The One Where I Should Be Asleep

Good evening,

It is late and I have class in the morning. That having been said, onward with a review! Another freeware shooter, you say? Yes. They don't take long to talk about.

Warning Forever has a simple premise: fight bosses. There is no story, no characters and no music. Instead, you control a ship and shoot at increasingly large and dangerous enemies. That is all there is to it. OR IS IT!?

A few features set WF apart. Bosses are completely modular and as such allow the player to shoot off specific sections. For instance, I usually try to destroy most of the weapon systems first. Each enemy has a core section; destroying this will end the level, regardless of how much of the rest of boss you have blown away. However, the game tracks your performance and changes the next foe accordingly. Going straight to the core every time will result in stronger armor for the next iteration. Shooting off the guns makes it more likely that it will attempt ramming next time. This system allows for a variety of approaches, while providing a high degree of replayability.

There are no "lives" in Warning Forever; instead it uses a time based system. You start with 200 seconds and every time you defeat a boss, you gain some of it back. Conversely, with every death comes a penalty. This adds to the intensity and strategy of the experience; carefully taking it out piece by piece may decrease deaths, but it may also cause the game to end sooner. High scores obviously come from lasting as long as possible, but to my knowledge there is no definite end. I am not sure about this however.

The game also features an interesting, though difficult to explain, weapon. Pushing a button brings up a cone that represents the stream of fire. By moving up and down it is possible to widen and narrow the angle, thus changing the concentration. Moving laterally shifts the stream left or right, up to a full 180 degrees. This enables skilled players to be anywhere onscreen and still hit their target.

The game has a decent selection of options to customize your experience. The graphics are serviceable, but nothing really stands out. The same goes for the sound effects. Once again though, beggars can't be choosers and it is difficult to say no to "free". The game has some intriguing and unique aspects to it that I wouldn't mind being incorporated into more titles in the genre. Worth a play if you like shooters.

No Refuge,
Hideo Kojima