The Collider 2 Review

There are plenty of games that test players’ reaction times – whether it’s platformers, “endless runners”, or bullet hell shoot-em-ups. The appeal of the arcade gameplay mixed with increasingly difficult yet simple premise seems unshakeable. And while the potential audience can be limited, the genre continues to produce enjoyable experiences. One such example is the newly released The Collider 2 from Shortbreak Studios, an internal team of Techland. Improving on the very basic concept of the original, this sequel gives fans a chance to try their reactions and hand-eye coordination by guiding a spaceship through increasingly difficult obstacle courses.

The premise is a very simple one. You’re a space ship pilot, seemingly trying to destroy a large enemy vessel. That’s about all the setup that is needed to get you through the 50+ mission campaign of flying down a lengthy corridor while trying to avoid crashing into things. Each of the missions lasts under a minute, and features one of three objectives; race against the clock, destroy targets, or collect artifacts. The first objective is self-explanatory, and the other two are quite straightforward – collecting artifacts simply means flying near them, while destroying floating objects simply requires you aim at them as the shooting is done automatically. There is a fourth occasional mission type where you are chasing a sentry that’s capable of attacking you.

In order to progress through the campaign, you need to complete missions in a linear order. You are not required to collect all items or shoot all objects in order to complete a mission – but this will affect how many of the three stars you’ll get. There are also six different sectors, and to unlock a new sector you need a certain number of total stars. This is a fairly standard design of gating progress, but it also introduces common potential pitfalls. Players will eventually reach their skill ceiling and will need to start going back through previous missions to earn more stars in order to unlock the next sector. This can be frustrating and some players may never reach the final levels – but given the lack of a story, that’s not as big a deal as in some other games.

There’s a good chance you may actually improve your early runs however, thanks to a gradual difficulty slope allowing the extra practice to perfect those earlier, easier levels. You could also get some upgrades using coins, the game’s currency that’s collected during races and also awarded for completing missions. There are six ships, each unlocked for purchase at the same time you unlock a new sector in the campaign – the missions are restricted to specific ship, however. The ships have two basic stats, shield regeneration and boost duration; the more expensive the ship, the better these stats, and they can be further increased. Players can also use coins to improve the duration of powerups that you pick up during a mission, or to buy a new color for the vessel. These upgrades remain with you regardless of what ship you choose. The powerups themselves range from increased shield capacity that let you survive colliding with an obstacle, to higher range of collecting coins.

The gameplay premise is simple, challenging, and will test your reactions. The entirety of The Collider 2 sees you flying down a tunnel-like vent inside the enemy vessel, trying to complete one of the three objectives mentioned earlier. As you fly, you’ll collect powerups and coins, but there are also a multitude of obstacles in your way, and you may not touch them or the walls, if you are to succeed. These obstacles are walls with all kinds of openings – sometimes just one, sometimes multiple; sometimes with plenty of space, other times only enough for you to barely squeeze into. Things start off easy – your ship flies relatively slowly, the openings are large and there is plenty of distance to the next obstacle. The shields will let you continue even after one or two collisions.

But the difficulty ramps up relatively quickly. The obstacles begin rotating, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, and sometimes in irregular directions. The openings begin to appear on opposite ends of the walls that are very close together. There are sections when the tunnel begins to close and you must boost in order to make it through in time. The boost mechanic is also required to succeed in timed missions, but the catch is that there is a cooldown, and boosting too much will explode your ship. Using a mouse or controller, players must maneuver their way through these obstacle courses, and thanks to the game’s great sense of speed, things do get rather tough but remain enjoyable and it’s quick to try again. There are sensitivity and deadzone calibrations to tweak the input to your liking.

Besides the campaign, there is Survival mode. Here, players attempt to see how far they can get in a mission that increases in speed and difficulty very quickly. Survival mode also offers leaderboards to compare against friends or global players. The mode runs as a weekly challenge, letting participants try their best to set a high score for 7 days until the leaderboards reset. At the end of the challenge, prizes are awarded, though they seem quite miniscule and certainly not the main reason to try your hand at the mode. There aren’t many people setting scores in the early days of release, and lasting just a few minutes in Survival mode will put you into the top 200. Doing well in this mode provides a nice boost to your profile level, which increases as you play through the missions and boosts your score multiplier in addition to extra coins.

The Collider 2 is a nice enough looking game, with good color variety and clearly indicated dangers. That’s not to say the game doesn’t try to mess with your eyes. In addition to its breakneck speed, the walls of the tunnel you’re flying in will often change color and textures for seemingly no reason other than to mess with your vision. The game supports VR, and while it wasn’t tested in the scope of this review, it’s likely to be quite nauseating for certain players. Sound design is minimalistic and light techno music is fitting.

Shortbreak Studios have set out to create a proper sequel to The Collider, and they have done just that. While the original had a feel of a cheaper concept game, this follow up is a proper dodge-em-up experience with a fitting $10 price tag. Players that enjoy testing their reactions of maneuvering around barriers will find The Collider 2 hits the right notes. Decent presentation, challenging and brief missions, and Endless mode should keep fans of the genre satisfied and coming back for more.