Solstice Chronicles: MIA Review

The Basics:

Solstice Chronicles: MIA is a twin stick shooter set during a futuristic zombie outbreak on the surface of Mars. You assume the role of an abandoned Marine, left to fend for himself with nothing but his wits, a boatload of guns and a sassy robot drone named Saffron. The game supports local, couch co-op with both survival and campaign modes.

The Story and Flow:

The story for Solstice Chronicles: MIA is pretty straightforward. After a zombie outbreak, all of humanity left Earth and moved to Mars, where, of course, another zombie outbreak promptly occurs. In the chaos, you end up getting left behind enemy lines, surrounded by a host of alien-Martian-zombie-mutants. You are a man having a bad day.

The “tutorial” levels sets the stage beautifully for the game. You move and run while aiming and firing various weapons, and before long, you’re introduced to four combat suits: the Assault suit, for melee attacks and powered-up weapons, the Demolition suit, for high-end skill customization and utilization, the Hellfire suit, a tank with a flamethrower welded onto it, and the Terminator suit, which deals with high-class skills, but also grows weaker the more you use them.

In addition to a host of weapons like shotguns, pistols, etc., your other primary resource is Saffron, your droid companion. As you progress, you’ll acquire multiple upgrades for Saffron, and knowing when and where to use her skills is key to surviving his hell-scape. Activating shields, taunting enemies, or sending her to scout and retrieve ammo is crucial to your survival. Luckily, everything can be switched around in the loadout screen between levels or after you die, adding a great tactical layer to the combat.

What keeps Soltice Chronicles: MIA from being a solid but run-of-the-mill twin stick shooter, is the threat-meter. The more you use Saffron’s skills and wreak havoc with your weapons, the higher your “threat” goes up and the harder the game gets, in the form of extra enemies, faster enemy respawn, etc. Knowing when to unleash hell and when to scoot through an area gives the game a fun but demanding tactical balance.

Things aren’t quite as smooth in the game’s few boss encounters. You almost always run out of ammunition during these fights, so you’ll be using Saffron’s retrieve ammo skill quite a bit, and running is not an option- these freaks have to die. The bosses themselves are varied, but there is a certain “rinse and repeat” element that I wish wasn’t the case.

Graphics & Sound:

The art style for this game is a cross between high-industrial sci-fi and dark apocalyptic grunge. Every stage takes advantage of the darkness, making you rely on the little atmospheric light provided, or your flashlight. Unfortunately, a lot of the time I could barely see what was happening in or out of combat, which was a bummer. I realize that this is part of the game’s aesthetic, but sometimes it was tough to effectively fight the horde. It’s not game-breaking, but a little more brightness would have improved the fun factor for me.

The sounds effects are your standard, "bang-bang" fare, but the the SFX are well-suited to their respective armaments and the monsters groan and scream convincingly. Saffron and your Marine turn in good voice-performances, and Saffron is especially fun to listen to, as she delivers a lot of her lines with some snark.