Our Weekly Spotlight game this week is not by Ubisoft – They had a good three week run. Instead, it’s by indie company OPQAM. Dogfighting games took a bit of a hiatus on the Xbox One, but they returned couple years ago with the launch of this week’s Weekly Spotlight #6 nominee – DOGOS $11.99
DOGOS first launched last September on Xbox One, and was the first real dogfighting game of its generation, despite the console being out for three years. The Zeetnuks robots have invaded Earth. Humans quickly realize that they don’t stand a chance against the robots, and attempt to create new ships and weapons while integrating alien technology into their own. The robots find out where they are making these weapons and attempt to destroy it, but our protagonist Desmond Phoenix manages to escape on a single ship. It’s here that DOGOS begins.
The sound in DOGOS is extremely unique and rather incredible. Everything is integrated well in a way that would resemble real life. Everything from lightning strikes, thunder claps, lava explosions and more use such realistic sounds that are all tied together. Enemy ships destroyed by your guns create a loud explosion, but they may be overshadowed by a thunder clap and not heard too well. It’s this type of sound and integration that impressed me with DOGOS. Most games, especially indie type games, instead opt for all sounds to sound the same. While the individual sounds are impressive, when they are all jammed together it creates confusion and quite honestly is too much for the ears. The manner in which DOGOS integrates its sound is similar to how it would sound in real life as louder sounds drown out quieter ones. It’s very impressive and really adds to the immersion factor in the game.
All of the game’s 14 worlds are fully rendered in 3D. Being a top down, dog fighting game, I was worried about depth perception in DOGOS. Often times while flying in games you won’t know whether an object is below you or on the same level. This can create confusion and often times death as you’ll crash into a mountain you swore was below you. In DOGOS, this isn’t an issue. Large, hulking mountains are simply just drawn smaller in order to appear farther away and illustrate that you can fly above them. Objects blocking your path are larger and closer. With objects being rendered in 3D, it allows for smooth flight and gameplay with everything being easily identifiable.
There are only two types of ships you can choose from, and there isn’t too much of a difference. Your standard choice of swapping out better armor for stronger weapons is your only dilemna, You’ll have a choice of one of four main weapons which are unlocked as you progress, three ground attack weapons as well as in-level drops. These include things like temporary main weapon changing to laser beams or an ultra-bomb, extra health and extra lives.
DOGOS uses a system where you can simply hold the button down to fire. This is necessary as the game truly tests your skills on the higher difficulties. Your hand-eye coordination will truly be tested. It uses both strategy and hand-eye coordination in order to let you succeed. Some areas have so many enemies that you can’t even see them through the myriad of bullets coming at you. Reflexes will get you out of harms way – hopefully – but you’ll need strategy to pick off enemies piece by piece. An example would be not to use homing missiles on ships and to just rapid fire your main weapon. Instead, save your homing missiles for bases where you can drop them on surface enemies while firing at the ships at the same time. In fact, there are sometimes so many enemies where your only hope of survival is to not look at them. Keep your eyes glued to your own ship while holding down the trigger button and dodge the bullets. Spray and pray baby.
Overall, DOGOS is a great dogfighting game that everyone, not just fans of the genre, should play due to the current generation technology blended so smoothly with the retro style gameplay. Even if you don’t play it for the game, you can improve your hand-eye coordination greatly. On easy difficulty level, you can make it through all 14 levels in about three hours. Those who are more seasoned or like more of a challenge can try the harder levels with limited ammo and respawns as well as seriously OP enemies. The trailer below shows a great illustration of the physics in action as well as some of the mazes you’ll need to navigate in order to advance with several different camera angles. You can see the colorful graphics in fully rendered 3D and aesthetically pleasing shades. Object textures stand out, lighting shadows are cast onto nearby objects and an amazing soundtrack really makes DOGOS.
DOGOS is available now on Xbox One. I suggest picking it up, as it’s not only a therapeutic tool for hand-eye coordination, but also the best dog fighting game I’ve ever played. Take a look at some of the action below.
