Hands on with Boomerang X
As an Australian, when I saw the debut trailer for Boomerang X, my first thought was, that is not a Boomerang, but now having played the game, the shape of the weapon is the last thing on my mind, because there is just so much more to like.
The game is telling a story in parts, what all the parts are, I couldn’t tell you, but so far I know that you wake up on a beach, washed up from a storm that caused your boat to sink. After discovering the mysterious/oddly shaped the game just pushes you on, no worries about what the island is, it is time to start throwing. My access was provided on PC and though the game is coming to Switch as well, I will stick with PC controls for the sake of easy explanations, basically the game lets you throw the Boomerang X with the left mouse button, press, and hold it and you can charge up your throw, letting it go farther, before it returns. Should you see it bouncing off walls and all over the place, you can press the right mouse button to pull it back to you, if the entire system sounds simple, then you are right, it is, but that is what makes it great.
With the basics in hand, the game threw the first challenge at me, a room for clearing waves of enemies, but there was a little twist, I didn’t have to take out every enemy in a wave, just the ones marked. The first two waves I didn’t realise this and cleared them all out and while they were not particularly challenging, learning that I didn’t have to take them all down was welcome. This became the game, moving from one challenge location to the next and occasionally getting a powerup along the way. This is also where I fell out with the game, the overall lack of things to do, sure getting the powerups is fine, but there had to be more than that, or so I kept hoping but it seemed I was to be let down.
The powerups are actually quite fun, your arsenal does increase the further you progress and trust me, some encounters make full use of it, but some powerups can be a little tricky to activate. The first non-boomerang related power you get, allows you to throw out a wave of energy, which can clear out all enemies in a small radius near you, perfect for taking out those pesky little guys that love to swarm you. My issue with this power is that in order to have it charged and ready to be used, you must take out two or more enemies with a single throw of your boomerang, which is not difficult when they are slow moving foes, but when they are fast or teleport, it can become quite a challenge, this is where the second powerup comes into play.
Once I had this one, I could slow time, whilst holding left-shift and charging up my throw, not only does it allow you time to plan your shot, although it is only a brief window, it also lets you ensure you can get multiples at once. While this might seem like a handy powerup, it can work against you, should you be stuck behind an object, whilst time is slow, it takes some understanding of when the best time to use it might actually be, but for the most part, it is fun. Then there are powerups to let you zoom to wherever your thrown boomerang actually is, zip line shots and more and while all the powerups are fun, it still doesn’t detract from the lack of things to do.
I mentioned before that I fell out with the game and that was purely because it was bland and it is that on two levels, the first is that there is nothing to do outside of combat, except for the occasional powerup puzzle, which are not hard. The second is that apart from combat, you do nothing else, except move towards the next encounter and sure, some folks might like that type of game, I myself, want more. You wake up on an unknown island and find a mysterious X shaped boomerang, along with a talking centipede and dead cricket looking critters, along with hordes of enemies made from goo. While there is a chance that there is a lot more to the game than what I played, after an hour though, I really couldn’t see where that might be, if they are keeping things hidden from us, so we don’t spoil it for others, sure, but I doubt that is the case.
My time with Boomerang X was fun, if flawed, while the combat is intense, insane and incredibly fun, it also the only thing the game has going for it. The visuals are something I am down with, the game looks amazing, I just want to see more story and while the game doesn’t have a firm release date yet, I am thinking it is also pretty close to done, so I doubt things will change to much. For now, watch and see what happens, it could be an awesome speed-running game, if nothing else.
