| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PC | 9.20 |
| Overall | 9.20 |
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How did this game go unnoticed, I am in shock that this isn’t one of the indie darlings of last year as it’s maybe a top 5 puzzle game of all time. Imagine a puzzle game that has the spirit of metroid and the ingenuity of portal. It’s a first person game with an interconnected world that you explore by gaining new abilities to solve more puzzles that let you access more areas. There is a sword and later there is then a gun which is there for combat that isn’t great; it’s mostly there just to put some obstacles in your path. You play a tiny red toy in a crazy toy world created by a kid in his backyard, this is your game world that comes to life with good Unreal engine graphics with nice popping colors. It begins with a wooden sword and upgrades for double and triple jumping. Doing portal like puzzles where you hit switches that can launch you and so on. Then the upgrades start to come at an incredible pace and these aren’t just simple additions, there are game altering mechanics that each could be used as the inspiration for one game. But you get a bunch of these items in one game and every single one has multiple uses. I have often talked about the multi tier puzzle, the best puzzles have at least two parts to them. Zelda for instance recently before BOTW was doing a lot of one tier puzzles, do X to solve X, it’s almost a glorified key. Supraland is almost ALL multi tier puzzles, every area has multiple puzzles that make you think carefully about every object in the area and every tool you have. If you know me you know I love secrets in my game, well a huge chunk of this game is all about secrets. Hidden crevices, optional puzzles and more litter the world each rewarding with a small upgrade to your guns, powers and health. Some upgrades are great like the ones that increase your rate of fire and one that actually lets you access new areas. But for the most part these upgrades tie into the worst part of the game which is the combat. There are about 7 enemy times, all very simple enemies that basically charge at you or shoot at you from a distance. They come out of spawn points that eventually much much later in the game you can destroy, but till then they serve as busy work. In a game where exploration is key getting to an area with the same enemies populating it again and again is annoying especially when combat is basically just you shooting wilding as you strafe around. There are two boss battles but they know that puzzles are the star so they are really puzzle focused rather than combat focused. With a lot of work this aspect could make this game feel almost like a metroid prime but till then it’s just annoying busy work. Don’t let that stop you from trying this get of a game out. The puzzles truly are genius, giving that great feeling of satisfaction when you solve it. I was in constant awe of all these new mechanics that kept arriving every two hours or so. Just when I thought there is no way they could add more to these puzzles then you get some ball teleporting thing which opens all sorts of new possibilities. That’s when I started to realize EVERYTHING in this world as a purpose. The placement of all objects deliberate, if it looks like it has no use it will later on, it’s brilliantly designed. I can’t help but feel like if this game was made by Valve or Nintendo it would get GOTY level attention but it seemed to get overlooked sadly. Perhaps this game is asking too much of the player, it is a step up to most puzzles in Zelda or Portal. Clearly it’s rough around the edges with combat but again done by a small team so this is expected. A sequel and DLC is already in the works and I will be very excited to try it out as you all should too. If you love puzzle games, if you like exploration and gaining abilities metroid style than this is for you. |
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Posted by Dvader Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:47:37
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robio (9m)
Also, totally unrelated, but did you have a chance to listen to the DMC podcast?
This game is basically puzzle after puzzle with combat as some tedious distraction. Instead of just going room to room like portal it’s a lot more open with a metroid like world design. But in the end what you are doing most of the time is solving puzzles.
Definitely sounds more interesting than your standard Zelda clone, then. I have it on GOG so I'll have to check it out beyond the first 30 seconds I've played of it lol.