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Jamestown: alt. history steam-punk bullet-hell pixel-art shmup with 4-player co-op PC

G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
trai-ler!

this manic little delicacy turned up on steam earlier today (also available on direct to drive and gamersgate), site:neogaf.com came up dry so i thought i'd attempt to do it justice.

JamestownScreenshot01.png


final form games' Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is set against the backdrop of a 17th century colonial battle for mars between the british and spanish empires. if this just sounds like an excuse to fuse beautifully archaic steam-punk pixel artwork with the sci-fi trappings of bullet hell gameplay, be thankful that water-tight plots have never been a shmup staple.

JamestownScreenshot03.png


i usually approach below the radar indie shmups with a due sense of trepidation, but jamestown appears to be the real deal; possessing the likes of complex shield and chain mechanics and fully fleshed out online leaderboards to compliment the entirely faithful bullet-hell pattern and enemy design. the game is playable in either the standard, masochistic single player dick-measuring mode or NSMB modelled four player co-op mode - instead of sharing a pool of lives, as long as one player remains alive they have the opportunity to rescue the others.

if your interest is only teetering on the edge of piqued, check out total biscuit's WTF is? preview.

the game is 10% off for the first week ($9, £6.25), and anyone with a vested interest in ticking another box on the "genres now viable on pc" bingo card would do well to give it the time of day.

steam
direct to drive
gamersgate
 
Been looking forward to this for quite some time. Beautiful art. Unfortunately, I really don't like multiplayer shmups; I wish they had stuck with the original tate concept, but whatevs. Hope these guys have success with this game.
 
This game is awesome. I played for a couple of hours today and now I need to beat the game in legendary to unlock the final stage.

I don't know what the hell it is but for some reason I kept thinking of Chrono Trigger during my whole playtrhough. But don't mind this comment, I'm crazy and I'm just imagining things.

Oh, the music is fantastic.
 
linko9 said:
Been looking forward to this for quite some time. Beautiful art. Unfortunately, I really don't like multiplayer shmups; I wish they had stuck with the original tate concept, but whatevs. Hope these guys have success with this game.
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as far as i gather, the single player arcade mode has been designed with the more traditional basement dwelling high-score junkie in mind.
 
Tokubetsu said:
Man I had this fucking awesome op and fuck. You fucking beat me. Fuck ='(
Click to expand...
now i feel bad. if you pm me what you had going i'll merge it in, giving due credit.
 
I picked up Jamestown last night and I've been having a blast. The difficulty curve is great and I like how it essentially forces you to turn it up in order to beat the game. Here's how I've been playing it-

ypE6W.jpg


Like a baus.
 
iVVd4.gif
iRatc.gif


ghst said:
now i feel bad. if you pm me what you had going i'll merge it in, giving due credit.
Click to expand...

Nah yours is fine the gifs and the poster they have on their site were the only thing I had going for mine lol.
 
This should be bought based on concept alone.

EDIT:

"Hey guys ! stop making cartoons and make something same epic as this"

>:[
 
soultron said:
Wish my current laptop could run it. :[ Looks amazing from the trailer.
Click to expand...

Are you sure?

System Requirements
OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP with SP2 / Vista / 7
Processor: Intel® Pentium™ 4 2.4 GHz or better
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 250 MB
Video Card: Any OpenGL 2.0 graphics card with 256MB+ video RAM
DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c
Additional: One keyboard, controller, or mouse required per player. Supports multiple mice and/or keyboards. 3-buttons required for mouse play.
 
I've got Akai Katana coming tomorrow, but I figured I'd buy this anyway since people seem to be enjoying it. First game I've bought off Steam in 3 years too. Hopefully it's decent.
 
Picked this up today and put a bit of time in it, it is rather fun thus far, and odd, very, very odd, even for a shump.
 
So far I see no real reason to use any ship but Gunner unless you're trying to gimp yourself. Gunner facing forward seems about as powerful as Beam's special attack, Charge's special is cool but the base attack sucks, and Bomber is just all around odd to use.

Having a lot of fun thus far, though. Just unlocked the last level, and I gave it one try but it seems like it steps the difficulty WAY up from previous levels. Probably just a learning curve, as they also throw in a bunch of new level mechanics, so my second and third tries should be a lot easier.
 
I've not picked it up yet (headed out on vacation right now) but I love, love the control options that they have for multiplayer. You can use any combination of controllers, keyboards and three button mice to get everyone playing locally. Lack of good local co-op games is one of the things that makes me keep my 360 around and not go PC only, so the more of games like this the better chance I have of ditching the consoles next gen.
 
Monroeski said:
So far I see no real reason to use any ship but Gunner unless you're trying to gimp yourself. Gunner facing forward seems about as powerful as Beam's special attack, Charge's special is cool but the base attack sucks, and Bomber is just all around odd to use.

Having a lot of fun thus far, though. Just unlocked the last level, and I gave it one try but it seems like it steps the difficulty WAY up from previous levels. Probably just a learning curve, as they also throw in a bunch of new level mechanics, so my second and third tries should be a lot easier.
Click to expand...

Yea Gunner seems to be the ship of choice to me as well.
 
I've been trying to download this on Steam but keep getting servers busy many hours now :(
 
For this being a bullet hell and whatnot, should we expect online co-op? Especially with 4 people, imagine even the slightest lag spike would mean your death. What do you guys think the chances are? I also haven't seen anywhere the devs mention it at all nor comment on it in the various forums Ive lurked. It's kinda of a buzzkill thinking like this but just being frank. I know there is no one that will ever play this with me local, I can only imagine how awesome it would be with 4 people. Also this game is fucking fantastic for all the content that is included. I really hope to see more from these devs.
 
iconoclast said:
Got #2 on the stage 2 leaderboard (1.7m). Chaining half of the stage and then dying right before the boss is rage inducing.
Click to expand...
So how is it. Be nice to hear from real bullet hell fans. Heh.
 
shintoki said:
So how is it. Be nice to hear from real bullet hell fans. Heh.
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I'm liking it, but the whole 16:9 vertical shooter deal is giving me some trouble. Your ship doesn't move very fast, so when you need to get to the other side of the screen to take out an enemy, you usually can't get there in time unless you know it's coming (I guess). It doesn't seem as tightly designed as some other games. But it's still fun. I like the scoring system a lot, and a good scoring system makes a game 5x more fun to play.

Definitely worth the $9.
 
Nice to hear your impressions, iconoclast. This really does look like a big step up from every other shooter I've seen out of the western indie scene, from the videos. Ratio was one of my bigger concerns, too.

Would you say it's any good if I'm not interested in playing for score? I've heard that the first few difficulty levels are pretty uselessly easy.
 
iconoclast said:
I'm liking it, but the whole 16:9 vertical shooter deal is giving me some trouble. Your ship doesn't move very fast, so when you need to get to the other side of the screen to take out an enemy, you usually can't get there in time unless you know it's coming (I guess). It doesn't seem as tightly designed as some other games. But it's still fun. I like the scoring system a lot, and a good scoring system makes a game 5x more fun to play.

Definitely worth the $9.
Click to expand...
ouch, suspected as much from the screen...
Since I'd be playing it solo, I don't know if i can coope with low mobility, being a lifelong tohou player :/
da screen is mineeee :é (that is, when i've got enough time on my hands to spare while avoiding the REAL bullet hell @lunatic)
 
Bought the game last night, played all the way through to the last boss. My impressions:

Its pixel art is competent but not gorgeous, don't expect early Cave like goodness. Same goes for the bullet patterns, there are a few highlights but overall just serviceable.

I'd still recommend the game. Controls are very responsive. Gameplay is well polished. Scoring system not overwhelming. It eases the player in on the lower difficulty settings (less bullets to dodge) and slowly ramps up the pain. You have to replay the stages on higher difficulty settings in order to progress. It's a great game for people who would like to get into SHMUPs.

I had a lot of fun with the game and 8 euros were well spend. I'd love to see more SHMUPs like this on Steam, one of the reasons why I bought it day1 ... to support this cause.
 
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