In the dark future of humanity there is one shining beacon lighting the way, and that is truth in advertising. Say what you will about their single-minded pursuit of resource harvesting at the expense of all life everywhere, with a name like Dread Corp. you know exactly what you’re going to get. True, Dread Corp is an alien conglomeration rather than human but they know who they are and feel no need to hide it behind a whitewashed name like Interstellar Research & Acquisitions. With Dread Corps you know what to expect, and that standard resistance to its arrival isn’t going to work. Fighting it off requires a human mind in a robot body and all the guns a metal arm can fire, blasting through a semi-2D combat stage with a unique disregard for physics.
Every level of Orbital Bullet plays out like a standard side-view shooter, except instead of a linear level or enclosed arena it takes place on a ring. As far as the bullets are concerned it’s a straight stage that loops around on itself, but you’re able to see the whole thing all at once circling round the back. Each level has a set amount of enemies visible from the start, barring the occasional wave-based area, and once dispatched you head on to the next ring to do it again. The fun part comes from the number of ways to take out the different types of critters in each stage, with an arsenal that can be regularly switched up as you find new and different guns plus a Mario-style enemy stomp that’s got a few power-up options of its own. In semi-roguelike fashion each new run begins from the start, while dying means you get to put the earnings from the latest attempt into getting a little bit stronger for the next round. There’s a good feeling of progression with a skill tree that branches off in four directions offering a decent set of choices, plus an ever-growing arsenal to spice up future runs as well.
Orbital Bullet has been in Early Access for a bit under a year now and as of today it’s graduated to full release. New to the game are the final level plus pixel-art cut scenes adding in the story, not to mention new skills, weapons, and even a new mechanic that overcharges a skill to have a game-changing wrinkle during the run. There’s a huge amount of creative run and gun shooting waiting in the release version of Orbital Bullet and the release trailer below tries to show as much explosive action as will fit. Every projectile and beam in the game violates the laws of physics, but it doesn’t have to make sense to burn a giant hole in the countless minions of Dread Corp.
