After Wave: Downfall from 7 Raven Studios and SleepPlaying on PlayStation 4 is a fast-paced arcade-style shooter with a cartoon-style. Learn more in our After Wave: Downfall review!

 

After Wave: Downfall from 7 Raven Studios and SleepPlaying on PlayStation 4 is a fast-paced arcade shooter with a cartoon-style. You’ll be taking on ten missions as you battle against monsters, mini-bosses and bosses that will come at you from all sides of the screen. Deathrix invaded the world and unleashed a deadly meteorite that caused a great flood everywhere. On top of this, the meteor’s radiation also ended up corrupting the animals, mutating them and turning them into monster. You’ll play as one of the available heroes – with three more characters to unlock – as you defeat all enemies on your path so that you can take on the big-bad-boss at the end of each stage.

The game can be played on your own or in local co-op. Along with taking on a short Tutorial to learn all of the basics, you can play After Wave: Downfall in a Story Mode, an Arcade Mode, or a Practice Mode. There are three difficulty settings to take on, with only Easy unlocked at the start. For Easy, only four of the stages are available. Once you’ve unlocked the Normal difficulty setting, you’ll be able to explore seven levels. Bat that, and you will be able to play in Hard, for which all ten levels will be available.

 

There are also four additional modes that you can unlock by completing specific objectives. Complete the game on the Easy difficulty setting, and you’ll unlock Rafting, in which you must sail through rocky rapids, and when hitting an obstacle time will decrease. Complete the game on Normal, and you’ll unlock three extra modes. Collect, in which you must collect pearls along the way. You’ll also unlock Beat the Score, where you’ll have to destroy as many enemies as possible and collect items to boost your score. The final bonus mode will be Defense, in which you must prevent enemies from passing through the area.

The controls are easy to get the hang of. You’ll control your ship with the left analog stick or the D-Pad as you shoot at enemies with the X button. Do know that you can’t go beyond the warning buoys. You can press the L2 button to slow down or the R2 button to speed up. Press the L1 button, and you can use your first skill. Your second skill is set to the R1 button. If you press the Square button, you can use a power bomb. Your skills will consume some of your energies with every use.

 

The many crystals you collect as you play through After Wave: Downfall can be used to upgrade your ship. You can increase all characters’ hit points, add more power bombs, increase the charging speed of power bombs, reducing how much energy your ship loses when hitting an enemy, increasing the range to absorb items, increasing shooting damage, increase combo time by a bit, or have your shiel activate when slowing down. You can also use crystals to unlock three additional characters, as well as improve the skills for each one of them.

The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy to work on. The list includes a lonely Bronze trophy and 11 Gold trophies. Your fist tutorial will pop as soon as you complete the game’s tutorial. After that, you’ll get trophies for defeating 20 enemies, getting a score of 50,000 points, destroying an enemy with a power bomb, paying 5 crystals to continue after being defeated, buying an upgrade, unlocking a character, getting a 10x combo, collecting 60 crystals, defeating the first mini-boss, and completing the first level in the game.

After Wave: Downfall is a fun arcade-style shooter with three difficulty settings, with a Story Mode, an Arcade Mode, and a Practice Mode, as well as four bonus ones to unlock after completing the game in the Easy and Normal difficulty settings. It can be played on your own or in local co-op. Sure, the game is not perfect, but it’s an enjoyable experience. After Wave: Downfall is out on PlayStation 4 with a $14.99 asking price.

Disclaimer
This After Wave: Downfall review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by 7 Raven Studios.