PlayStation

RayCrisis: Series Termination

Ray Crisis isn't the best shooter on PlayStation, but I like its structure more than Einhander and its looks more than G-Darius. It has a lovely style of presentation to it, all done up with vibrant techno design and the wonderful vaguely-English gibberish that pervades all the best shooters. As far as the depth of its gameplay and weapons system, I'd actually give the nod to Working Designs' own Thunder Force V over Ray - the newness of the levels and ships in Ray Crisis eventually gives way to simply racking up more and more points. Which has its own appeal for shooter perfectionists, but there are games where you can do the same thing on your way through a deeper, broader experience.

One of the game modes allows you to play the levels in any order and with infinite lives. This may be fine in the arcades, or if you have younger kids, but should be avoided at all costs if you have bought this game and want to get the maximum lifespan from it. Shoot-em-ups survive or fail on the "Just one more go" and "I wonder what's coming next" factors both of which are completely ruined by this mode. The gameplay is so simple that you will either love or hate this type of thing within a few minutes of playing it, so if at all unsure then try before you buy or rent it for the weekend first.

With stunning parallax scrolling, and gorgeous transparency and lighting effects, RayCrisis has a look to kill. Unfortunately, and much unlike the first release, RayStorm, the difficulty level in the sequel has been neutered, leaving little challenge for the user. Nonetheless, the journey is still thrilling, and something that gamers can sink their teeth into.

Unfortunately, as with Ray Storm, developers Taito have ignored the adage that sometimes less is more. Consequently, the screen is almost constantly filled with lasers, missiles and screen-filling explosions; the resulting chaos inevitably degenerates into a mindless button bashing fiasco. Indeed, whilst the gameplay shares superficial similarities with the great blasters of yesteryear (floating powerups, smart-bombs…) it fails to emulate the tightly structured gameplay that made classics such as Flying Shark such a joy to play. Ray Crisis also suffers from a lack of originality, which is displayed both in its structure and the unimaginative bosses that guard the mid-point and end of each level.

First of all, the two-player mode has been dropped completely, which is a major disappointment. And unlike the magnificent stages in Ray Storm, the levels in Ray Crisis seem awfully generic (lava stage, desert stage, etc). Finally, you'll have to deal with some extra-long loading times that you didn't have to put up with in the first game. Ray Crisis provides more of the same for fans for Ray Storm, but in this case more is less.