This looked like an awesome game, and I bet it is an awesome game full of fun and wonder, but sadly, two things absolutely ruined the entire experience for me to the point where I had to turn off the game.
1. Enemies relative to your surroundings - Look how long I played this game. At the time of me typing this, it was 26m. In 26m, I felt so incredibly disoriented whenever I had anThis looked like an awesome game, and I bet it is an awesome game full of fun and wonder, but sadly, two things absolutely ruined the entire experience for me to the point where I had to turn off the game.
1. Enemies relative to your surroundings - Look how long I played this game. At the time of me typing this, it was 26m. In 26m, I felt so incredibly disoriented whenever I had an enemy near me in side of a wall or a cave in a fairly dark place, and yes, WITH THE FLASHLIGHT ON, and I could never see where they are due to foreground objects of them looking just like the scenery. It's not fair to have tiny enemies with giant foreground aesthetic bullcrap covering them! There are also plenty of ranged enemies that get an unfair shot at you before you even know they're there and give you no time to react to a shot coming from seemingly nowhere. It's ridiculous!
2. The controls - The enemies were one thing, but the controls is the sole reason I cannot recommend this game to anyone, and the main reason being that you have 3 "Up" or "Ascend" commands. You have "Jump", "Up", and "Jetpack". One thing to keep in mind for game design is that "Jump" and "Up" are NOT the same command, yet unfortunately for me, Alientrap Games disagrees. So, when I'm trying to, say, go up in a manner that doesn't involve jumping, I obviously hold up (the original jump control, which I mapped to spacebar, along with the Jetpack), only to realize, oh right, jump and up are the same button. The jetpack is another thing that's an absolute mess because typically in games, jetpack is a form of "secondary jump" or activates from a "double jump". Having it be its own button is very awkward, so I set it to jump. Alright, no biggie. Every time I want to jump or use the jetpack, it's just the same button now. But no! The fact that Up and Jump are the same button not only makes me use jetpack fuel every time I want to go up or jump, but also does the reverse when I just want to jetpack lightly, I'll go rocketing upward because it makes me jump when I'm too close to the ground, and if jump isn't mapped to the jetpack, the entire control scheme feels incredibly awkward.
A dishonorable mention I'd like to finish my negative review on is the jetpack itself. Level 1, you're given a jetpack that has unlimited fuel, but can only be used in short bursts then needs to recharge. Completely understandable and a good mechanic, but, oh wait, now I start level 2 and I have no jetpack? Oh, I find jetpack fuel and... ... it doesn't replenish...? WHY would you introduce a "recharging" jetpack mechanic in level 1 if in the VERY next level (that didn't pull a Metroid Prime of "you lost your jetpack") would you make me need to continuously collect fuel?! That's so stupid! I don't know if you get an unlimited jetpack later, and frankly, I don't care. If you do, it cancels out this last paragraph, but it's downright insane to introduce "recharging" to immediately say "lol jk now collect fuel".
Now onto the positives: The atmosphere and visuals are absolutely beautiful and stylized. Similar to Metroid, you really get the feel that you're alone on this alien planet looking for your crew (at least that's what I got from playing 4 levels). Honestly, when I wasn't getting screwed by the aesthetics with enemies blending into it, I was stunned by how gorgeous it looked. On top of that, the soundtrack is a joy to listen to and further emphasizes that you're on some uncharted alien planet, full of vegetation and whatnot.
Overall score, I'd have to give it a 4, which is for the gameplay, music, and visuals, while the controls and blending-into-the-scenary-enemies cuts down a lot of points. If the controls weren't half-broken, I'd probably give it around an 8, give or take the 7-9 range depending on what's to come. Sadly, because the controls feel so crippled, I'll never know what's coming up.… Expand
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