“You have yet to awaken. . . If you seek purpose, go to the tower. Our kind gathers there, to make right this twisted world.”
Rail shooters are dead. Just as the arcade scene gradually died out as home consoles (and later mobile devices) snagged a growing foothold in everyday life, the prospect of holding a giant prop gun against a monolithic screen that seared your eyeballs with a bright flash after every trigger pull seemed to lose its luster. Sure, rail shooters are still alive and kicking in the emulation scene, and every now and then you’ll find a larger release that copies ideas from titans like House of the Dead or Time Crisis. But odds are you won’t really find an honest attempt to revive the genre on modern systems. Thankfully, TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen decided to take a gamble on that.
Developed and self-published by ChickenHat, TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen is a genuine attempt at making a rail shooter in the modern day, complete with a deliberately retro style that closely mimics the colorful, alien aesthetics of its predecessors. It does so while incorporating some modern sensibilities in its overall presentation and narrative. How do I know this? I had a chance to check out the game’s demo recently for Steam Next Fest, and let me say this; I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a game in quite a while.
Gunning Through a Sea of Worms and Blood
The demo itself is pretty light on concrete story elements, opting instead to just throw you directly into the action with only a brief tutorial section to prepare you for what’s to come. But you can thankfully glean the major story beats from the game’s store page. It’s your standard “tampering with the forces of nature” deal: Shepherd Biosicences Corporation attempts to discover immortality, they end up drowning the world in monstrous worms, total chaos and destruction, so on, so forth. Things aren’t great in the year 21XX, in so many words. But, just as things can’t get any worse, you — a nameless mutant — take it upon yourself to become the world’s Messiah, a potential cleansing agent for the rot that permeates the Earth’s pores. But who’s to say that you should save everything? Why not let it fall into ruin even further? Whatever you decide to do, it’s going to get messy.
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Actually playing TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen is fairly simple. If there’s something running towards you on-screen, click on it to attack it. If it has a weak spot, preferably click on that instead. It’s a standard rail shooter in that respect, and if you enjoy rail shooters, you’ll feel right at home.
But there’s something else worth mentioning here. Most rail shooters adhere to one common rule — reloading. Since you’re often firing a gun in the context of the game itself (or otherwise holding a bulky, molded piece of plastic shaped like one in real-life), finding the right time to reload your gun is often as imperative as prioritizing the right enemies and nailing all your shots consistently. Though, since you’re a monstrous worm creature and not a gun-toting mammal, you don’t have to adhere to this rule.
You’re directly rewarded for taking down foes briskly and consistently via feeding on their blood. Kinda like how BloodRayne 2‘s ranged weapons worked, feeding on enemy blood not only adds to your total points, but also refills your magazine. If you keep putting down your foes efficiently, you’ll theoretically never have to reload. As you should, since reloading takes eons and feels more like a punishment for poor accuracy as opposed to a limit to your power. It’s really interesting, and I’m extremely curious to see how TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen will explore this mechanic in the full game.
Of course, you have the other bells and whistles you’d come to expect from the best of the best rail shooters too. Alternate paths through levels can be unlocked depending on what you do and how well you’re performing, and extra bonuses like healing items can be acquired if you have a keen eye and steady aim. It’s not necessarily a requirement, but that extra level of effort is certainly appreciated.
You can really tell that some of the game’s presentation was specifically inspired by games like House of the Dead. It’s evident in the way enemies can jump out from the ground or drop from the skies to attack you, the vivid colors mixed with low polygon counts and abstract details, and even the way enemies explode into giant splashes of gore and viscera. It all feels reminiscent of a traditional, flashy arcade experience. Even bosses — at least, the one I fought in the demo — have their own dedicated title card and intro sequence.
It even goes a step further with some. . . “bolder” enemy and NPC designs that you’d never be able to find in a public-facing arcade cabinet. The game even briefly mentions the utilization of “religious and sexual trauma” for its storytelling beats in its accompanying Steam page. Sure, some of its risque design elements can be freely toggled on and off at your own choosing. But I feel like there’s an opportunity here to do something unique with a somewhat serious lens, as opposed to just riding everything out with a sense of uninhibited schlock.
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Should You Play TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen?
If you’re at all a fan of rail shooters or classic arcade games, I highly encourage you to give TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen a try. For as brief as the demo is, I feel like it sets the right tone for what to expect in the full game — a challenging distillation of the genre tailored towards a control scheme that gives you far more precise control than a traditional light gun setup could ever achieve. The implementation of surreal narrative elements on top of its arcade-oriented scoring system only makes things even better. The best part of it all, though? The demo is only a few minutes long, and it’ll give you a pretty good idea of what ChickenHat is going for.
You can check out TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR:// amen on Steam and itch.io.
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