Now here’s a thing… my perception when it comes to ReactorX is a little… jumbled.

I considered the first, and up to this point only, game I played in the series to be total and utter whore material, an easy couple of thousands practically guaranteed to have more “updates” adding several thousand more.

That was Reactor X 2 which, to all intents and purposes, is the exact same game as ReactorX.

There is, seriously, nothing to differentiate the sequel from the original… it’s just another 30 levels that could easily have been added as extra content for the first game… except that wouldn’t have been eligible to add new Achievements… so they called it ReactorX 2, and the 30 levels ended up giving up 5,000 Gamerscore for £4.19

The original ReactorX is in the list of titles to work through as part of my “Crazy Christmas” gorge on easy Achievement titles in the quest to add a minimum of 100,000 to my Gamerscore total… as with ReactorX 2 there are 5,000 points on offer and it cost me just £2.09 in a weekly sale.

And here we have ReactorX 3 which was released at the end of November 2024… a game I picked up at launch to play for actual fun, in the knowledge that there will, most likely, be 4 updates down the road to take the base 1,000 and up it to the 5,000 limit.

They don’t hide the fact that these games are knocked out for the Achievment hunters of the world… the game has 30 levels, and for the base game there are 10 Achievements for completing levels 1 to 10, the 4 updates then cover the next 5 levels on the list, so update 1 gives 5 Achievements of 200 points for each of levels 1 to 15, update 2 does the same for levels 16 to 20 and so on.

Yet when it comes to shovelware, ReactorX feels different, it’s well put together for a shameless cash grab, and the difficulty increases at a steady pace, but never hits the point where you’re getting frustrated.

I don’t expect it to score highly on the Indie Fest scale of things, but it does show that just because a game is cheap and offers easy points, that it has to be a crappy product.

Actual Play!

What the hell are they thinking of?

You have to complete the full game for the base 1,000 points, all 30 levels… how are they going to milk it for additional Gamerscore without having you replay levels?

Story wise and graphically… it’s fine, graphics practically identical to ReactorX 2 and the story even mocks itself as yet another ship decides to go straight through an asteroid field and ends up damaged.

What they have done is add a slightly different gameplay mechanic that doesn’t make much sense in reality, but does add a level to the puzzles… certain levels have chunks of Asteroids or mashed up metal blocks that have to be jettisoned to complete the level… now, logically, surely everything would be sucked out the huge holes in the ship… but it does make planning some levels harder.

Another element of difficulty is that I’m colour blind, and some levels have multiple coloured circuits you have to power up, and some of the colours chosen made it way harder to complete levels… add in that this is a new game, played on release date, and the lack of guides meant that, if I did need help, I was limited in my options.

The whole game took me 82 minutes to complete… with the hardest level being the final one, a whole screen to complete, 5 different coloured paths, 5 lasers to power up cubes as needed and a few blocks to throw out the window… at this point, having not touched the single guide video I did find, I was determined to finish it without resorting to getting help.

Indie Fest wise it’s come in at 64, hampered mostly by the graphics being as basic as they can get, and the lack of any aural stimulation… gameplay it’s solid, adding the asteroids adds another level to the puzzles, so it’s worth picking up in my eyes… just wondering how they’re going to add the 4,000 down the line.