Stylish retro 3D shoot ’em up

One of the problems with early 3D games was that they pushed their systems too hard, meaning gameplay was often jerky and a bit disappointing. Modern hardware can easily cope with that minimal 3D style, meaning today’s retro 3D games are arguably better than we remember the originals!

Okkuplektor, a fairly abstract 3D shooter fits this mould. You can imagine graphics like this 20 years ago, and they would have looked cool then too. But today they actually move well, meaning zooming around the stylish minimalist worlds of Okkuplektor is really fun. The aim of each stage of the game is to collect a yellow cube, hidden somewhere in a castle which has to be destroyed.

Movement is easy, with WASD keys and the mouse, plus mouse buttons for weapons. While the game features no instructions, it’s fairly obvious that there are weapons you can collect, and enemies that shoot you! The music is excellent throughout, and the sounds effects are suitable, although a little glitchy. Occasionally they disappear. The only irritating thing is dying due to being attacked from the rear, as you can’t tell it’s happening until it’s too late. It gets quite challenging too.

Okkuplektor was make for Tigsource.com’s cockpit game competition, meaning it’s quite small, and feels a bit rough around the edges. Loading time for the first play is definitely old school – it will take a few minutes, though later loads only take seconds.

Okkuplektor is a smooth, stylish and quite satisfying little shoot ’em up.