Play Online: From The Black
Developer: Arkeus
Genre: Action, Shooter
Game Review
From The Black is a typical space bullet hell shooter was made for the Ludum Dare competition. It is an epic space battle in an effort to defend your home colonies from an onslaught of starships... The concept of space bullet hell shooter is not particularly new but From The Black manage to impress me with a refreshing return. The game itself is very well constructed and well polished which resulted in decent replayability and the story is somehow captivating too. All these are done in 48 hours worth of work, what more can you ask?
The upgrade system in From the Black is very extensive as you have three types of weapons to upgrade from. I really like how you can beat the story mode with bare minimum upgrades but not in story+ and story++. Even with max upgrade the ship is relatively weak in my opinion. Or I might just suck this, although I did complete some of the old bullet hell back in the days.
The gameplay was smooth and I liked the twist in "secret mode" which actually I only knew about it after reading the comments. Maybe could add a hint after one has completed the game? To activate the secret mode, simply avoid attacking any enemies. After you've dodged the first few waves, it will most likely trigger automatically. You can start shooting now. What you will be shooting is warp cannon shots that transport them to another sector. I was hoping to upgrade the wormhole cannon once it is enabled in the secret mode. I think I asked too much. Haha! ^^
From The Black Guide
List of Powerups in From The Black
Energy shield (yellow outside, green inside)- Gives temporary invulnerability.
Time distortion (purple) - Temporarily slows time for enemies and their bullets, normal time for you and your shots.
Bullet nullification (Blue) - Stops all enemy shots which vanish shortly after.
Shrapnel burst (Red band around the outside, yellow inside) - A burst of many small shots dealing moderate damage.
List of Enemy in From The Black
Swarmer
Blue - Flies slowly toward you.
Red - Flies toward you and fires at a slow rate.
Green - Remains in place then "dashes" to your location before firing a burst.
Orange - It has the fastest movement speed, actively chases your ship.
Zoner
Purple - Flies either vertically or horizontally while occasionally firing a spread. Fires more often when close to your ship.
Yellow - Flies around, then fires in a spiral when it stops.
Sniper - Does not move, fires a dense two-shot spread from any range.
Other
Disc - Flies slowly around the map.
Lists of Upgrades in From The Black
Strike Gun
Damage: Increases the damage of your main gun. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Speed: Increases the firing rate of your main gun. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Spread: Increases the number of bullets fired by your main gun. 100 / 200 / 300
Spreader
Damage: Increases the damage of your spreader bullet. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Speed: Increases the firing rate of your spreader bullet. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Spread: Increases the number of bullets fired by your spreader bullet. 100 / 200
Missiles
Damage: Increases the damage of your missiles. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Speed: Increases the firing rate of your missiles. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50
Sharpnel: Increases the amount of sharpnel on missile contact. 100 / 200 / 300
Ship Upgrades
Health: Increases the amount of hits your ship can take. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
Speed: Increases the speed of your ship. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
Magnet: Attracts nearby metals to your ship. 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100
Solution to From The Black
For the upgrades, I would highly recommend you to max all spreader and ship upgrades first. Once you maxed those, you can safely max out missile and strike gun in any order. Why? Spreader is the only weapon with high attacking speed and decent damage. This is a must weapon in typical space bullet hell shooter. Then ship upgrades are for survivability... The longer you survive, the more metals you gather. Story+ & Story++ are quite difficult, the only way to beat the game is to avoid getting hit. Try to stay near a Energy Shield Powerup, it will protect you from any incoming damage. ^^
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