Review: Solomon's Keep

Have you ever been in one of those days, where you really don't wanna do what you have to, and just like to wander around looking for what to do next? Well, today is one of those days to me.

As I was bored to no end, I looked over at TA's forums to see what I could find, what game I could get and play, something interesting to keep me entertained for a bit. I found this topic about this game, the title? Majorly unappealing, but hell, I was bored, so I went in. The Result? Fantastic.

Solomon's Keep is, in essence, a Dual Stick Shooter, and of those, there are many in the store. What keeps this game fresh is the implementation of a funny storyline (You are a Wizard student sent on a suicidal mission as your final test), which is told in a very cool way, along with RPG elements and a diverse cast of enemies and items.

As you start, you are presented with 3 wizards, a guide, a merchant (sells equips) and a magical one (sells exp or skills to your liking) and a key, should you want to ever go back there from your venture into the castle of the evil Solomon.

Once you enter the castle, you are greeted by skeletons, and archer skeletons, much in the like of Catacombs. But unlike that game, here the enemies actually get every time more diverse, stronger (at least in terms of defense, since I do my best to not get hit, after all, I am only a magician) and different kinds. It gets to a point that ever so many levels, you get to fight a really cool boss that drops tons of money and a really nice item.

Did I just say Item? Yes I sure did, this game also counts with equipment implementation, you can equip 2 rings and a staff to help you fight the forces of Salomon, and if that were not all, those equipments can also come in their different presentations, Normal, Magic, Rare and Epic, which you get from buying, defeating bosses and in the various money filled chests you find all over the levels (why do bad guys ALWAYS leave all that treasure laying around? Beats me, but that's good for you).

Is that all? Errr, not really, no. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are RPG elements in the game, that means, you level up. And each time you level up you can choose to upgrade one of three randomly shown to you options from the different skills you get throughout the game. There are 3 main "missiles", with many upgrades to them and also specials with screen filling damage, not to forget speed, mana and health upgrades.

All that... for .99, at least until April 11th. The game did freeze on me once though, but its autosave system makes it so that it doesn't really matter, so forget about anything you're doing now and just go buy this awesome and cheap game.