Sine Mora is a 2.5D Shoot ’em up co-developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture; and published by Microsoft on XBLA and Kalypso Media on PC. It is set in a Diesel-Punk world inhabited by anthropomorphic characters that all speak Hungarian.
The story tells the tale of a mass revenge killer; tracking down and killing the crew of the craft his son was murdered on. It also follows the events of multiple other pilots all of which can also control time with their ships or in one case they themselves can control time around them.
The themes to the main story are quite dark; there is murder, revenge, hostage taking and genocide. There is a faction named the Enkies which while they do possess the power to travel through time; most have been wiped out and those that escaped are either being killed in the past, present or future whilst trying to hide or fight back.
The fact that all the voices are in Hungarian, makes the story more involving. The dark voices and serious tone it brings works really well with the story’s dark themes. If you speak Hungarian then it may seem less impressive but it really adds a darker tone to the game that probably wouldn’t occur with English voiceovers.
As a 2D shooter you can expect many of the normal mechanics like upgrading weapons, interesting secondary weapons, almost constantly dodging a sea of bullets and large and interesting Boss Battles. It doesn’t particularly let up either, even on the “Normal” difficulty you will likely die many times, “Challenging” is pretty brutal and “Hard” and “Insane” are best kept to those who have the reflexes and patience to become skilled enough at these sorts of games.
Health is done differently in this game; you don’t have a traditional health bar and you can survive multiple bullets (usually). Instead of standard health you are given a time counter which ticks down every time you are hit as well as counting down normally (even whilst you slow time). So as long as time remains on the clock, you will live after being hit (usually). Luckily, you can also increase time on the counter, with both the time pickup dropped by enemies and by killing enemies. The counter also adds to your score when you leave a section and then resets (to a higher time) as you enter a new section.
Different pilots have different aircrafts, which aside from aesthetics; also changes where the hit-box is (always a small dot near the centre of the craft) and the main weapon and its subsequent upgrades. On top of that, each pilot also has their own specific secondary weapon which can only be used as many times as you have charges to spare for it.
All these variables leave you with quite a lot to choose from in Score Attack but in Story mode these are all fixed it set pilots and craft. You are also stuck with the “Speed Up” time power which “speeds up your craft” making everything else around you slower. Use of this power is limited and you have a bar that shows how much you can use it. A full bar will last not much more than a few seconds so it should be used sparingly.
In Score attack you are also permitted to choose one of three time powers; one of which is speed up, the other two are “Roll Back” and “Reflection”. Roll Back will rewind all actions, including you dying or losing/picking up Powerups; it can be useful, though it is more of a fix than the prevention the other powers supply. Reflection is pretty much what it says it is. A large shield appears around you and reflects projectiles; allowing you to kill your enemies with their own bullets.
Powerups range from increasing the refilling and upgrading your weapons and systems to increasing time and other bonuses. Your primary weapon can be upgraded from 1-9. Always at one as a minimum, you can upgrade it to a power level of nine; which not only increases the damage a single bullet does but also changes the number of shots fired and the spread. Getting hurt will however cause you to lose all/some of your upgrades and require you to pick them up before they float away.
There are also time extensions to be picked up, a shield that can make you invulnerable; after being hit for a short time, bonus score and even a time extension that only occurs after death. The Powerups are random however so you can never be certain to whether a specific enemy will drop what you really need or not.
Story
The bright visuals betray a rather dark, if not confusing story. With each level’s intro/end story feeling almost like short, self-contained stories until you come back in contact with the characters involved. Even after revisiting the plot multiple times there is still confusion over what exactly is happening when.
Presentation and Audio
The Hungarian voice overs are brilliant and add to the atmosphere the story creates while the bright and beautiful action is a sharp contrast to the story being told. Occasionally the upgrades may be hard to see in the ocean of bullets coming your way but it tends to do a good job of keeping things visible.
Gameplay
Tough as nails but fun, even the lower difficulties can be extremely difficult for anyone without cat-like reflexes. The gamepad is still the best option but there are controls for both the keyboard and mouse as separate entities. Boss Training allows you to practise for the difficult sections of the levels more easily, so you can test your mettle against them before ruining an Arcade playthrough.
Overall – 4/5
The game is hard but not to an unfair degree, it provides a fair challenge on the normal and challenging modes without being too harsh with repercussions for dying. The main story can be brief if you’re very good but considering the genre you will be replaying the game to reach an ever higher score.
Comments:
The story may be a little hard to follow but what I could decipher from it was pretty good. It also in no way detracts from the rest of the game; which is filled with some pretty awesome, if not sometimes horrifically difficult bosses to play against. The Powerups may be a little too random for some though.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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