Bullet hell games are nothing new; we’ve seen them with games like Binding of Isaac (my personal favorite), Enter the Gungeon, Exit the Gungeon, Furi, Cuphead, and now we have a new game called Godstrike, that aims to shake things up a bit. Godstrike is a boss rush bullet hell shooter that is published by Freedom Games and developed by OverPowered Team, and is available on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. The biggest difference between Godstrike and other bullet hell shooters is that you don’t actually have a health bar; your health is the time you have left to beat each boss, and every time you get damaged, you have less time. So, exactly how hard is this bullet hell shooter, Godstrike? Full disclosure here: I did get a review copy of this game for free, but as always, you’re getting as honest a review as I can give.
It’s Hard
Throughout my time playing Godstrike I raged, quit, went back, raged some more, and repeated this process until I beat the game’s tutorial. Yes, I am apparently that bad at bullet hell shooters. I completed every ending boss of Binding of Isaac: Rebirth with The Lost; in case you don’t know about The Lost, it is a secret character in Binding of Isaac: Rebirth that is unlocked after dying consecutively with certain characters with no other deaths, or in Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, by dying in a sacrifice room while holding an item called Missing Poster. Anyway, what’s special about The Lost is that it starts with no health and can’t gain health through any means, which means that it will die from a single hit. However, there are items that allow you to circumvent this, like the Holy Mantle and any items that grant you extra lives, but for the most part if you get hit, you die. I somehow managed to beat every single major ending boss while using The Lost, and Godstrike is still harder than that. Luckily, there’s a couple of different modes that you can choose in Godstrike, including a traditional story mode, an arcade mode, as well as a challenge mode, so let’s check each one out!
Story Mode
“In Godstrike you are the embodiment of Talaal, the last of God’s seven masks. Talaal finds her bearer just in time to fight against its siblings who hunt her in an attempt to absorb the power within the mask. The bearer is now trapped in a war that does not belong to her, a cycle that seems impossible to break.” In my experience, Story Mode is definitely super hard, especially earlier on when you don’t have very many abilities unlocked. I still haven’t been able to make it past the game’s second boss (after the tutorial), though I did make it past the first stage, so…progress?
Arcade Mode
While the game still isn’t easy on arcade mode, it’s definitely a lot less difficult, because you’ve got all of the 40+ abilities automatically unlocked, so it’s a lot of help when trying to fight these bosses. This is easily my favorite mode, and what I will most likely be playing exclusively as I work up my skill and learn each boss inside and out. However, you still need to be careful when choosing your abilities as each ability costs a specific amount of your precious time, so be warned not to overdo it or you’ll still be in some serious trouble.
Challenge Modes
So, there’s actually two different challenge modes within Godstrike: Daily Challenge and Challenge Mode. These offer various challenges like “-1 Passive Ability” and other alike challenges, which make the game all the more challenging – hence “Challenge” mode, I suppose. With the Daily Challenge, it looks like you can only fail it once and then you’re locked out of doing it until it resets the next day. This is a pretty cool concept, and one that definitely keeps people playing the game. I, myself, will absolutely not be attempting this for quite some time until I can get good at the game and beat maybe more than one or two bosses.
So, what’s my final verdict on Godstrike? I love it. I hate it. It’s a classic bullet hell that combines epic abilities with fast-paced gameplay and provides an exceptional challenge for those that are itching for pain. While I haven’t actually been able to beat the game yet, and I doubt I ever will, it’s a game that I find myself coming back to over and over to see if I’ve improved at all since my last attempts. OverPowered Team did a fantastic job with Godstrike…I just hope that I can beat the game before I break my controller. (If you’re on PC, the game does recommend you play with a controller, and I found that between keyboard/mouse and an Xbox controller, the controller does feel a lot better!)
Godstrike is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch for $14.99!
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