Circuit Breakers (PlayStation 4) Review

Circuit Breakers, despite all that it promises, underperforms on all fronts, except for the difficulty. There is plenty of challenge here, as the robotic enemies are many, and can sometimes get to the point of being so unfair, although this issue is mostly common when playing in single-player. While the stages start off a bit light on the enemies, they soon begin to pile up at a rapid pace, where it can sometimes become uncontrollable. Different enemy types make their way into the fray, requiring quick-thinking and non-stop movement that is a characteristic of twin-stick shooters. In a single-player environment, though, there is not a lot of room for error, and the abundance of enemies further dampens the experience.

From the get-go, there are four different characters to play as, and they each wield a different weapon. The machine-gun is a great start for beginners as it is the all-rounder in terms of weaponry. The shotgun is a lot harder to control due to the short-range of the blasts, plus the rapid speed of the robots. The missile launcher is a fun way to cause plenty of mayhem, and wipe away large groups of enemies, and is secretly the best weapon, while the laser is an interesting weapon that can wipe away a straight line of enemies. More characters and weapons are unlocked as challenges are completed and rooms are cleared, but getting close to accomplishing these is a far cry without a group of friends.

However, the true point of these weapons is that ability to upgrade them during the battle. When enemy robots are killed, they drop blue orbs called Energium. Collecting enough of these will automatically upgrade the weapon to better and more advanced iterations, which ultimately make it easier to destroy a larger group of enemies quicker. However, unfortunately for these guns, using them costs the blue Energium, which will break down the weapon to the previous and weaker iterations if the orb intake is not kept up. This means that it is not a smart move to just blaze away with unlimited bullets until the screen clears, as ammo must be preserved to maintain the heavy duty weapons. However, the massive onslaught of enemies further complicates matters and, therefore, sometimes blazing away really is the only way forward.

Like Smash TV, this arcade-action game employs a room-by-room system, with a boss fight waiting every ten rooms. Each group of ten rooms and boss feature a different theme and colour palette to illustrate differences. However, beyond these visual differences, each room is literally the same, and it rarely offers any new challenges or a change in game strategy. Simply, just aim and shoot to clear, while dodging enemies. This lack of gameplay is further dampened by the two modes on offer: Arcade and Survival. While they are both probably meant to be different modes, they are quite the same.

Survival is about trying to see how many rooms can be cleared without dying, and arcade mode is…well it's the same. Without employing a checkpoint feature or a save feature, or anything of the sort, the Arcade must be cleared in a single sitting. While there are multiple lives on offer, running out completely will lose the mode and requires a complete restart from 'Room 01' to try again. Therefore, the two modes are simply the same mode, meaning that the gameplay begins to wear thin quite quickly and, as such, so will players' patience with the game.