Annihilate Review

Annihilate is a basic dual-stick shooter with two playable modes, including Waves and Survival. The goal is simple: survive for as long as possible. The game puts players in a rather plain arena with multiple objects. It's their job to shoot the objects before they reach and destroy the player. It doesn't do anything differently than what's been done before. It feels like a stripped down version of Geometry Wars. There are no visuals that will impress and not even a single repetitive soundtrack to enjoy, just a basic background for players to stare at with only the noise of shoots fired and enemies exploding to hear.

Annihilate has very little depth, which is fine, except that it doesn't help when there isn't anything else about the game that players will find impressive. The two featured modes, Waves and Survival, start players with 2 lives and 3 bombs to use during gameplay. Waves, of course, features wave after wave of objects that increase by number and difficulty while Survival is a continuous onslaught of objects. As players destroy the oncoming objects, small orbs appear from the shattered pieces for increasing the score as well as additional bombs for use in tricky situations as they become more apparent. I wish the pace of the game was quicker to begin with as it starts out slow, especially after the first play through. Eventually, the pace does pick up and provides a better challenge.

The controls handle well as players move around the small arena while shooting different types of objects and blasting bombs to get out of tough situations. Again, like what has been seen before, there are objects that will come towards the player, avoid the player's shot, explode into multiple objects, and explode with the blast destroying other nearby objects. It certainly has good gameplay to enjoy for a few rounds until the player is happy with their high score, but it really lacks substance and doesn't inspire players to keep playing.

Any shooter fan will enjoy the stats, leaderboard attempts, and gameplay that the game offers, for at least a few rounds, but there is nothing that will bring them back after the initial run. It has good gameplay, but we’ve seen this type before and with something that is far more exciting and stimulating. Shooter fans will enjoy it for a minute just because it’s something that's “new,” but like everyone else, they will be bored with this game in very little time.

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