I remember playing top-down shooters as a kid. They were almost always extremely challenging and filled the screen with bullets and projectiles that you had to carefully dodge. Dogos, developed by OPQAM, is a throwback to the classic top-down shooter formula but with a few twists.
In Dogos, the Earth has been invaded by an alien race and you play as a pilot named Desmond Phoenix who is piloting a prototype ship that combines human and alien technology. The story is also told in journal segments between levels. These give the player some insight into what’s been going on in the world, who the aliens are and who Desmond is. Dogos has some interesting lore and it was good that the developer included it in short segments during loading screens between levels. The only issue I had with the journals was the voice acting of Desmond being a bit monotone.
The gameplay seems to be your standard top-down shooter but what makes Dogos stand out is the open level design, camera control and different attack types. The game starts off with an on-rails segment that reminded me of flying through the trench of the death star in Star Wars. You use the right analog stick to change the direction of your ship. I thought this was odd at first but after the short segment the game opens up. Instead of being on rails and forced to move forward, you have control of your ship and the direction it is aiming in. The left analog stick moves the ship up, down, left or right in combination with the camera controls of the right analog stick which turn the aircraft. This provides a modern shooter setup for a retro style game. Each level has objectives but each one is laid out in an open-ended way. You are not forced to follow a direct path and can use a map to see where your objectives are and how to get to them. I found this refreshing from the typical formula because it allows the player freedom to move about not on rails and explore the levels.
Your ship has two types of attacks that can be customized as you unlock them playing the game. Your first primary attack is a laser that shoots forward like any top down shooter and is used to destroy other aircrafts. The second attack is a ground attack. This is used to destroy tanks, boats and other vehicles on the ground. You will have to use the appropriate attack for the type of vehicle you are fighting. I liked this idea however, I did find aiming some of the ground-based weapons with the spinning camera to be a bit frustrating. There is a reticule on the screen but it never seemed accurate to me and I would have to adjust it to be slightly below or above an enemy in order to hit it. I did not have this issue with the primary laser attack though. The third attack is a special item attack that you can pick up throughout the levels. An example of this are homing missiles. These are limited in use so the player should be strategic when using their special attacks.
Visually, Dogos looks very good with nicely detailed ships and gorgeous backgrounds. They aren’t anything mind-blowing but they are certainly a step up from your average indie title these days. The visuals serve the game well but can be repetitive in enemy types and level design. Most of the levels look very similar, for example, there’s a forest level that starts the game off. I must have played three or four levels with the exact same assets as the first one. This adds a bit of repetition to the game as I wish the levels were a bit more diverse.
Along with the repetitive levels is the game’s music. The music is not bad, it actually features some interesting drum loops and synthesizers and at first I rather enjoyed it. The problem is that there are only a couple songs in the game so you hear the same track over and over and over again. I commend the developer for the style of the tracks I just suggest that there be a bit more variety in their next release because the songs grow stale very quickly.
A staple of these types of games is the brutally challenging difficulty. The good thing about Dogos is that there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from so the game is approachable by gamers of all different skill sets. The easiest difficulty level features unlimited lives and reduced damage from enemy attacks. On the harder difficulties the game can be very challenging as you have limited lives and enemies do a lot more damage making dodging projectiles the key to survival.
Summary
Dogos is a fun top-down shooter with customizable difficulty levels and some interesting mechanics. The ability to move your ship and the camera added another layer not typically found in a retro-style game like this. The levels and music are repetitive but if you can look past that, there is a fun old-school game here that brings me back to the days of playing gems such as R-Type or the more recent Geometry Wars. Dogos is worth a try if you are looking for a solid top-down shooter on your Xbox One.
Tommy was a community contributor to ICXM, writing 3 articles in 2016 covering game reviews. ICXM operated as an independent Xbox and Windows gaming outlet through the run-up to Xbox One S and Project Scorpio, plus the broader Windows 10 gaming push, drawing from a rotating bench of editorial volunteers. They post on X as @sirtommyguns.