ExZeus: The Complete Collection

Genre: Compilation / On-Rails Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This review has been directly sponsored by a kind donation from Jamie and His Cats. Thanks again for your generous contribution!)

ExZeus: The Complete Collection is a Compilation release containing two On-Rail Shooters: ExZeus, originally released in Arcades in 2003 and later ported to numerous other platforms in Europe but only making it to America in a 2007 Wii release, and ExZeus 2, released on mobile devices in 2012, with different versions of the game releasing on PC in 2014 and 2017. The games both have players piloting a mech to fight an extraterrestrial threat.

The presentation in these games are dated in a nostalgic sorta’ way, with ExZeus looking very much like a low-budget 3D game from the PlayStation 2 era, and ExZeus 2 looking like an Xbox 360 update that is slightly better graphically but also somewhat lacking in charm. Both games have some pretty terrible sound effects blasted so loud that if there’s any music here I can’t really tell you about it because the sound effects drown them out. Oh, and also the wheel screeching noise from the motorcycle segments of ExZeus 2 is particularly bad.

For the gameplay, we’ll start with ExZeus, which is a pretty standard On-Rails Shooter in the vein of Star Fox, except it’s absolutely terrible. The game forces you to button-mash to shoot, aiming is horrible, it’s difficult to judge how far enemies and their attacks are from you making it harder to dodge them. It’s a mess.

ExZeus 2 has all of these same problems, and while its movement and aiming feel a bit better, it frequently forces players to go into on-foot or vehicle gameplay segments that control so atrociously poorly that on balance I would argue this game is even worse than its predecessor.

The ExZeus games do at least exude an old-school arcade-style charm, but that’s just about the only thing these games have going for them. They control poorly, don’t look or sound great, and the gameplay here just isn’t fun. Unless you somehow have nostalgia for these games leftover from a prior release, I recommend you stay far away from ExZeus: The Complete Collection.

tl;dr – ExZeus: The Complete Collection is a Compilation of two On-Rails Shooters, ExZeus and ExZeus 2, that have you piloting a mech fighter against an extraterrestrial threat. There’s some old-school charm here, but overall these game have horrible controls and a dated presentation. I recommend you skip this one.

Grade: D+

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