Receiver, developed in only seven days by Wolfire Games, is an interesting take on the FPS genre. Although the game has been updated several times since its first submission, the mechanics and presentation have remained a constant. The game play may have its fair share of afflictions, but this charming indie spectacle earns the effort input required of you, and is able to provide a sense of accomplishment despite its hardships.
At the surface, Receiver seems to distinguish itself from any other shooter through its art style alone. Minimalist architecture, drab colors juxtaposed alongside brilliant beams of colored light, and the stark darkness of a serene city nightscape, demand your attention. The visual style is one of Receivers leading strengths, and it really helps draw you into the game play. However, the mechanics are the main focus of Receiver, and are what sets it apart from other games in the genre.
Receiver, being a roguelike, spawns you in a random location, with a random pistol, and limited ammunition. As you progress through the game, you’ll find more bullets, tapes, and maybe even a flashlight. Your main objective is to find and collect all eleven tapes, that when picked up, provide audio that expands upon the world, you, and the task at hand. The game will also spawn two types of enemies to impede your progress, turrets, and hovering drones.
It’s how you deal with these enemies that makes Receiver shine. The game faithfully recreates each pistol featured within the game, from its real life counterpart. The exact procedure of operating each weapon is meticulously implemented into the game play, and from the minutes spent learning the intricacies of your favorite gun, comes the reward of smoothly controlling it and dispatching enemies one by one. Ejecting a magazine, popping a few rounds in, shoving the clip back into the handle of the pistol, releasing the slide, and firing a controlled burst of rounds into an enemy is thrilling, but unfortunately other aspects of the game play can hinder the satisfactory release that comes from mastering a weapon.
For a game that so accurately depicts the operating of a pistol, some of its design is left surprisingly without detail. Your character does not move with any form of tightness, and it is baffling that with so many corridors and indoor environments in the level, that there is no lean or peak option. While the art style is pretty, it overshadows the forgettable level design, which makes progression difficult due to constant, unwarranted backtracking. Although the enemies have a localized damage system, it is incredibly hard to tell whether you have made an effect on it, as there are few visual indicators. The weapons system may feel smart and innovative, but the controls of operation feel convoluted at times, and the inventory system can get a bit messy. The story is at best hard to pay attention to, the objective of gathering tapes seems arbitrary, and the seemingly single song soundtrack is nothing special, but at least provides a driving background noise.
However frustrating the hitches in the otherwise flawless game play may seem, the core mechanics are still well thought out, and outshine any drawbacks that Receiver has. It’s a shame that in some ways, the game play yields both greatness, and disappointment, but when all is taken into account, Receiver proves that the time you put into it, is time well spent.