Xotic was originally released in late 2011. I had a look around but could not find any existing website for the game or company. They exist, but the domains are now expired.

I'd describe the game as a Speed Run FPS Collectathon. For people who don't like speedruns. A slower pace to play and fight in with a non critical timer, the only real challenge to put to yourself is where you compete against scores with your friends. Colour, Vibrancy, Score popups, and a variety of things to find make the game really fun to play.

There were several issues getting the game running. The first being that it will stall on initialising leaderboards when the game loads. The second is that the mouse is not properly captured to the game if running in window mode. In fact, I had to hide the taskbar and run at full-screen so that I did not accidentally open a context menu on the taskbar or desktop in the middle of combat.

The game starts with a basic tutorial, move around with WASD and aim with the mouse. Movement is deliberately slow and plodding, especially in the larger rooms. Thankfully the mouse aim can be sped up.

The basic aim of each level in the campaign is to clear it out of damage done by the enemy, called 'The Orb'. As the player you need to re-terraform the world and bring life back to it by destroying scab-plants with a weapon symbiotic to your body.

These scab plants are normally in clusters or long winding lines. Shooting one will cause a chain reaction as they all light up and the scab is removed. This racks up points, and drops glowing balls you can collect for more points.

Mobile enemies are also found in small numbers. These types run, duck and find cover as you try to attack them. It's a nice change from other games like this that just send wave after wave of mobs at you as it requires a little extra strategy.

They range from small little goblinoids that fire at you to larger shock troops. The variety depends on the world/level you are on and they are usually themed to where you are playing. There's also special stationary units that constantly spawn small bombers that home in on you with a limit to the amount that could be on screen at once. It was sometimes easier to draw them out and try to get them stuck in dead ends than to fight them and the spawner together.

There's also champion level enemies that are stronger than the usual ones. I didn't encounter any extra powers or tactics on them, nor did they look any different than others. They just required more hits to take down, before a "CHAMPION DEFEATED" sound would chime and popup text would display letting you know you defeated one.

There's also "Mega Brains" that must be destroyed to complete a level. These hover in various parts of the level and must be sought out. Many of them will also fire various bullets at you and as they can be somewhat hidden, or are simply high up in the level, they can take a fair bit of searching.

They have their own variety too. Some simply explore while others will split up into multiple parts and scoot quickly around the room to hide. If you've shot these from really high up you will want to pay attention to where they went.

Thankfully your HUD will have a red indicator on the crosshair telling you the direction of the closest enemy. Remember to look up, as it will not tell you height.

There's more to shooting too!

Scattered around the level are little energy crystals, usually floating in areas where you need to jump or fly to grab. Collecting more than 3 at once provides an additional bonus to your score.

The game is really based around as completing as many of these game types as possible. The HUD will show you if you have found every crystal, shot every scab, or destroyed every brain.

Bonus points at the end if you get them all.

More Bonus points if you get them all and return to a beacon before the timer runs out.

Points. More Points. Even MORE POINTS!!!

The levels appear to have a decent enough design that you can quickly find optimal ways to achieve all of this, and the game has enough variety to keep it entertaining for multiple playthroughs.

Points are a big point of the game as after completing a level you can check your score against any other players in your steam friends list who have completed the same level, and against a global leaderboard. Obviously starting out I did... Well I would not say badly, I could complete most in game missions I played but was not focusing on an optimised playthrough. Get 5 Stars? Great Job!

Honestly though... Get 1 Star? Good Job!

The game never feels like it is punishing you for not being perfect and you can play at your own pace if you want. As said the challenge is more towards other people who are playing.

As the levels progress, they start breaking up them into segments. You have to defeat all the enemies in a main room before you can turn a red door into green to progress. There's no real maze to this and all levels I played were fairly linear aside from a few bonus loot rooms.

Thankfully to aid you there is a variety of in game powerups. They can increase your health. Refill energy for your second stunner attack. Increase your speed. Allow a Triple Jump. Stop the timer countdown. And more!

They drop on enemy deaths and are collecting by walking through them. I never saw a time out on them, and I imagine pro players would leave them for use later while finding the best path through the level.

Along with the in game bonuses you can level up your weapon and player with experience gained form how well you completed the level. Some of these bonuses are just more powerful attacks for your basic and secondary weapon.

Which becomes odd as the game does not really tell you that you can switch what your primary weapon is. There's a small variety but to be honest I mostly stuck with the defaults.

Still, it is good that they are there! And I did really like the stun secondary weapon. Get close enough to a walking enemy and fire and they'll go into a stunned animation cry as lightning crackles around them allowing you to take them out. As the enemies do run and cover, you'll need to seek them out to effectively use it which gives a real satisfaction to pulling it off correctly.

Finally there's also a hologramatic pad. This allows you to throw up a small shield to protect yourself. Or use it as a platform to jump up on and grab or shoot high up objects. And in the outdoor levels, there's a lot of space to explore with them.

A "Slow Paced Speed Run" sounds like it should not work. And yet, it does.

The game's an explosion of colour and popups that rarely feels like it is getting in your way. It was quite fun running walking and jumping around the rooms finding all the objects and trying to get all 5 Stars for level targets.

If you like the idea of speed-run shooters but find them too much to play, or simply a want something colourful to play then Xotic is well worth a look.

Game Acquisition: Purchased on sale (Bundle Stars)
Platform Used: Steam
Tweet Thread: 1 - 2 April 2016
PC Used: Scorptec Venom 2009

OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7
Processor: 1.7 GHz Dual Core or better
Memory: 2 GB Ram
Hard Disk Space: 3.5 GB Available space
Video Card: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card (shader model 3)
DirectX®: 9.0c
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible