We've spoken to the development team a couple of times over the past year during their development process, and it's fair to say we've been anticipating this title for a while. After a failed Kickstarter campaign, Rising Star Games stepped in as publisher to bring this game to the market. Has it been worth waiting for despite all of the delays? We'll have to have a look and find out!
Gameplay
The first thing that stood out to me in this game was the controls, which are listed below
- Jump: Space
- Left/Right: Left & Right arrow keys
- Transition between map layers: Up and Down arrow keys
Unfortunately, the game forces you to use this control scheme with no option of changing it. For me, the game would have been much easier to play had the controls been similar to most modern games, for example using A and D for left and right, and then the up and down arrows to transition between layers. This reminds me of Binding of Isaac where WASD is for movement, and the arrows are for shooting, except in this they would be for transitioning between layers.
Due to the game forcing you to use the arrow keys, I eventually gave in and switched to the controller which has a much more sensible control scheme. The analogue stick is for left and right movement, with A being Jump, X being the action button, and the shoulder/trigger buttons being for transitioning. The only flaw I noticed with the control is that if you hold the transition button down for more than a fraction of a second it will jump twice very quickly, often resulting in a swift death. Buggy transitioning aside, this did make the game much more playable for me than using the keyboard - so I stuck with the controller for the rest of my gameplay.
I also noticed that a lot of the game mechanics were difficult to understand initially, resulting in a lot of trial and error before being able to understand them - which did subtract from the fun with constantly waiting for the game to respawn you back at the start of a jump-maze. This could be fixed by including a tutorial segment that actually explains them - such as the different types of blocks that move through the layers, and what causes this.
Graphics
The game and character design is beautiful, with a great blend of modern and retro styles. A lot of the construction platforms and background buildings reminded me of areas in the original Sega Sonic games - such as the Marble Zone and the Chemical Plant Zone. The map design for the levels is very well thought out, with a lot of secrets and points of no return, making you come back and replay the level later for 100% completion which gives the game replay value. One note, however, is that because each layer of the game area is flat, it can sometimes be difficult to tell what you can and can't jump on (resulting in many irritating deaths). The characters are beautifully animated with great attention to detail, and yet they are created from an isometric viewpoint reminiscent of Fallout or Final Fantasy Tactics, which works surprisingly well.
Storyline
The storyline while interesting, feels more like an optional extra, and you can pick up on it by hanging around the NPCs long enough to read their dialogue. You can either focus on the storyline, or the gameplay - or enjoy a mix of both.
“Beautiful and deeply interesting!”