at will with two other ships, each of which has a different health bar, shield bar and weapon. The Player moves around by pressing the WASD keys and can move from one edge of the screen to the opposite edge by simply holding down the appropriate direction.
The Player attacks with their ship by pressing (and holding down) the Left Mouse Button. The goal is to survive three waves of enemies - most of which vary in size and health, whilst employing generally the same 2 types of attacks - and to then fight off a big boss enemy. Projectiles - be they blasts or rockets - can be shot down by enemy projectiles, so the Player can either dodge them or shoot incredibly precisely.
The Player’s ships feature blasts, which move slowly but are a bit thicker than rockets, a laser, which pierces through everything it is directed at but has an “energy” bar that depletes and needs to be reloaded, and rockets which fly a lot faster than blasts, but are thinner than them.
The ship with blasts is the default ship, and the other two need to be unlocked from killing enemies - they drop as circular objects that need to be passed through. Other things that enemies can drop are health pickups - also circular - and shield pickups - again, circular, but very visually distinct.
The game has two major issues for how simple its gameplay is - first, enemies appear out of any side of the screen, without any indication that they will appear, and they fire at the Player almost instantly, if not instantly, which leaves the Player with very little time to react, resulting in far too many “cheap hits” that are not conducive to a good experience.
Second, the boss enemy features a “weak-point” mechanic, which means that only a certain part of it can be damaged, while the rest is immune to damage. If that part is at the front of the boss, then some shots will get through the insane barrage of projectiles the boss fires constantly (which destroy the Player’s projectiles, rendering hitting the boss a lot harder than it ought to be). If that weak point part is on the side of the boss, then almost nothing, safe for the laser, will hit it, since the boss moves so it may be facing the Player’s ship. That doesn’t feel good.
Overall, the game is very simple and monstrously short. It’s not bad, but it is not very inspired, nor does it bring anything particularly interesting, aside from three difficulty modes and an endless mode of play. Though, with the lack of any complexity, there’s no point to engaging with those. 1/3
Presentation
This looks like a one-man game, and since it is the debut title of a tiny little studio with no other games to its name, it is understandable why things are the way they are. Regardless, they need to be addressed.
The game has a number of buttons that can be pressed through the use of a mouse, but none of them give any indication that they have been pressed or that they are being highlighted. That is a bit problematic, because there is no feedback for the Player.
The game also features a “How to Play” button, whilst also featuring a “Tutorial” button in its options, which is somewhat odd - either have one of them or neither, but not both, due to the fact that both of them being present introduces a great redundancy. Why, when the Tutorial presents the Player with slightly more information (1 unit of extra information) whilst also providing the Player with the opportunity to try out the mechanics that are being presented?
Because the number of mechanics is so low that there’s no point in having a tutorial like that. Just look at the How to Play screen and one should be done. Regardless, the issue here is that having both of those things available is going to lead into the Player listening through the entirety of the 1 piece of music that is relegated for the menus… Twice.
That would not be a problem, but that musical track is definitely not fitting for a space game - it features frogs croaking as ambience! The second piece of music that is present is more fitting, as it is a relatively intense battle-related track.
However, these two tracks are all the sounds the Player is going to get to hear. Even something royalty free would have worked as a sound effect, but alas. There is a paragraph of voice-lines that is read to the Player at the start of the game, though!
Lastly, in regards to the visuals, stuff is very minimalist. It gets the job done, but it is by no means pretty. Unfortunately, I’ll end this section on a problem - even with two tutorials, the Player is not informed of two mechanics - that their ships have different health bars and that they can go from one side of the screen to the other as though it were a door, rather than a wall.
With that, this game’s Presentation makes an attempt, but it is not great. 1/3
Story
The Player is the last ship standing out of all the spaceships of Earth, and needs to defeat the entire enemy armada before it destroys Earth! That’s all. There is no story, simply put. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? No, Caelus Trident does not get the Legendary point. It’s a wonky first attempt by a tiny studio of either students in year one or schoolkids. 0/1
Conclusion
3/10. A very lackluster experience. A child who does not know better might find it enjoyable, but it is clearly the work of novices who wanted to get done quickly, or worse. I would not recommend it to anyone.
On the wall of shame. For a debut project, this is a great disappointment.