"Succeeds as a complement to surreal films like The Matrix that make you second-guess trusting your computer." - Dualshockers.com "You can’t help but notice how pretty The Network is in its simplicity & it’s a beautiful thing to witness'' - Dualshockers.com "A game quite unusual & The Network is a beautiful discovery" - GameSideStory.com The Network takes classic arena top-down shooting and adds a twist, you never fire a bullet. Collect packets and direct them into nodes while the AI is on your tail. Level up and grab more packets as you bring the fight to the AI. The Network is a total immersion experience and has a fully integrated story including an unforgettable ending. The Network is a memorable experience thick with atmosphere and flush with style. Dive inside a digital world were nothing is as it seems and discover the truth behind The Network. Key features: 20+ levels 3 modes Unique art style Total immersion game play A new twist on classic
Overall, looking away from the issues with this game, it was enjoyable to play. The music was actually pretty nice, which for me is a thumbs up because I generally don't like that type of music.
The gameplay was also okay. It's simple and easy to get into. The controls felt pretty smooth as well. Automatic saving after every level (while the levels only take a few minutes each) also meant that you can pick up and put down the game easily whenever you want to kill some time.
However, the game is not without its flaws. There are several things that could have been done better.
- As mentioned in another review, the text speed could have been faster or a way to skip text would've been nice, since text goes rather slow and you always have to wait for it before proceeding.
- There are also levels where you need to need to wander around the level and look at a number. The game however doesn't explain to you that you need to type in the number - for example in the first level of this type, you need to press "8". I noticed several comments saying that they couldn't get past this level cause they don't know what to do. These levels feel strange during play, but do make sense once you reach the end of the game.
- Also, when pressing escape to pause the game, the pause menu would only appear some of the time - most of the time the game simply froze until you pressed escape again to resume play.
- Some sort of animation/rotation to the player ship would've made its movement feel more realistic, rather than being a static image in the middle of the screen, with the rest of the game moving around it.
- More options, at least being able to set the resolution, would've also been good.
In all, these issues make the game feel like a high school student's class project. I rate this game a 6 - above average - because I did enjoy playing it, but I feel that the games flaws hurt the experience a bit. With some improvements and polish though, this game could have been great.