Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours (PC) Review

There are three main modes of play in Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours. There's AC Mode, the traditional arcade experience. CS Mode, the brand new mission based mode which allows for ship customization and for story information. Lastly, there's DLC Mode where ships can be bought off the Steam store page and played with here.

AC Mode is the main Darius experience. Featuring branching paths with different difficulty sets, AC can range from feeling like a tutorial to a balls to the wall intense bullet hell romp. On easy and, at times, normal, Dariusburst can be a relaxing experience, but when hard kicks it, things get insanely hard.

Dariusburst quickly becomes an adrenaline filled battle of reflexes and foresight. Being a horizontal shoot 'em up, ships can switch between facing either left or right, a necessity as enemies can come from any direction and even switch during combat. Because of this, it's easy to get trapped if there isn't enough thought put into when to shoot, who to shoot, and where to shoot. The best part about Dariusburst's gameplay is that death never feels cheap, instead being a fault of the player's lack of skill and general need for improvement.

CS Mode, the main way of getting a story-driven experience, doesn't get nearly as hard as AC Mode, but it certainly has its merits. CS features blood pumping music and set pieces which create incredibly memorable moments in an experience whose moments would otherwise be completely play based. The story itself is nothing remarkable, with CS's biggest draws being ship variety.

AC only allows for four or so playable ships at the start, but CS features a point shop where new ships can be bought per mission, making replaying levels and bosses incredibly satisfying and enjoyable. Each ship has a different set of attributes, and there's enough variety between them all to justify buying them and trying out new styles of play.

With solid gameplay, game design, and play variety, Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours does a good job at presenting itself. That is, until DLC Mode is checked out. While the DLC is by no means necessary for enjoying Dariusburst to its fullest, it does sour the experience, especially taking into account the game's $50 base price tag.

Each piece of DLC is $5, sporting one ship and a small amount of new levels to fiddle around with. Coming out to a total of $15, it's possible to spend $65 on Dariusburst. While that doesn't seem too bad considering the price most games currently go far, Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours is not worth $50, let alone $65.

There's a decent amount of content here and it certainly gets addictive, but there just isn't enough to sustain itself. Dariusburst feels more like a $25 venture given its overall lack of polish and inability to grab attention after the honeymoon phase is over.