I guessed what I was in for as soon as I booted it up, AIPD is a twin stick shooter in the vein of Geometry Wars. I’m not even sure if there’s much to separate the two as I’ve never spent enough time with the latter, but I highly doubt that AIPD would provide more entertainment due to its lack of variety, however it does allow for up to four players. Unfortunately, the multiplayer is local only so I didn’t get to try it out.
The graphics and sound are pretty standard for this kind of game, they’re not bad as such, they just don’t add much or present anything worth noting. I’m sure it’s already been done, but I’d rather see a game in this genre have some more thought put in to it with things like different characters, vehicles, locations and so on. Whilst you can choose a loadout based on items you’ve unlocked through gameplay, AIPD is pretty limited everywhere else and there’s not much incentive to play it through again and again just to unlock things.
Summary
It did manage to keep me playing for a couple of hours whilst I tried to beat my own high score as the shooting, movement and power ups are satisfying, but after a few attempts the lack of variety started to bore me. Level after level on the same screen, using the same ship, shooting the same enemies. I did manage to get to 716 on the global leaderboard, but suspect that’s probably more down to a lack of players than my own skill! This is one of those games that might be worth a quick bash every now and then, but only for an hour or two at a time. I wouldn’t recommend paying full price for it though, you’d be better off waiting and grabbing it in a sale, if at all.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!