Astromenace is a vertical scrolling shooter of the likes of the classic shot ‘em up like Xenon2 Megablaster.
The concept behind the game is fairly simple and all focused on piloting a space ship and fighting swarms of alien invaders.
The game is made by the Ukrainian software house Viewizard and is released as freeware for the Linux platform. A demo version is also available for Windows.
INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS → 10
After downloading a 34 or so tar.bz2 file from this page it’s just enough to unzip it and double click on the bin in order to start the game.
For those who prefer to add the game to the apt repository a simple procedure is explained.
Minimum requirements:
Linux OS
Pentium 1+ GHz
128 MB RAM
3D video accelerator with 32+ MB on board
Runtime dependencies:
libSDL (ver 1.2.6+), libopenal (ver 1.0+), libalut (ver 1.0+), libogg (ver 1.1+), libvorbis (ver 1.1+), libvorbisfile (ver 1.1+), libjpeg (ver 6b+).
GAMEPLAY FUN → 8
Astromenace is a great fun. The alien ships are huge in number and relentless in their effort to attack the human homeland (bosses included). The alien swarms remember well those of the arcade games of the 80’ as they seem much more like automated and stupid drones than manoeuvred by an intelligent form of life. However on the human side of the war the game offers interesting features. There are something like 20 different ships that can be purchased and upgraded with a whole stock of equipments and weaponry.
GRAPHICS APPEAL → 9
The overall graphic design is neat. The ships, equipments, aliens and environment are all carefully designed and will make you remember of several sci-fi movies and video games. Astromenace is all 3D accelerated graphics which provides a whole range of special effects that make the game one of the most graphically polished of the Linux games landscape.
SOUND DELIGHT → 7
The sound and music are just fine and provide the right atmosphere for the game
STORY ENCHANTMENT → 6
There’s no much to say here. As I told before Astromenace aim is not that of charming the gamer with its refined and complicated story. For this reason I give it a 6.
BONUS POINTS → 8
It’s possible to modify the game quite easily by editing an xml file. Viewizard provides a guide to help the user handling with the scripts.
OVERALL SCORE → 8
In the video below you can have a look at the game play and graphics
Wiz And Chips 