(DUX 1.5 is a slightly updated version of DUX, just as the name would suggest. Since I have not played the original I am not going to compare the two, but rather share some thoughts on DUX 1.5 as a game completely of its own. What I do know is different is the balance and the soundtrack.)
DUX 1.5 is a horizontal shoot ’em up developed by Hucast and released on Dreamcast in 2013, meaning it is one of those games that got released long after the system was discontinued. It plays as one would expect although a bit slow and it is definitely on the easy side. This is something I do not necessarily write off as negative as the shoot ’em up genre has plenty of sadistically difficult games as it is. I managed to 1CC it the same day I first fired it up and it quite frankly did not need anything more than patience.
"It plays as one would expect although a bit slow and it is definitely on the easy side."
The visuals are extremely pretty. Not technically impressive, but the color scheme... Oh, god, the color scheme. It is right up my alley with lots of pastelle colors and bright white objects. It runs buttery smooth and sounds pretty nice as well. The soundtrack is not something I will remember, but it is fitting to the levels and it feels taken care of. The controls are not complicated, but there are quite some things to remember. We have our standard shot (one button for regular shots and one for auto), a charge shot, bullet soaking and pod launch. The ship has a pod in front of it, sort of like in R-Type, which can protect the ship from most kinds of enemy fire. This pod can be used as is, launched forward to cause destruction and also soak up bullets on screen to clear a path or get the player out of a pinch. It all works, but I feel since we have an extremely powerful charge shot there is really no point in having the launching pod as well. It seems like two attacks that does pretty much the same. I ended up ignoring the pod launch during my time with the game.
"the only real challenge in reaching the end is paying attention through long, slow scrolling levels"
All in all I want to recommend DUX 1.5 to everyone that likes a more slow paced shooter with pretty visuals (without being a cute ’em up) and that has a lot of patience, because the only real challenge in reaching the end is paying attention through long, slow scrolling levels.
Immediately after beating DUX 1.5 I popped in the Redux: Dark Matters disc and was expecting nothing less than an amazing successor/remake of the formula. Perfected gameplay and impressive visuals together in perfect harmony and so on and so forth. What I got was garbage. The resolution was very strange and the result of a rushed decision was a game that looked so blurry it made me feel nauseous.
