Ukraine-based solo developer, Yurii Nikshych, is back with his fourth title. With this one, he has blasted us into the future while throwing us back into the past. ‘Future Breach 64’ is a team-based shooter in which you command squads, and your job is to enter, clear, and extract by any means necessary.

Future Breach 64 is based in the future where you are in command of the Alpha & Beta squad. Your mission is to get taken to different locations via spaceship and you and your squad need to infiltrate, find the enemies and get them in custody whilst collecting special items like diamonds and coins.

Sometimes the enemies will try and play hardball and end up with lead in their heads and others will put their hands up with ease. You will work out quickly that the enemies that like shooting are like stormtroopers and can’t shoot. The gameplay did get a little repetitive very quickly with the same goal on each mission.

There was something satisfying about how clunky the controls were in this game with your basic movement controls which was all explained in the tutorial by the instructor, who was also a bit of a joker trying to get you to crouch and jump and then telling you those aren’t movements in the game which is iconic to that era of gaming.

I was impressed with how responsive the controls were in the game. I was super glad there was a legend on the left-hand side or I would have forgotten most of the controls when it came to calling in the drop ship or commanding the squad.

The audio frustrated me so much especially when it came to the voice commands it was a scratchy, distorted mess which made me want to mute the game just for how poor the audio was. The saving grace was how the guns sounded. I was impressed with the audio, don’t get me wrong it’s not something I want to listen to all day but I was impressed with the quality and how semi-realistic they sounded. I wish the developers had put more effort into the voice commands or removed them and had on-screen prompts to read which would have been more enjoyable.

The game’s graphics had that smooth, retro vibe you would expect from the Nintendo 64 era, with the clunky character models, complete with their blocky limbs and pixelated textures and horrible-looking face textures mixed with the animations which was a trip down memory lane. I kept asking myself if people would want to play games like this anymore but I was quickly reminded of the nostalgia.

The environmental graphics were much like the character models even with the different missions changing the environment it all had that same kind of feel to the missions. I was impressed with the gun models which seem a lot more textured and detailed than the rest of the game.

If you are looking for a trip down memory lane, this game is a nostalgic gem that captures the Nintendo 64 era of gaming with retro graphics and clunky movements. It’s perfect in short bursts if you want to kill some time, but it’s not the kind of game you will get lost in for hours. You can pick this game up for AUD 4.50 on the Steam Store, it’s a low-risk pick for anyone wanting to revisit the joys of past gaming.

Written by: Hayden Nelson