Xotic, the first-person shooter from indie developer WXP Games, is decidedly weird in every way, from its story and weapons to its surreal visuals.
Sheer strangeness only gets you so far, though, as the odd elements of this $10 indie game come at the cost of approachability. Xotic’s psychedelic aspects may lure you in but they can also push you away; the game’s efforts to be unique often come at the cost of playability. This is one of those games you admire for its boldness but don’t totally enjoy playing.
At first, Xotic is pleasantly surreal. The story is about as easy to follow as a French art flick from the ’60s. Some ancient entity known as The Orb has gone nuts after an eternity of living as a non-corporeal energy being. So it does what all non-corporeal energy beings do when frustrated and goes on a galaxy-wide rampage, possessing creatures and destroying planets with attractive, red-glowing toxins called scabs. That’s where you enter. You play some sort of stick-figure alien warrior genetically designed to fight The Orb, who comes complete with a “weaponized symbiotic creature” called the macroterra. This creature can be custom fitted with nifty, creepy devices, such as energy weapons, a virus gun, and homing insects.
You can even rig up “hard holograms” that function as jumping platforms, which can help you reach high places. Experience points are gained for successfully clearing most levels in the single-player-only campaign (there are no multiplayer modes of play). These points can then be rolled into new weapons, extra damage effects, and buffed core stats that govern health, ammo, and armor. Everything you do goes into an arcade score that is tabulated for bragging rights in online leaderboards at the end of each successfully completed level.
The distinctive look, alien level design, and hallucinogenic story and setting are the biggest pluses in Xotic. Gameplay is intriguing in fits and starts early on, but the gee-whiz factor wears off when the cluttered levels start getting in the way of running around shooting bad guys. What could have been an intense and unique surreal experience winds up feeling awfully average.
