Keep in mind that the game is still in Early Access,so don't expect a lot from it.

First of all this game is amazing and addictive,the really good beat music in the background really adds to it,it's a good time killer and the voxel technology makes this experience 10x better.The whole environment around you is destroyable. Your goal in this one is to kill all the enemies in every stage and score the most points.

The game features a Stats option,by leveling up your character from killing aliens you gain point that you can than use to upgrade your character,increase his health,speed,armor,stength,and many more.You also unlock various perks that can help you trough the game.


- Really good soundtracks (dubstep,electronic)
- Character selection
- Character upgrade system
- Decent visuals
- Nice artstyle
- Greatly detailed stages,good lighting and colors
- Voxel technology that makes everything destructible and adds a lot of particles
- Decent number of weapon types
- Decent number of enemies
- Random drop system (xp multiplier,shied,weapons,and more)


- Game can be a bit too hard as the levels go on
- You need a pretty decent PC to run it,because the particle effects are demanding
- Some enemies are going trough the walls in some stages

(If i find any more downsides or anything to the game i'll update my review)

P.S. The game has an early tech demo version over at Gamejolt if you want to try it out before buying it,it doesn't have a lot of the features that the full version has,but it's worth a try.

Conclusion:
The game is really fun,you can enjoy trying to beat your or other people's highscore,or just have fun destroying stuff,it's completely up to you.The game needs some tweaks here and there,but for the moment it's pretty good in my opinion.
If you are looking for a game with some good music in the background,and where you kill lots of enemies while the nice environment around you is slowly fading away from all that destrucion,than it's a game for you. :)
If you are deciding to buy it,have fun and game on. :D

Final Score: 9/10

Nothing I enjoy more than having a nice relaxing evening playing a mindless twin stick shooter, plowing through waves of creatures, and building up that old school high score.. (brought back memories of my days plugging quarters into the arcade, trying to beat some over the top high score.) When I first saw Critical Annihilation my first thought was this looks awesome.. After playing the game for a few hours I said yes, this game is awesome. Voxel based games have really taken off the last few years... While some may take issue with the art style and game play, I love it.

Gameplay -

Typical twin stick shooter game play, (pretty sure they are still considered twin stick on the PC, anyway) the environment is billed as being totally destructible, which is great, but on almost all the levels you'll be too busy avoiding bullets, zombies, spiders and everything else the game throws at you... In all that mayhem, you'll likely forget all about the Environment being destructible. From what I saw stuff got destroyed after a while, but this isn't a game about causing massive destruction, but about killing lots of enemies. What sets Critical Annihilation apart from the other twin stickers out there.... along with the above-mentioned environment destruction, the game has some rpg elements as well, with various stats you can increase as you level up. The game appears to have 3 classes which are unique from each other, Soldier, Engineer and Scout, each class has their own advantages and disadvantages.. The Soldier has the best base combat stats, but no regen or shields.. The Engineer has ok combat stats but starts with a high shield, the Scout has the weakest combat stats but starts off with high regen.

The stages are fairly large (they are contained to a large round play space), nice amount of room to kite them around (kiting is the act of running around in large circles while the enemies lump together allowing you to pick them off one by one) very common tactic in twin shooters. Although you can employ the kiting tactic to get an advantage, it starts being far less effective the higher in levels you get. The last stage I played had I could have sworn 50 - 60 enemies on it. The difficult really ramps up, with each stage you finish.

CA has 2 main game modes, Campaign, and Survival.. Campaign's and the survival modes are the same, with the major difference being, the campaign will eventually have you wiping out the enemies and facing a boss battle prior to moving onto the next area. While survival is as you may have guessed trying to stay alive for as long as humanly possible... (After about 3 minutes or so survival seems to get very very hairy, and dare I say very fun.). A third game mode is grayed out, being an early access title I'll make the leap this mode is currently being worked on, or I didn't finish the game far enough along to unlock it.

pro's
Fun and addictive game play
Decent music,
very challenging,
high intensity

con's
some minor glitches with enemies
occasional hit detection failures

[Summation]
I'd recommend this fun title, have yourself some mindless fun, slaying all manners of creatures, level up your characters, chew bubblegum and kick butts. Just remember when you fail (which you will) dust yourself off and try again. Just remember, winners never quit!!!

This game is very fun to play.
The image is nice and colorful.
The difficulty increases drasticly through the levels and that's great.
I highly recommand it !

Critical Annihilation is an isometric twin-stick shooter with a voxel graphic style. Not only the graphics are made out of voxels, but the game itself is based upon a voxel engine, thus allowing for destructible environments and some pretty good looking particle and lighting effects when there is an explosion. It is also worth noting that the can be somewhat demanding on your computer, especially during big explosions due to all the particles flying and the big craters that appear on the ground. That said, the game already has a very detailed options menu so if you run into trouble running the game, you can do some tweaking and it will most likely run fine.

One thing I must say is that I’m not really one to play much of these top down survival shooters. Still, I was atracted by its rather unique look and was surprised that I found myself enjoying the gameplay as much as I did.

One other thing that surprised me was the soundtrack. I’m not much of a listener to this type of electronic music (dubstep?) but I must say that after playing the game for a few hours, it started feeling quite catchy and it kind of grew on me.

By looking at the game trailer and screenshots you can clearly guess what the game is all about, mowing down hordes of enemies. That said, I’m going to try to explain some other mechanics that the game has.

First and foremost, you have three different modes, one of which is not available at the moment. You have your campaign mode, that currently has 15 different missions, which allows you to unlock powerups, perks, weapons and the specific mission maps for survival mode. Survival mode, as you probably imagined, is just survive as long as you can. Last but by no means least, “classic survival” mode, which is unavailable at the moment, is basically survival mode but with no powerups and you select your weapon at the beginning, atleast according to its description. As with any other game of this genre, Critical Annihilation also features online highscore leaderboards.

Now, where the game gets interesting, atleast for me, is with the ability to choose different characters and improve them, unlock perks and different abilities. As of right now, you can choose between three different classes, Soldier, Engineer and Scout. Each one of them has their own ups and downs and you should try each one of them out and see which one better suits your playstyle. That said, the character progression is fast paced, every now and then you’ll be able to spend points to upgrade your stats (Life, Accuracy, Speed, Stamina, Regeneration and Shield). You’ll also be able to choose different perks and abilities for your current character.

Perks are basically passive abilities, such as increased life regeneration and the ability to make enemy bullets move slower. Abilities on the other hand are divided into two categories, offensive and defensive abilities. While playing you can activate your offensive ability with “Q” and your defensive ability with “E”. Examples of offensive abilities are things such as a sentry turret or an airstrike, while defensive abilties can be something like a plasma shield that makes you invulnerable for a short period of time or the ability to slow down time.

After killing them, some enemies will drop either weapons or powerups. Weapons range from your standard assault rifle, shotgun, laser pulse rifle, grenade launcher and minigun. The minigun particularly is really satisfying to use, since it completely obliterates waves of enemies. Powerups can be simple things such as medkits or life saving items such as nukes, turrets and rocket launchers. The nukes are my favourite because they cause a huge explosion and leave a hole on the ground.

One thing I also found out to be really helpful was the ability to jump, which is rather unusal for a game like this. Jumping allows you to shoot rockets above the enemies at the front so that the explosion hits the middle of a crowd, thus causing more casualties.



To sum things up, I do have some minor things that I think need to be adressed. One is the fact that the game has no story whatsoever. This is not necessarily a bad thing for some people, especially people who are die hard fans of this genre, but others like myself might find this to be a negative point.

One other very slight complaint that I have is the fact that the the sprinting animation is very hard to distinguish from the standard move animation. I believe that having a different animation for sprinting would allow new players to distinguish the two a little bit better. Maybe I’m just nitpicking.

Still, after looking at the forums, I can say that the developer is open and takes into consideration the ideas and suggestions given by the players and the community, so it wouldn’t surprise me if these small issues I have with the game would be adressed.

In the end, the game is pretty simple, and people looking for an in-depth shooter might not find that here. That said, this game is ideal for people who just want to have some mindless fun and have the satisfaction of shooting endless hordes of enemies in the face and, as I mentioned, the game has its fair share of perks, weapons and power ups, so if you’re into that sort of thing, I think you’ll find plenty of enjoyment here.

OMG! JUST 10/10! Look the art, love the gameplay, and I love the music! All it needs now is a good multiplayer system! :D

I recommend, only issue is the crosshairs are easy to lose in all the mayhem, would like an update that made the crosshairs more visible in combat.

Good Game.

10/10 would recommend.

Jk. It's a 8/10. Merely for the fact that it gets into HORDES of enemies. To the point where if you stop moving for a second, you're dead. Also, the levels are SO long because of that. Because you're constantly running around taking pot shots. But it is an amazing game with a blood-pumping soundtrack. Please buy it if you enjoy destroying hordes of awesome voxel enemies, with a brutal soundtrack to get you pumped!!

This game is insanely fun. You'de have to be crazy to think this game is bad. Its fast paced shoot em up fun with great character progression and really cool perks. The developers are great too. I asked a question on the forums and got a helpful answer within ten minutes. Oh did i mention the amazeing weapons that create even more amazing explosions. One thing to keep in mind though, you need a good pc to play this. The physics are demanding. Please do yourself a favor and buy this amazing addictive game!!!!

An amazing top-down shooter with a lifetime's worth of explosions, blood, and glorious voxel-based destruction!

great game, a lot of fun but it can get hard!