If some of you think back of good old shmups released in the 80s and 90s (or even some newer ones that are still popular mostly in Japan nowadays), you may not only remember their glory but also the often extremely difficult trial & error gameplay attached to it.

While some of you may surely fancy a tough challenge, for others such experience may have resulted into pure frustration. Therefore with Söldner-X 2 we have been pioneering and invented a dynamic play rank system that is on the one hand designed to be fair and attractive to new players, yet on the other hand challenging and rewarding for those who like to invest more time and get the maximum out of the game.

Basically the play rank system measures the player’s performance and automatically adjusts the game’s play rank (which is something like a dynamic difficulty). On a lower rank you will consequently encounter less enemies and bullets and have more overall room for error. On the contrary, when your games improves and you are reaching higher play ranks, the game automatically becomes tougher.

Like I said earlier, a higher play rank will be more rewarding. Play ranks are measured in eight steps, each one of them linked to a score multiplier. Depending on the circumstances, you can achieve multipliers ranging between x1 (on the lowest rank) and x96 (on the highest rank). Your high scores and a replay file associated to the score can be uploaded to our server for online ranking. You can also download and watch replays from other users to improve your own play (or to simply wonder “how on Earth did he do that?”)

Creating replay value has been one of our main focuses during development, so you can expect really lots and lots of unlockables in Söldner-X 2. Apart from continuing your hunt for more trophies, you will be able to unlock new stages, weapons (there are a total of 15 different weapons in this game!), playerships and additional credits once you process through the game. There are also prestigious awards, including a special medal that is displayed next to your name in our online ranking tables upon completion of a pretty tough challenge.

Speaking about challenges, most of the hidden elements in the game can be unlocked through the challenge mode. While you progress through the game, a total of up to 17 challenges will eventually become available for you to take on.

In challenge mode you will revisit parts of the game with certain criteria linked to each challenge. For instance, how about playing the first three stages of the game without losing any ships? Or how about dashing through the game on the highest play rank? Well, in here you have to be prepared for anything.

Also, you should prepare yourself to finally download and play Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype soon: it’ll be available next Tuesday, May 25th only on the PlayStation Network.

Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype is the successor to our 2008 released PS3 game Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer (yes, unless you are fluent in German, that was the game with the impossible-to-pronounce name). Gameplay wise Söldner-X 2 is taking you back to the roots of the classical 2D shoot ‘em up (or also referred to as ‘shmup’) genre, audio-visually combined with what the PS3 has to offer. In this horizontal-scrolling shmup, it’s your mission to protect the galaxy from the D’aarg, a technologically superior race that is threatening mankind.

To leave it plain and simple for now, during the seven stages of the game, you can expect nothing but pure action with hundreds of enemies to shoot down, thousands of bullets to evade and huge boss battles to be fought.

Well, I guess I could go on and on for a while, so I’m trying to make it short. In Söldner-X 2 you can expect high-definition graphics with classical 2D gameplay, combined with 3D backgrounds in up to 1080p, exciting bullet patterns that require your best skills, powerful weapons, limit attacks and fourfold chaser system, a newly-designed chaining system, detailed online high score ranking tables with replay file sharing, an adrenaline pumping soundtrack with 30 unique tracks and so much more.

Finally, I’m pleased to present you a first look at Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype in action. Check out our launch trailer and don’t forget to watch out for Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype when it’s hitting the PlayStation Store in May 2010. As you can probably feel, I’m already more than excited!