Hellfront: Honeymoon is out now and an odd name for a strategy shooter
You catch more horrible alien bugs with honey
Hellfront: Honeymoon isn't exactly what I was expecting from The Journey Down developers SkyGoblin, but looks like a fun bit of arcade twin-stick shootery for up to four (local) players. Launched today, it's a single-screen party shooter/strategy hybrid where players are simultaneously trying to bump off each other while placing turrets and automated troop factories to harass their neighbours. There's a single player/co-op campaign as well with leaderboards for each level, and I've seen some fun speedruns being shared on the Twittosphere. The launch trailer is below.
While fast and arcadey, there looks to be a decent bit of depth to Hellfront. In all modes, players have unlimited respawns, so long as they have a single base structure left. Players are fighting over Honeypot hexes on the map, which spit out neutral alien units. You can also call down barracks or turret structures to plug these holes. Turrets are self-explanatory, and barracks structures constantly spit out soldiers which can be directed to attack where you're aiming. Some maps contain breakable walls to open up alternate paths, or alien eggs which spawn critters if disturbed, but this is a party game so keeps it simple.
The solo and co-op modes are basic 'clear the map as fast as possible' fare, with star ratings based on how quickly and efficiently it's done, but the meat and potatoes of the game is deathmatch. Same rules, multiple players, last one standing wins. Matches look to never be more than a couple minutes long - it's not quite as frenetic as Towerfall or Samurai Gunn, but it's not too far from that. A little less twitchy too, thanks to the strategic angle. Sadly there's no online multiplayer (I think larger maps with similar mechanics would be great for that), but this looks like a good one if you've got a few analogue controllers and buddies to hand.
Hellfront: Honeymoon is out now on Steam for £7.21/€8.49/$8.49. The game is published by Thunderful.