
Some items give bonuses to certain skills while some actually give drawbacks for using it. In action RPG style, you can equip new engines, weapons, boosters, armour, CPU, and more to improve the stats of your ship. Completeing a mission allows you to come home with new gear to try out. The typical power ups that are common in games like these are replaced with loot. So in the end, dying could slowly set you back if you are unlucky. There is also chances of gear breaking if you trigger Auto Retreat. But don't think Auto Retreat saves you from any setbacks. Without Auto Retreat, once your life hits 0, you actually lose your whole ship. It lets you retreat the mission once your ship’s life hits 0 but losing all your loot in the process. This is one of your passive skills and is equipped at the start. There is one skill though that I have yet refused to remove since I started playing the game – Automatic Retreat. It's a welcomed challenge to find that perfect balance of offense and defense before a sortie. It becomes more of the player finding if the skills he/she have equipped will complement my current ship and gear. Some skills are offensive while some are passive. Some skills can absorb certain enemy fire for a few seconds, while one skill can slow down time, making escape possible. But they have skills that help with those difficult situations.


Is the bullet hell as crazy as certain shmup classics? That's open for discussion, but I found myself bracing for impact instead of finding a pattern in hopes to lessen the blow. It’s definitely a bullet hell shooter in its own right. That alone will give you the idea that this will be no cakewalk. As you start the game, you are given a choice of playing the game on “Forgiving Mode” or “Normal Mode”.

It’s a predictable little story but the real fun in Drifting Lands is the hunt for better loot and to overcome the game’s tougher challenges. odd jobs will come your way from them and it will always lead you into destroying corporate-made machines for cash. You play as one of the pilots in a ship called the Ark, a space station that houses mercenaries and other characters.
