Dead End City is a vertical-scrolling shooter from Pixel Licker LLC. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world where cars have cannons and you’re on a mission to wipe out a band of criminals hellbent on destroying what remains of humanity. It has a real Mad Max vibe due to the combative cars and desert setting. It’s available on Steam now.
As with any shmup, you take on waves of enemies and beat bosses but there are a few gameplay mechanics that help Dead End City stand out. Firstly, there are no lives or continues. Instead, you have a fuel gauge that continuously depletes and once empty ends the game. You keep it topped up by collecting gas canisters that fallen enemies drop.
This mechanic works well and adds a little strategy to proceedings. It creates a great risk-reward situation where you know you must dash over the other side of the screen to collect fuel while also putting yourself in danger or missing out on points. The fuel gauge also depletes when you take damage so there is peril everywhere you turn.
The fuel gauge also acts as a super meter of sorts. Keep the fuel topped up at maximum and you enter a super mode that gives you extra damage and a wider shot burst. There are times when you’re just scrabbling to stay alive and others when you bask in the glory of your powerful super mode.
The scoring system is interesting in Dead End City. You have a multiplier that slowly builds from one through nine and the increase is determined by how well you did against the last wave. Not taking damage, collecting lots of fuel and taking out every enemy will see a big increase in your score multiplier.
Once you hit the maximum, enemies start to drop medals as well as fuel and your score will begin to increase dramatically. Keeping the multiplier at maximum is where the real skill in the game starts to show itself. High-score junkies will love the balance of keeping your fuel high and the multiplier ticking over.
The graphics and sound are great in Dead End City, the cartoony post-apocalyptic setting looks great and the variety in the enemies and levels keeps it fresh. There are also lots of extras to unlock including different vehicles to use, these vary slightly, mostly in the secondary weapon front but it’s cool that you have beat your rivals to be able to use their cars yourself.
Overall, Dead End City is a fun and polished shooter that is refreshingly different to the usual space shmups. The difficulty and unlockables will keep you going for a long while and the scoring system gives lots of replayability. This one may be a bit hard for newbies to the genre but veterans will love the challenge.
