Nucleus review (PlayStation 3)

You already know how this game plays before I’ve even told you. It’s a static screen shooter that lets you move with the left analogue stick and fire in different directions by pointing the right stick. Taking place within the human body, you destroy viruses (virii?), bacteria and general infections (culminating in the titular Nucleus (Nucleii?)), in a game that seems to question whether it’s making the most of the PlayStation 3’s ‘Cell’ processor. I’m sorry, I just had to get the cell joke out of the way early.

Available for a fiver from the store, Nucleus only gives you the necessary options with an added local multiplayer thrown in for good measure. On starting the game you can assault one of three levels, coincidentally targeted at three different difficulty levels, fortunately training you in the intricacies of the gameplay before sending you up for the slaughter. Each level unlocks branches that connect to new levels that can be tackled in any order, thankfully allowing you to progress in other directions if you are finding a level too tricky.

Immune system

As a lone remote unit (assuming you are not playing Coop), fighting infections basically involves shooting bacteria that randomly spawns in your arena (rather than multiplying). Normal human cells are also present in each area that naturally clump together and can be moved around and manipulated by your craft bumping into them, or using your tractor beam. These can be used to hide behind, crush bacteria or even destroyed to release proteins. Proteins can also be found when you destroy bacteria and other enemies (more on them later), and they serve to gradually fill your Protein Bomb bar, that when filled allows up to three bombs which can wipe out a whole load of bacteria.

The bar appears next to your percentile health bar that resets after each level, and opposite the level progress bar that serves to inform you how well you are doing, ticking down if it is a ‘survive for a certain period of time’ level or showing the remaining health of your big bad boss Nucleus of the level. Your simple blasty weapon can also be upgraded by picking up pulsing energy pods that seemingly randomly appear (but will probably trigger a whole load more bacteria appearing).

What’s going on inside?

Naturally the bacteria seem to be your most prevalent threat, but swiftly added into the mix are an additional series of enemies designed to test and annoy you. Viruses soon make an appearance, and seem to be slightly more intelligent than the ever advancing bacterial hoards. They can shoot at you, chipping away at your health bar, and when destroyed split into two bacteria. Get a bit further through the game and these viruses can join with other viruses to become super-viruses, that shoot faster, and look a whole lot more scary than the rest, taking more damage and reverting back to their original two viruses when destroyed. Finally you have the Nucleus (or Nucleii in some levels).

The titular enemy is the source of the infection in this body, and cannot be destroyed by regular ammunition, no matter how upgraded it becomes. The only way to make a dent in the Nucleus’ health is to shoot it with these protein bombs that home into their target whenever a nucleus is present. The Nucleus levels become a race to collect as much protein as possible as quickly as possible, since they become gradually more violent and dangerous, eventually chasing you down in an almost unbeatable frenzy. To add insult to injury, they fire out spores that become bacteria when they touch a normal cell.

Twists and turns

Each level does manage to remain unique because of the slowly shifting style and variety of objectives for each one. Blood flow can also be a factor, so certain levels will have a pulsing force pushing everything in one direction to add to your problems, and still cells which are solid boundaries that cannot be moved, fired through and certainly don’t allow protein bombs through. Due to the nature of the ever improving timed enemies and targets, the games levels and difficulty do start relatively simply and quickly explode in a frantic rush to avoid enemies for long enough to collect protein, amass points or achieve whatever must be achieved.

That said, it does seem rather simplistic as a basic twin stick shooter. Online features are limited to informing you where in the world you have managed to place yourself with the number of points earned. Some levels have given me scores in the thousands, and there have even been a few that I’ve been able to come top of the online leaderboard in the world (or at least I was when I managed it… maybe not now). I’m obviously a skilled gamer, but some sections do seem far too difficult even in the second of the three difficulty sections to justify progression, especially in this modern day gaming world where you expect to be able to see the whole of the game, and not be stuck for months trying to get to level 5.

A helping hand

Locally, you can play multiplayer with a friend, which basically plonks an extra remote unit on screen, and doesn’t up the difficulty any further. While sharing health and protein bombs is a gameplay aspect that we are happy to accept, and it certainly makes the game more fun, it adds little further than another reason to play through the game (although it’s even easier to raise the co-op rankings, I guess).

It’s certainly not the most incredible PS3 experience out to date, and if you’re going to buy just one PSN game, I’d say unequivocally go for Super Stardust HD, but if you’re a fan of that kind of shooter and fancy a challenge, Nucleus remains a unique, challenging, entertaining if simplistic shooter. Fortunately, you can try the demo starter pack for free before committing, and that’s clearly worth a shot.