Bullet-hell shooters have been around since the early days of arcades and so have I. My history and love of this genre knows no bounds, and Raiden has always been one of my favorites, so when Raiden V: Director’s Cut released on PC I knew I had to play it. But I was completely unprepared for the scope, scale, and visual complexity of this latest installment in a franchise celebrating its 25th anniversary.
What looks like a deceptively simple shooter during the opening moments quickly turns into a strategic masterpiece that will test every fiber of your reflexive awareness. Raiden V: Director’s Cut offers a fairly lengthy 8-chapter Story mode as well as Boss Mission – not to be confused with the absent Boss Rush – where you fight story bosses under special circumstances for a place on the leaderboards. There is also a fantastic drop-in co-op mode that welcomes a second shooter into the fray – not that you really need any more confusion when it comes to the hellish spray of bullets that overwhelms the screen from start to finish.
The first thing you’ll need to do is pick from three unique ships, each with their own stats to fit with your gaming style, as well as choosing your three weapon types. These choices are locked in for the duration of the game, providing some unique opportunities for future replayability if you like to experiment with the various levels of power and destructive patterns. The Vulcan cannon offers a tradition spray of ammo in varied V-shaped patterns while the purple Plasma weapon is a great fire-and-forget lock-on weapon that sacrifices damage for consistent hits. The blue Laser offers the most destructive firepower provided you can keep the energy beam connected to the target, and all three weapons have unique sub-weapon abilities.
Bombs are a great way to clear the screen when things get too hectic, and the new Cheer Attack is a fun, albeit all-too brief way to temporarily boost your firepower with creative sub-weapon boosts. One of the more challenging aspects of Raiden V: Director’s Cut is that you cannot change weapons whenever you want, but rather must wait for these glowing icons to appear that cycle orange/blue/purple, and whatever color it is when you collect it will switch to that weapon. The icons appear 2-3 times per level, and since some weapons work better for some parts of some levels (especially boss fights), the game does get a bit easier on future replays when you know what’s coming and what you need to be most effective.
The visuals are outstanding with the classic 3:4 aspect screen bordered by a clean and informative HUD that you rarely have time to appreciate. On the left you have real-time weapon status as well as context-sensitive pop-up tips for the current mission. The right panel has a video display showing faces of whoever is talking, and a multi-colored text window displays a full transcript of all dialogue. If you are playing alone, the bottom-right has a radar display showing your ship and enemy positions, or if you are playing co-op, you’ll see Player 2’s weapons.
The colors and crisp clean text were much appreciated, at least during those brief moments when I had the time to enjoy them. Most of the time you are focused on the center screen blazing with all sorts of special effects and super-cool scenery skimming by at silky-smooth framerates. The action seamlessly moves between 2D and 3D perspectives and the range of colors is dazzling. It’s actually a slick visual style that intentionally looks dated, yet still does things not possible back in the arcade days. My only minor issues with visuals were with some instances where the game was actually too bright, and things started to get lost in oversaturation. There were also several instances where incoming bullets shared the same color as things you were supposed to collect.
Raiden V: Director’s Cut packs a powerful sonic punch with awesome music but be warned that you will need to go into your audio settings and change up the mix if you want to even hope to hear the non-stop narration. Between the weapons fire and the techno/rock concert taking place, the story and dialogue can easily get lost unless you have it set to twice the level of all the rest. Then again, once you have played and enjoyed the story, you can just as easily go back and turn the voices down/off and rock out. I will say the voice acting was impressive, both in the quality and the sheer amount of dialogue being delivered.
Whether you play alone, co-op, or both, Raiden V: Director’s Cut is a cutting-edge shooter with a deceptively retro look that is easy to play and challenging to master. I enjoyed the infinite lives that allowed me to complete the story on my first attempt, although each time you “continue” your score resets, so don’t expect any leaderboard fame until you can finish all eight chapters on a single set of lives. I did miss a traditional Boss Rush mode, especially considering how intensely awesome the bosses were in this game, but the Boss Mission will have to do. Bringing a friend along for the ride is a great shared experience, and there are all sorts of replayability options for Achievements and Trading Cards, as well as unlocking a cool gallery of artwork. Despite the potential hours of arcade bliss to be had, I’m guessing the $35 price tag will scare off the more casual players.
The Raiden franchise may be 25 years old but Raiden V: Director’s Cut is definitive proof that this insane bullet-hell shooter can clearly compete with the more contemporary games of the genre. It’s a white-knuckle, jaw-dropping, yelling-at-the-screen experience from ship selection to closing credits, and a game no shooter fan should consider skipping, even if you have to wait for a sale.
