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Hi, welcome to ManaPool.co.uk's review of Plain Sight
In Plain Sight you play a tiny little ninja robot in space
killing other tiny little space ninja robots
The main goal of the game is to gain more energy than anybody else
but in order to do so you have to blow yourself up
Every time you successfully kill another player
with your trusty katana
you steal the Energy that is stored inside them
Every time you gain more Energy, your taillight changes colour
and the more Energy you collect, the warmer this colour becomes
Your ninja will also grow in size when you gain Energy
which increases your speed and your power
but it will also cause all the players to come after you instead
because then killing you will give them all the Energy you've gathered so far
Collecting this Energy is only part of the game, though
because in order to keep all the points you have collected
you have to self-destruct
After you detonate,
all of the points you've attained so far will be banked
and only then will they count towards the score board
After you've detonated you can respawn with a single Energy point
ready to start the whole cycle of life over
Of course there are a few twists to this whole concept
First of all,
if you successfully kill multiple opponents in succession without dying
you'll gain a score Multiplier
On top of that
when you self-destruct, if any opponents are caught in your explosion
you'll gain an additional Multiplier
Once you've collected a good amount of Energy and a sweet Multiplier
but somebody kills you before you manage to detonate
they'll steal all of your points but they won't steal your Multiplier
If the thief doesn't self-destruct in the meantime
You do have a decent chance of regaining your lost points
if you manage to kill them again after your respawn
Killing 2 or 3 opponents at a time and then detonating can be even more profitable than stealing a massive amount of Energy
in one go from someone
when you take the Multipliers into account
As well as earning you a rank on the score board
points also coint as EXPerience Points
which can then be used to upgrade your ninja robot
Every time you die of self-destruct you're given the option to either respawn or upgrade
There are three groups of upgrades or Perks as they are known
Green Perks enhance your robot's movement, while red and blue respectively increase your
offensive and defensive abilities
Each group has three different Perks which you can upgrade, and each of those have three levels
of effectiveness
All level one Perks cost five EXP Points
level two costs ten, and
level three costs twenty
As well as these Perks
there are also so called mega Perks which require all Perks in the respective groups to be purchased
before they become available
The cost thirty EXP each and we'll give you an incredible offensive, defensive
or mobile enhancement
There's absolutely no downside to obtaining all Perks
but this is quite hard to do unless you're a lot better than your opponents
If you do you want to try this, you should be aware that you lose your Perks after every round
Plain Sight also offers something called Persistent Perks, however
While playing you might sometimes notice falling stars on the playing field
Collecting these stars will grant you one Energy point
but it will additionally grant you one Star
which you can use to buy Persistent Perks
There are nine different Persistent Perks, and you can choose up to three before you start the game
These Persistent Perks can grant you new abilities which each have a cooldown
These range from creating safety zones to creating black holes
and they can have game changing effects if they're used properly
The abilities and Persistent Perks you choose depend entirely on your play style
and each game mode might call for a different setup
Plain Sight offers five different modes
including the well-known concepts of free-for-all Death Match
Team Death Match and Capture The Flag
Another game mode is Lighten Up in which your goal is not solely collecting Energy, but actually
making the biggest explosion specific area of the map
This area lights up for a set amount of time
While you steal as much Energy as you can
After the timer expires
the player whoe manages to make the largest explosion will gain a point on the score board
The player with the most points will of course win the game
The final game mode is a Many-versus-One game mode
Where one player takes on the role of
BOTZILLA!
The other players play stealthy ninja's who have a special stealth upgrade
This upgrade removes the taillight from the ninja's, so they can move around more sneakily
in order to bring Botzilla down to size
They also have high-movement Perks
and a super-shield which grants one Energy every time they successfully block
Botzilla's attack
This Energy allows them to self-destruct which can assist in killing Botzilla
Botzilla has some nice upgrade himself, though
He has a large flaming katana, which
causes him to instantly lock on to the little ninja's
There's no charge time for his dash attack
Additionally, Botzilla has multiple lives equal to twice the amount of players in the game
Players can only score points while being Botzilla
and they need to bank these points by self- destructing before they run out of all their lives
Plain Sight is an extremely casual game which you can drop in and out of any time you like
without any problems
It's the type of game you can launch for a fifteen minute break of the more serious things
in life
while you enjoy some colourful, gravity-defying ninja madness
The graphics are quite cartoon-like, but in a good way
In fact, the game doesn't look bad at all. It's not actually meant to look realistic
The gameplay is decent, and the online multiplayer mode will keep you happy for hours
The five game modes can suit your mood
But other than this there's not that much the game has to offer
It's not built around a story, which does seriously add to the casual feel of the game
But it doesn't really do much good to its replay value
There are a few things which bothered me while playing Plain Sight
One of them was the disorientated feeling you would sometimes get when things start going
a little bit too fast for you
Since all the objects in space have their own gravitational pull
it's sometimes quite hard to keep track of where you're going when you get flung around into orbit
You do need good hand-eye coordination skills if you want to remain cool in a situation like this
I found that zooming out some more does reduce the confusion
as you get a better overview of where you're going
Unfortunately it also reduces the immersion because the sound effects also die down when the camera backs off
Another thing I found quite annoying is that you lose all your collected stars
for Persistent Perks
if you decide to change your screen name on the developers website
So make sure you choose your nickname wisely!
So what's the verdict?
Well, for a mere ten dollars, or eight pounds
Plain Sight is a very enjoyable in-and-out game
and you literally do get the *** for your buck
Once you get used to the gameplay, you'll be hooked
Thank you for watching
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