After his initial offering of Revenge of the Ball, Derrick Hopkins returns with his newest release, You Will Die. Now moving away from the ever dangerous threat of killer balls you’re now facing an enemy that will stop at nothing to make you die. Will you succumb to the game’s title? Most definitely. Will you have fun while doing it? We will see.
The basic premise of the game is you’re a spaceship pilot that’s minding his/her’s own business and then you meet an evil sounding woman who’s insisting you are pathetic that you will die. The enemy’s ship starts off fairly basic but as you progress to higher levels it becomes more and more threatening. You can control the ship using both the analog sticks with one stick being used for maneuvering around the 2 dimensional map and the other used for aiming your amazing cannon that can shoot in all 360 degrees. The object is to disable enemy ship’s turret and damage the main ship enough that it’ll take you to the next level. You’ve got the option to use a shield or repair your ship but they both decrease your points total and since the whole point of an arcade style game is your leaderboard score then either really should only be used sparingly if at all. The basic gameplay is alright but it might seem a tad plain given all you’re doing is trying to dodge all the fire the enemy is sending to you while you’re constantly firing your never ending stream of bullets towards it. The later levels are hectic but still remains a simple game. This style of gameplay will be best enjoyed by arcade purists that enjoy the gameplay of a simpler times like Space Invaders or Pac-Man.
The game starts off easy but that doesn’t stay true for long as your nameless and cold sounding enemy attacks quickly regroups after each level you complete with a more dangerous and aggressive assault at the next level. The game features 32 levels of difficulty but if you think after level 32 you’ve beaten the game then you didn’t read the name of the game, because eventually you will die since the game repeats level 32 until you quit or die. Though this shouldn’t really be a problem for most people since the game is already pretty difficult at level 4 and nobody has gotten past level 25 at this point.
The voice work in You Will Die is top notch and the main antagonist really comes off as this evil bitch that hates you and seriously wants you to die . She is constantly taunting you after each round because she knows the inevitable outcome and is shoving it in your face. The only music in the game is at the main title screen and is a fairly nice song though it made me wish there some music playing the actual gameplay. The sound effects cover the bullets firing and when either ship gets hit and are fairly good. The artwork is great and some the best found on an indie game, most games you find in that section of the Xbox dashboard look like the graphics were made from a five year practicing their stick figures in Kindergarten.
You Will Die isn’t a game for the faint at heart, the game quickly becomes very challenging and as with most old school arcades games has no end to them so if you’re looking for something you’ll finish then don’t look here. But for those if want a simple game that’s challenging then this will definitely provide a good distraction as you try to become the top score on the leaderboard.
