In the voyage of space, your team of salvage workers happen to run across a Derelict ship.

Derelict, an abandoned ship; or is it? Derelict is an action packed, shoot everything that moves until nothing moves sort of game, shoot first, think later.

Although the game is offered as a limited demo, it does offer plenty insight as to what the full version of the game offers to you. In the demo version you are placed in the firm boots of the female character whom you must aid in destruction. The full version also offers you the choice of a second male character.

Placed on board of the some what “bland” landscape of the ship you run through a quick assault course which pumps you with all the information and experience that you need when blasting the enemy. After this you are free to run about the ship and choose your first level, the levels are indicated by small teleports which either flash green to show entry or red for no entry. Once inside a level your character is landed straight in contact with the little green blobs known as aliens, coming in their hundreds your aim is to kill them all and the portals they appear from.

The artillery given is a huge machine gun which is very generously supplied with unlimited ammunition, and although the option to change weapon is not given to you there are plenty different packs offering different types of shooting techniques such as faster bullets and multi shoot.

Been a fan of shoot 'em up games I found this game quite entertaining as the difficulty I'd set wasn't very challenging so running about blasting aliens was for me, very amusing. After some time however the levels do seem to become very repetitive and seem to lack an actual point. A good factor to the game however is to try playing the levels by gradually increasing the difficulty and eventually to the hardest which becomes so insane that it's great fun.

I found that when close to an alien I was unable to shoot it dead and instead relied on melee attacks, this can somewhat drain your energy and seemed more of a glitch at times then an actual tactful technique. A single bullet from your super machine gun is quite enough to kill dead one of the aliens, but I did feel that once I'd killed a 1000 I didn't actually want to kill any more.

The visuals of the game for me, were quite impressive the animation of my character was sharp and 3D as a posed to the almost 2D animation of the ship itself. The speed that the game runs is accurate and the size of the bullets been almost the same size of the aliens they are shooting adds that bit of novelty and 'old school' charm to it.


The game saves your status on an automatic basis which is handy as you can always return to the game knowing that the last 100,000 aliens you blasted earlier are thankfully still dead.

There are only two music tracks which are played throughout the game which is really disappointing as these two songs are really good and help get in the 'shooting spirit', by adding more of these tracks I feel the game would have benefited greatly. One slight problem to do with the sound would be the noise a poor alien makes as its just been shot, its not so much the noise itself but the fact that every alien makes the same one, so after killing loads of them it grows very tedious.

Graphics:
The graphics are neither the worst, nor the best, the character in which you play as is crafted well and looks alert and convincing. The scene and enemy details however fall short and don't look half as good as they could have. The arcade theme presented throughout the game though provides a back bone to this problem, as the visuals didn't need to be stunning to make this game work well.


Sound:
Despite the odd glitch here and there, overall the sound comes across as impressive and the music helps you get involved with the fight, shame about the lack of content though.


Gameplay:
The game flows well and offers entertainment on a long term basis. I found the game fun to play, taking into account the negatives such as the some what repetitive gameplay in some aspects, I found it could have gone the extra mile to impress more. In a game for me I like to follow a solid story line and Derelict doesn't really have one, but for the gamers who hunt for high scores and stats then this one is definitely for you.


Concept:
The idea used in Derelict is fantastic, the story idea could be used on a much wider variation from film to console gaming etc. The main issue I felt was the lack of exploitation of the idea, as most levels were similar, more of a story line could have been included, but that's been picky.


Fun:
If this game excels in any category it's in this one. Derelict offers laugh after laugh and after extensive days of gameplay, it still offers this.

Overall:
Derelict is a good game, it has the potential to be a great game but certain areas made it impossible to believe that. Go try this game, I promise it will put a smile on your face just as it did mine, and if you like the demo enough then go ahead and buy it. In my opinion though with this one id take a free look at the demo first.