Matterfall PS4 Review

Matterfall is a 2D Run N Gun game only for PS4, which was developed by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

For those who wanted to know what Housemarque is? well it is a video game developer from Finland also known as Bloodhouse or Terramarque founded in early 90s was responsible for their works on classics titles starting off Super Stardust for Commodore Amiga released in 1994, while getting a fully remake treatment later for PS3, PSP, PS Vita and PS4 released in between 2007-2016.
It also shares with numerous of great modern-day arcade titles like Dead Nation, Outland, Resogun, and Nex Machina which is a fun packed games that heavily borrows the elements from good old golden age classics like Smash TV, Defender, and Asteroids which is the reason why Housemarque are such an talented development team for making such unique modern-arcade titles.
While their previous titles are well received from gaming press, Matterfall was being released in two month after the Nex Machina which I finding it quite odd for releasing a two games in same year, so I was curious to play this game which I finally bought a physical copy for my PS4.
I got to say the Matterfall is just an mixed bag shooter title which the game did look promising for its intuitive weapons with unique power-ups, glossy level environment, and stunning difficulty challenge but the game suffers the flaws with missing features which I will explain it more further on my review.

So without go further do, let's start the review.



Presentation

The game starts off with the intro follows an unexpected hero fighting for survival on a sci-fi world was infected by a deadly alien material known as smart matter. The aim is to uncover the mystery of this new threat and save the day before it totally dooms the existence of the human race.

So far the game has no story whatsoever which I don't really think it's important for modern-arcade shooters like this that is not necessary to add it to the game's presentation. It's just a minute opening intro that seems to be not so special which is the reason why the game didn't need a full story to make the game interesting.
I say the character Avalon Darrow as a main playable character is rather bland and uninteresting. I really liked the appearance of the battle suit which is fine, but it has no character's development for lacking personality and has no in-depth characteristics which feels quite empty in the game.
After the pointing out negatives, the positives is that the settings in the game is actually pretty decent with futuristic environments and cool looking concepts that really fits well to the sci-fi universe, so also I liked the neon colour effects and bulkiness of level design that is looking amazing on every levels, so it has space station, green power plant, factory lava, and some cool locations.

Overall, unnecessary story and lackluster character, but decent presentation design.



Gameplay

The game has 3 levels with 3 acts and 1 boss each in single play. You take control of Avalon Darrow in 2D perspective where you need to beat the level by defeating and evading the enemies while heading to the finishing point.
You control the character by left stick to move around, the right shoulder button to jump, the left shoulder button to perform dash move, and using the right stick to shoot in multi-direction like most of the twin-stick shooter, as well as firing the secondary weapon with right trigger button.
You can shoot out generate laser by holding down left trigger button and push right stick to break objects such as purple crystals to set civilians free, blowing up enemies by round blue objects, and of course creating the path of hidden blue blocks for platforming segments.
You can collect several of augmentations items such as seeker that shoots with spread projectiles, shotgun blasts with large range, railgun zaps with plasma ray, and grenades deals with heavy damage giving a huge advantages of weapon variety and then you will have a customised mods like health, recharge rate, overcharge time, strike damage and others which allows your character to improve your overall ability featuring reduced health damage, faster reload, and better projectiles attack which these weapons and mods can be found in some locations of levels.
There are 5 health bars which shows player's health and the gauge bars shows the meter level where your meter goes full by collecting blue orbs will allow you to perform a overcharge mode that slows down the enemy as well as making you faster to kill them in limited time. It has 3 figures icons which shows you how many civilians you have rescued from any of the areas and the score points shows the total hi-score and numerical multiplier combos which can be fully showed at scoring screen as well as saving to online leaderboards for ranking total on both locals and worldwide.

I got to say I really do appreciated with the choice of gameplay design that involves bullet hell elements where you had to evade so many of the enemy's projectiles that shoots everywhere in 3 to 5 spreads of bullets which is kinda tough, but it brings overall challenge quite positively that requires dash moves and avoiding enemy's projectiles as possible to get past through the level till its very end.
The weapons and mods are pretty solid for its unique power-ups and ability that is effectively works well against the enemies and objects and the levels itself is not overly complicated which I didn't had a problem thanks to linear level design.
I do find the controls is okay for twin stick shooting, but I had a trouble of getting used with the dash and jump button that been mapped on the shoulder button which takes sometime to practice, so it's kinda get really annoying especially the game does not let you customise the button mapping which kinda sucks, but it wasn't played terrible entirely in the game.   
I wanted to point out some disappointing parts in the game is that the game lacks local or online 2-player co-op which is kinda sucks that most of the Run N Gun game plays really fun with the 2-player mode that aren't featured in this game which is shame.
The game also suffered with short-length of single play which lasted about an hour and half of whole game which is the reason the game only has 3 missions, so it should have been adding 4 more levels to expand the overall length of the game like up to 3 hours would have been sounds lot fine than just playing for an hour and half.
I am not surprised that it didn't have a game mode like score attack, challenge modes, boss rush, and time attack would have been a better addition to modern-arcade game like this, so I wish the game could have been added a more content to satisfy the fan of the genres who are searching for a fully completed game with more game modes and features that should have made the game worth playing.

Overall, fine gameplay design, but lacking features and short-length play.



Graphics
      
I do really appreciate with the graphics design in the game. I really liked the futuristic city building at the background with parallax scrolling as well as the detailed environments on the foreground design, and then the visuals effects is kinda look cool with neon light projectiles and the glossy particles scattered in pieces which did a decent job of designing the game's levels.
It has lighting effects and slick character animation is kinda gorgeous to look at, while the game has stable frame-rate running on 60fps with no sign of major slow-down which is good for in terms of game's performance giving a fast-paced looking bullet-hell game.

Overall, it has impressive environmental design, cool visuals effects, and stable performance.



Music and Sounds

The game does have a electro-synth soundtrack with style of upbeat trance music and arcade-like tunes is kinda sounds decent that keeps you engaging with the single-player game and the sound design is also pretty good in every level with great environmental sounds, but I find the narrator in the opening intro is kinda sounds generic in my opinion. It sounds like it's belongs to a cheesy low budget films with badly made narration in entire scene just so cringey to watch.

Overall, bad voice narration but decent soundtrack.



Special Features

The game has hardly had many features in the game except the online leaderboards which keeps your current hi-score after beating the level.

Overall, down right dissapointing.



Advantages

Cool presentation settings

Fine gameplay design

Impressive graphics visuals

Decent Soundtrack



Disadvantages

Lacks 2-player co-op

No game modes

No button mapping

Short length play

Unnecessary opening intro



Final Verdict


Presentation 5/10 - poorly made story and lackluster character, but decent presentation design.

Gameplay 6/10 - fine gameplay design, but lacking features and short-length play.

Graphics 8/10 - impressive environmental design, cool visuals effects, and stable performance.

Music and Sounds 7/10 - bad voice narration but decent soundtrack.

Special Features 3/10 - No features at all.


Overall 5.5/10 - Matterfall is not a terrible game, but it is the weakest entries of all Housemarque games.
Despite their excellent previous works from the past, this game falls everything apart with shallow game's length, lacking content, and unnecessary story intro that is not needed to include in the game.
I do appreciated with the arcade-style gameplay and solid visuals design which is fine, but it is not easier to re-visit the game again after beating once due to weak replay values.
It is not everyone's cup of tea unless if you're the fan of the arcade genres may want to give a try for curiosity or you better off sticking with the better ones like Super Stardust HD, Nex Machina and Resogun which is a better games than this has to offer.


     
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