The gaming world is littered with twin-stick shooters, so when you try to introduce a new title into the genre you really need an interesting “twist” to the fundamental mechanics to set it apart from the rest. Curved Space takes that notion quite literally with classic twin-stick shooting action that takes place in space on curving, twisting environments mathletes fondly refer to as Möbius strips. These twisty levels are set in space with some truly stunning backdrops and provide the perfect setting for some epic space battles, as you fight off countless swarms of spider-bots and other space bugs with a variety of powerful and upgradable space weapons.
The core gameplay is very much a standard twin-stick execution with fast and fluid combat as you navigate these crazy levels blasting away at enemies while moving around the winding curved surfaces, often with disorienting shifts in perspective as you climb walls or even flip the level upside down when you crawl to the other side. New weapons, power-ups, and other collectibles are scattered about that will keep you competitive with the increasing ranks and power of new swarms and some huge boss battles.
What really sets the game apart is the level design, not just the twisting architecture but the Tron-like ambience and futuristic design that incorporate a lot of flashy lighting and neon accents. Weapon effects are awesome with fire and electricity and disintegrating creatures all over the place. The way the levels move around a static camera view is really interesting and helps to limit motion sickness, but it’s still a possibility, especially when entire levels flip when you crawl off the edge. The game is in constant motion as you are always avoiding batches of spiders and other insect-style creatures that come at you from all directions. There is a rather steep progression of difficulty that kicks in after only a few levels and it never lets up.
Curved Space offers up a few slick features like the lash attack where you can tether to an energy node to create this electric cable you can then drag around touching enemies to electrify and stun them as you drain their energy. This also plays into the dash attack where you can rush and ram into enemies for instant kills and health boosts. Effective combat leads to combos, insane amounts of combos and bonus points that are limited only by your skill and execution. If I had to compare this type of action to any other game it would be DOOM Eternal just in the way you are in constant motion, always on the attack, chaining kill after kill while just trying to stay alive.
There are plenty of ways to play Curved Space starting with the campaign mode; a multi-branching narrative where you play an energy harvester fighting off a galactic spider invasion. Your choices will steer the game towards one of three possible outcomes, as you fight your way across the galaxy through numerous stages of intense combat. Arena mode taps into the campaign to create 60+ randomized challenges that will log your scores on the leaderboards. Survival mode is basically a fight-until-you-die challenge with you facing off against endless waves while Endless mode takes it one step further with waves of random challenges combined with new objective-based gameplay.
And to keep you coming back every day there is the Daily Run where you get one chance per day to set a high score for the leaderboards. Those looking for an even greater challenge can check out the harder difficulty settings and optional game modifiers like permadeath. There are six levels of difficulty, each with their own leaderboards.
We’ve come a long way since 1982’s Robotron 2084 when it comes to twin-stick shooters. Curved Space really showcases some stunning visuals, challenging combat, and an awesome synthwave soundtrack (also sold separately or as part of a bundle) that fuels the thrilling action. The sound effects are great and the voice work is really good. The game scales nicely to a variety of PC’s, and my RTX3080 had no problems running this at 4K, 60fps with max settings. There are plenty of options to dial in the best performance for your PC as well as adjusting the camera for optimal gameplay.
If you love twin-stick shooters and don’t mind a few hundred spiders crawling around your screen then you’ll definitely want to check out Curved Space. There is so much content and so many weapons and abilities that no two levels will ever play the same, which will keep things fresh as you explore all three campaign branches. If you’re still not sure then check out the demo that will give you a firsthand taste of what it’s like to be the galaxy’s most awesome exterminator.
