There are solo developers out there of several indie games and I always end up scratching my head wondering how they pulled off such incredible work single-handedly. Remote Life is definitely one of those gems that will take you by surprise, especially if you love side-scrolling 2D shooters like R-Type and similar experiences. After launching on Windows PC back in October 2019 with great success and bathing in the swarms of positive reviews, it now gets a chance to shine on the Xbox family of consoles. Developed by Next Game Level and Ratalaika Games S.L. and retailing at £14.99, is this fast-paced space shooter worth your time, money and patience? There’s only one way to find out, keep reading!

Introduction

I’ve played a lot of titles in this genre over the years and only the odd one has grabbed me and been truly memorable. I adore the duck and weave aspect of dodging incoming projectiles whilst trying to clear the screen of enemies. Remote Life is packing a real punch in terms of content with 16 different missions with unique, compelling bosses and a whole feast of different weapons at your disposal. As always I would highly recommend that you start with the tutorial and warm-up missions before diving in head first. Here you’ll absorb and learn how to direct your gunfire, how to negotiate obstacles and use those all-important life-saving special attacks.

Once you dive into the main missions in the core of the game, you’ll quickly realise there is an intensely challenging difficulty to everything on offer. Don’t let this put you off though, the addictive gameplay loop will draw you in and have you striving to complete each level. You play as pilot John Leone who has been drafted in to be the hero, think Top Gun but in space. You must do what you can to defeat the erratic and dangerous alien invasion in an effort to save the universe. Now whilst the storyline is a little too predictable and slightly cheesy, these games aren’t really there to be played for a deep narrative.

Gameplay

Most side-scrolling shooters aren’t rocket science to understand and the premise here is simple enough. Traverse through each mission and defeat whatever crosses your path and survive to enter the portal. Now you’d think the portal would be the end of the run wouldn’t you? Think again, each level has gargantuan uniquely constructed bosses waiting to slay you down. You have to be cautious throughout your run and ensure that you have as many lives as possible to go into the end fight. Head in there with just one life and you have a death wish, fly in with a maximum of four and you stand a much better chance. The gameplay is super punishing, if your ship sustains any damage whatsoever then a life is knocked off. Lose all of your hearts and then you’ll be granted with the screen of complete death, game over!

Remote Life settles itself nicely amongst the greats of the genre as the mechanics are nailed on. You can fire in any direction with the huge array of weapons on offer which can be switched between using the LB buttons. Some of these will have limited ammo to work through whereas others will be unlimited. Eventually, you’ll learn what you want to collect and use to your advantage, weapons are found scattered throughout and are picked up by simply flying into them. It was enjoyable to flip through the weapons and learn when to save specific gunfire for certain situations such as mass swarms of enemies in confined areas. Most are satisfying to use with a few providing a real wow factor with maximum devastation to whatever is in your path.

Graphics & Audio

Remote Life has a high level of detail in all of the sixteen levels on offer. With a vast array of different and unique aliens, critters, enemies and random beings. Animations are silky smooth with the picture clarity remaining crystal clear even with a stupendous amount kicking off on screen. With an impressive 60fps on Xbox Series X and super fast loading times, it makes playing this game an absolute breeze, especially when you need to make several attempts at each level as I did. Hats off to the developer with the design of each of the missions, the craft of the environments would be impressive for an entire indie team, but the fact a one-man band created this, is nothing short of incredible. Everything has a feel, aura and atmosphere of being claustrophobic and tightly knit, creating a real challenge for the player to discover and test their patience. The only criticism was that some of the enemies had a similar colour shade to some of the backdrops which made them really tricky to spot. This was a minor annoyance which can be quickly forgotten with the randomness of the quick pacing.

Audio is equally as great with high adrenaline music to compliment the fast and furious gameplay. Sound effects are also on point and I really admired things like metal cylinders clamping together. With surround sound headphones on, it really felt as if these giant chunks of metal were about to snap shut on my spaceship if I wasn’t careful. Bring with this a wave of gunfire, explosions and projectiles all erupting across the screen, it is a huge feather in the game’s cap in the sound department.

In Conclusion

Remote Life was an adventure I absolutely adored from start to finish. To think a one-man team created this entire package is just insane and he should be absolutely proud of the end product. If you’re a side-scrolling shooter junkie then it is an absolute must-buy. There is a good 7-8 hours of action here for the more experienced crowd whereas the more casual gamer may take slightly longer to tick everything off. Whilst most of the missions took me several attempts in order to make it to the end, it never felt like a chore and always had me saying in my head, just one more go. There isn’t much the game does wrong to be fair although I would have liked to maybe see a scoring system with leaderboard tracking. Having done some research, there is a sequel planned to launch later this year and I enjoyed Remote Life so much that I will absolutely be investing in a follow-up. Don’t let this indie gem pass you by, it is worth your investment and definitely one of the indie highlights of 2022 so far.