Odyssey reminds me a lot of the Amiga era games when stellar soundtracks saved a title from relative mediocrity. This title is a run of the mill space shooter. There’s a story behind it that takes it through four different worlds which creates a total of eight levels and an equal number of bosses to defeat.

There’s much to say about Odyssey audio-visuals, mainly because it does them so well. The graphics in the game are crisp and while the designs themselves are not terribly innovative (all resembling some form of spaceship or another) there are a total of thirty three different opponents you’ll encounter. Many of these opponents have different tricks and approaches. Some approach from behind. Some approach from the side. But the developers have also added timing to the different attack waves. One earlier one you’ll meet is a big ship that takes up roughly two fifths of the screen. It swings into the middle like a jackknife, unloads its weapons and swings away again.

You only get one life in Odyssey. Your ship, luckily, has a significant health meter so you’re able to take some hits before disintegrating into space dust. Upon death, however, you’re miraculously asked whether you want to continue. Thinking I would get a second chance, I was then transferred all the way back to the beginning of the level. No problem there except there’s no way to set how many lives you have. There’s no option to tweak the difficulty level either. My suggestion is for players to get the demo and see if they can hack it in the three minute trial period before purchasing.

Odyssey also lacks depth in features. Because there’s no difficulty level, there’s really no reason to go back and replay older levels. Furthermore, the power-ups you get are all within the game itself. You can’t customize your ship in between levels. There are no bonus ships to unlock and there aren’t any permanent changes you can make to enhance your ship. In short, there aren’t any avenues of progression to make the gameplay any different than your first time through.

Odyssey’s good fundamental base allows some of these flaws to slide -- but not all of them. The soundtrack, as I mentioned in the beginning, is reminiscent of the MOD based ones of the old days. It’s certainly the brightest and most polished spot of the entire game.

There really isn’t much else to Odyssey. The boss battles aren’t the most hectic I’ve seen. They’re definitely in the survivable range, even if there’s only one difficult mode. The game certainly isn’t a breeze: constantly pressing the fire button isn’t a strategy to get you to victory. All in all, it’s a by the books space shooter. Many of the elements lack punctuation and follow through to take it from something great to something spectacular. If you’re not looking for much else, though, Odyssey should be a pleasant sights and sound experience.

Ratings:
[07/10] Addictiveness
[13/20] Gameplay
[13/15] Graphics
[08/10] Interface/controls
[07/10] Program Size
[05/05] Sound
[05/05] Discreetness
[10/15] Learning Curve
[xx/xx] Multiplayer