Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading. In this installment, we’re covering OTXOÂ by developer Lateralis Heavy Industries.
OTXO: (The Explanation)
OTXO (pronounced oh-cho) is a top-down, twin-stick shooter developed by Lateralis Heavy Industries and published by Super Rare Games. It takes inspiration from Hotline Miami and has some serious John Wick, the Matrix, and Doorkickers vibes too. I had the opportunity to play a demo of this game back in 2022 at the Super Rare Games booth at EGX. We instantly clicked with the gameplay back then and have been impatiently waiting for it to come to Switch since. Roll on to March 2024 and I finally have the full game in my hands.
The plot for OTXO follows a man on a train with his partner who picks up a mysterious mask that had been dropped by a stranger. The man picks up the mask and is suddenly urged to put it on his face. Everything around him goes black and when he comes to, he finds himself washed up on the beach of a strange place. Upon talking to one of the locals, the man learns that he is the new Otxo, which means wolf, and that if he wishes to escape this place, he must conquer the mansion where his partner has also been taken hostage. In order to conquer, the mansion though, Otxo is going to need guns. Lots of guns.
If you are familiar with twin-stick shooters, the general gameplay mechanics apply here as well. The left joystick is to move and the right joystick changes the direction your character faces as indicated by the on-screen reticle. The ZR button is used to fire weapons, and Y is to reload them. You can also throw and pick up weapons using the R button which you will be doing quite a lot during your time with OTXO.Â
The objective of OTXO is to clear the many floors inside the Mansion. Blow away all of the enemies on a floor to clear it and then move up to the next floor. It sounds simple enough but the enemies are very swift and possess quick reaction times. To counter this, Otxo can use an ability called focus (by pressing ZL), which slows down time temporarily so you can get the upper hand on your enemies. Focus can be used as much as required but it does take time to be fully charged. The fuller the charge, the longer focus will last. Another couple of tricks in Otxo’s arsenal is that he can dodge bullets by rolling underneath them and kick in doors. Enemies can’t breach locked doors so as long as you are careful in which doors you smash down, there is little chance of them sneaking up behind you.
Dialling back on the subject of weapons, there are many kinds of firearms that you can use. These range from pistols to shotguns, submachine guns to full on assault rifles and anything in between. You can only use one weapon at a time and you only have two magazines for each weapon: One that is already loaded into the weapon you are carrying and a single spare mag. The idea of the game is to constantly swap between weapons by discharging the one you have in your possession and then picking up whatever is closest that has been dropped by an enemy. Firefights can be pretty heated so you will always want to make sure you have plenty of bullets or at least a full mag before you press on into another room that could be full of enemies.
I think it goes without saying that OTXO is quite a violent and bloody game. Its black and white pixelated aesthetic may give you the impression that this game is not very graphic but blood splatters are very red and very real, and when fighting multiple enemies in the same room, the greyscale floors will be painted a deep red very quickly.
While the gameplay loop for OTXO is relatively simple, it is very addictive and offers plenty of replayability, thanks to the randomly generated floors that can make each run feel different every time. Although there are general themes to each set of floors before having to fight a boss, every run seems to offer new opportunities and can be vastly different depending on which weapons you use and what perks you activate when having a drink at the bar before during your run which I shall now go into more detail about.
At the start of each run and every now and again as you climb the floors of the Mansion, you will make a stop at the Rose Room, which has a bar where you can spend any coin you have earned by killing enemies. Each drink comes with a perk like increasing your focus time, extra magazines for weapons, recovering health from blood droplets, temporary invincibility, etc. The stock at the bar is rather limited and can be refresh by spending 100 coins. There is also a woman in the bar that can offer you more choice of drinks if you front up the cash to import them. On particular drink that I found helpful was the Goldeneye that allows you to see enemy health bars.
There are also a number of other friendly NPC’s that you can interact with when not shredding enemies with bullets like a nun that can influence the types of weapons that will appear during each run and a Mantis like character who is interested in any artifacts that you might find during your time in the Mansion.
If you are a fan of twin-stick shooters and action games, chances are you will get a kick out of OTXO. It may not be as colorful as Hotline Miami but it certainly as the adrenaline pumping action and the “just one more run!” feeling to keep you coming back for more and more.
OTXO: (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: Lateralis Heavy Industries
Publisher: Super Rare Games
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Action, Strategy, Fighting
No. of Players: 1 player
Release Date: March 28, 2024 (EU & NA)
Price: $14.99
File Size: 742 MB
Nintendo.com Listing
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