Disclaimer - I have been gifted a free key for this game for review purposes, however, my review will be kept as truthful as possible since I am meant to help developers and buyers/gamers.

AIPD review:

Overview
AIPD is a rogue-like shoot-em-up game in which you have to survive waves of ever more intimidating enemies to make the game a whole lot more difficult on yourself and select a challenge. These include things such as: enemy powers upgraded, forever decreasing multiplier, you lose the ability to fire your weapons under certain circumstances, etc. It’s a simple idea but executed very well. You feel in control of your ship, it makes you really feel you are to blame whenever you die, unlike in many other games. Graphically it’s quite impressive, basically, everything has its own effect or whatnot with a bloom effect.

Gameplay
Basically, it’s what you’d expect from a rogue-like game. You play in a tight arena with ever increasing amounts and difficulties of enemies. Over time, you will get some crazy multipliers and unique weapons/ships, each one either adding or nerfing to the gameplay. Personally, I found some combos of weapon-ships to just be flat out over powered. Such as a quick nimble ship using a highly damaging weapon. I can quickly get out of trouble wether it’s by shooting my way out of there or flying away.

Pros and cons

Pros:
Beautiful soundtrack
Amazing on-screen effects
Progressively challenging
Lots of ship-weapon combos
Can help reflex/action times
Fun

Cons:
Not really that many ships or weapons
You get to design your own scenario, but you will still need to pick all the challenges in the end.
One, simple, stock map

I have been gifted the key by the kind developers of the game. They make my review about games like this possible.

If you liked this review or want to see more recommended games, be sure to follow our curator group: Follow Original Curator Group http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Original_Curators_Group#curation
Check out the Original Network Groups. Win free games, make new friends on Steam, & more!
Original Curators Group , Original Traders Group , & Original Giveaways Group

This game was pretty fun, but only for about an hour. Unlocks took a bit too long to unlock. I was already bored of my existing weapons by the time I got the new ones. The game lacks any real ability to bring yourself back from poor performance so it misses out on the rush of a comeback that games like Crawl do so well. Surviving a level was always overshadowed by "well now my health is low for the next level." The sheer amount of enemies can be a little overwhelming so I always ended up missing the enemies that really mattered until it was too late, which would be forgiveable if all punishments didn't hurt your entire run. I also may have been missing enemies because the camera is not centered on the player, but enemies can still come from the short side of the screen which gives them an arbitrary advantage. Ultimately it just ended up feeling like a slow crawl towards inevitable death and that crawl didn't feel particularly engaging.

SUMMARY: This is primarily a "MIXED" review, with a recommendation to buy the game only if it's on sale. AIPD is a relatively enjoyable twin-stick shooter that should appeal to anybody who liked Geometry Wars. However, it is not a perfect game, nor is it a long game. Additionally, there are numerous features that could stand to be improved. As a result, I really can't recommend the game at full (US $9.99) price--if you like twin-stick shooters, it might be worth it when it's 60-80% off.


With a name like "Artificial Intelligence Police Department", you might expect something of a plot. But there really isn't one. Each game starts in the same circular "arena", and you're immediately tasked with killing everything that moves. When a round is completed, you arrive at a screen where you must choose between one of two randomly selected "modules."

Modules are negative modifiers that typically make life harder for you (i.e., touching the border of the arena now hurts you; drones now move faster; an EMP occasionally spreads across the arena, preventing you from using your primary weapons while you're exposed to it). In exchange, modules give you a points multiplier--generally higher points for harder modules--that can significantly increase the points you accrue.

And that's basically it. At the end of Round 15, you square up against a fairly simple 3-phase boss, and then the game ends.

As you accumulate points, you'll ultimately unlock weapons and passive abilities--six of each--that are selected at the beginning of each run. These are probably one of AIPD's strongest features, because the weapons are legitimately distinct and the passive abilities can alter your playstyle. For example, the Laser gets stronger as it gets closer to overheating, whereas the Phaser has a short range but automatically targets & engages anything inside of that range.

There are also secondary consumable weapons and items that can drop from certain enemies as you play. The usual staples are here: A "superbomb" type weapon clears most of the screen, cluster missiles that automatically target enemies with a barrage of projectiles, etc. Items include buffs like a temporary shield, and a "bulletime" slowdown.

So is AIPD worth it? Well, it feels a whole lot like a gameplay mode you'd find in Geometry Wars (which isn't a bad thing, particularly if you enjoy Geometry Wars). However, there isn't much to the game. No level variety or significantly different game modes--just the same circular arena, 15 rounds, and boss. I wouldn't be surprised to see people completing the game and unlocking everything within 2 hours.

For these reasons, I feel like I can still recommend the game, but ONLY if:
1. You love twin-stick shooters like Geometry Wars
2. AIPD looks interesting to you
3. AIPD is on sale



PROS:
+ Six distinct unlockable weapons (and six unlockable passive abilities) can lead to some interesting combinations
+ The "modules" (negative modifiers that increase your points multiplier) at the end of each level result in some pretty hectic scenarios by the end of a run
+ A reasonable variety of enemies that have unique behaviors

CONS:
- Only a single "arena" (which is simply a circle) that the entire game takes place on
- Only a single boss at the end of Round 15
- Only one real game mode--nothing close to the variety of Geometry Wars
- Ultimately a very short game that feels more like an extension of another game

The game is definitely fun to an extent. If you enjoy twin stick shooters, you'll probably be able to have some fun with this. It's not super good by any means, but is worth the price, especially on sale. The achievements are decently fun to get as well, although there is one achievement for getting 1 billion score across all games and is an unnecessarily grindy achievement.

You are in a circular arena and shoot waves over waves of enemies while you can move to a different direction than you shoot. After each stage you can choose one of two randomly chosen modifiers (there are a lot in total!) making it more challenging and you can even build your own difficulty with them in a free mode.

In contrast to other games like this, it never feels unfair. It is always just you not being fast or smart enough and every time you get hit or lose the game, you're very motivated to try again. No ragequit potential, absolutely recommended!

A solid little twin-stick shooter that has a bit of replaybility. Visually it looks great, the controls and tight, and the weapon options on the ships come in a pretty good variety. That said there's not much passed the basic gameplay cycle, so what you see after the first few levels is what you get for the game. Luckily there's a few modes of play to spice things up.

https://youtu.be/Gys-RrlYSTM

Artificial Intelligence Police Department (AIPD) is quite simply put an absolute riot, sporting a plethora of game mode choices, bright radiating neon colours and great sound design (especially fond of the gun sounds).

Simply put Blazing Badger takes a lot of ideas on how to make a twin stick shooter seem less vanilla and adds their own flavour, personality and character to the game.

The options menu also doesn't disappoint having a great range of options available including great quality of life improvements like full key rebinding and left handed mode options available.

Overall this game has me hooked and has me coming back for more since I started playing it and with an interesting rogue like touch to the game through game modifiers and simple progression system which will add a lot of re-playability!

Highly Recommended!

I am not your typical twin stick shooter guy. But this game got me hooked. The ever increasing challenge from the modifiers is incredibly addicting and will suck you in in no time! I can only recommend this game if you want to have some quick dirty fun.

A solid Twin Stick Shooter with really cool graphics and an awesome soundtrack!

AIPD is one of those "just another round" titles where you cant stop playing. Its a kind of "Rogue Like Space Shooter". You fight, you gain Points, Points unlock new awesome weapons and Upgrades. The core gameplay is very addictive and challenging. There are a lot of additional game modes (millions of them???), which makes the game very replayable. AIPD is very well done and polished. The graphics are just awesome. I like the stylish blue and red ‘Tron-like’ graphics and its fast paced, reaction based gamestyle. Also...I LOVE the music!
Bottomline: AIPD is realistic twin stick successor to the long serving Geometry Wars.