Game: Raiden V: Director’s Cut
Publisher: UFO Interactive Games
Developer: Moss Co., Ltd.
Reviewed: PS4
Raiden V: Director’s Cut is the perfect game for those gamers who love old school arcade style games that challenge them to break high scores and be the very best one can be. It is a highly addictive game, giving players tons of missions to complete, bosses to beat, and high scores to conquer.
Developed by Moss Co. Raiden V is the latest game in the Raiden franchise and while it doesn’t add anything super crazy to the series it does manage to make its mark in its genre. Like I said before, Raiden V is super addicting. It has players spanning across plenty of pretty looking maps taking on loads of enemies in the process.
The speed is kicked into overdrive and from the minute the mission starts you are going at full speed. Anything that moves must get blown up, and Moss Co. did a good job putting in loads of powerups, various guns, and much more for the player to experiment with. Killing enemies rarely get stale. One problem that I personally ran into was that the game perhaps moves a little too fast, almost giving me motion sickness. There were a couple of instances where I had to take a break from the action and cool off.
On top of the fast-paced action, players are also tasked with listening to the commanding officer to the right of them as they will be giving you details about the upcoming enemies and relaying the overarching story of Raiden V.
It’s a nice touch that the developers added a fully voiced story into the game, but in reality, no one is going to be able to follow along with it as there is simply just too much going on in the gameplay department. Besides the story aspect, Moss Co. did add a bunch of other features into Raiden V such as the live leaderboard of each mission, powerup screen, and your current high score.
They have also added a new two-player mode offering you and your friends an endless amount of fun together. Sadly, the co-op feature is only accessible offline, meaning couch co-op, but nonetheless, it is a nice feature for those who can use it.
Raiden V comes with a selection of three different ships to choose from. Each of these ships come loaded with their own unique abilities, giving players enough variance among the collection. Do you want homing mission bullets, or do you go with a laser gun the connects to multiple ships at once? The choice is yours and whatever one you choose, the game remains as fun as before.
Another major difference in Raiden V compared to the other titles in the series and genre-alike is that there is an infinite amount of lives. There is no penalty for dying, it all just comes down to skill and time. Other arcade shooters usually have limited lives making it slightly difficult for the player, but now it’s all about your own personal skill.
Raiden V: Director’s Cut is for the gamer who loves arcade-like shooters. It’s fast-paced, full of welcomed features, and it packed to the brim with content. Beat high score, climb the leaderboard, and become the best. It’s a simple game, but it will be extremely difficult to master.
Did you pick up Raiden V? Are you thinking about getting it now after reading this review? Let us know in the comments below!
