Last Inua - Review (iOS and PC)

‘Last Inua’ is set in a frozen tundra and is an icy tale of a father and son’s journey to vanquish evil from the world in the form of a demon named Tonrar. The son, Hiko, is blessed with supernatural powers strong enough to defeat Tonrar but his frail, adolescent body is unable to handle these powers and as such he is too weak to embark on this quest alone. His loving father, the physically powerful Ataataq, opts to accompany his son and protect him in all the ways Hiko is unable to protect himself. Together this Inuit duo set out to save the North from Tonrar’s evil clutches and it looks to be a tale of fatherly love set in a tranquil, snow blanketed world. Unfortunately, ‘Last Inua’ faces a plethora of problems that spoil the experience. 

Developer: Glowforth
Genre: Platformer adventure game
Platforms: PC and iOS
Release date: 11th December 2014 (PC), May 8th 2014 (iOS)
ESRB: Unrated (Mild threat)

‘Last Inua’ is a form of platforming game where you control both Hiko and Attataq in order to navigate the different levels though each character has vastly different strengths. Hiko, the teenage son, is gifted with the ability to teleport between glowing points, create bridges of light to pass over danger and fly in certain circumstances. Attataq on the other hand is the physically stronger of the two and may climb sheer, icy walls, jump and smash through enormous ice blocks that may block the path. To complete levels the player must use each character is unison and, at best, the puzzles are a solid means of traversing the environment even if your options are extremely limited. What let’s this game down however is how incredibly slow everything is and, when combined with some very touch and go controls, the whole experience is easily ruined. Both characters move at a lumbering pace as though they were wading through the snow rather than skipping across it and it’s a fairly frequent occurrence for your button presses to go unrecognized. Attataq in particular does not always jump when he is told to, usually resulting in death. This quickly becomes extremely frustrating as each death sends you halfway back across the map leaving you to plod your way back over to where you just died. This would be somewhat bearable if death was infrequent but sadly almost everything is deadly whether that’s mistimed jumps, roaming Yeti’s, spurting pools of darkness or spike traps. The entire game feels unnecessarily drawn out when you have to constantly retrace your steps at an agonizingly slow pace and this is inexcusable, no matter how pretty the backgrounds may be. 

Special mention should be made of how absolutely gorgeous everything looks and the opening cutscene in particular looks fantastic. The animations are nicely detailed and, for the most part, smooth and well executed. Visually, the art style is very simplistic but also very elegant and I personally loved the sleek, stylish appearance the game boasted as well as the noticeable contrast in colour. The first few levels are by far the most stunning as the contrasts between the inky black night sky and trees and the bright, gleaming whites and blues of the snow and ice are quite beautiful. The characters themselves are well designed and the landscapes have enough detail for them not to feel barren. A lovely visual effect that I enjoyed is also connected to a gameplay feature in that if you stay too far away from a campsite containing a fire then you will gradually begin to freeze to death. When this occurs the entire screen begins to fill with translucent spikes of ice that crackle across the screen, reminding you to seek warmth quickly or else face the ultimate consequence. 

Unfortunately ‘Last Inua’ is one of those games I really want to like but just can’t. It looks fantastic and the story is really quite lovely but the controls are unreliable, the animations are oddly jumpy in places, the lumbering pace is unbearable and there’s a great deal of repetition that makes the entire experience mind numbing. There’s a great deal of trial and error in navigating this game and, when error puts you so far back, you’ll find yourself constantly re-treading the same levels that already lack variety. Despite this, I’m sure there are people out there that can look beyond these problems and enjoy this quaint little game but for me it’s simply a deal breaker. Overall this game could have been so much better as there are some really promising elements about it that would have been brilliant if not for the undue frustration the mechanics caused me. So for this one I’m afraid I’ve got to say it missed its mark by a long shot. 

The Good:

• It looks beautiful 
• An emotional and touching storyline 
• Nice animations, when they work 
• An interesting concept 
• Atmospheric, detailed environments 
• Running from camp to camp before freezing is a nice touch
• Some truly awe inspiring landmarks

The Bad:

• Inexcusably slow
• Puzzles are very scripted with limited solutions 
• Unresponsive controls 
• Frequent deaths that put you very far back from where you died

The Score: 6/10

Final thoughts: “What a shame, if only those kinks had been recognized and worked out prior to release then perhaps we’d have a real stunner on our hands. Sadly it’s just far too repetitive, slow and unreliable to enjoy properly.”

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Year Walk - Review (iOS and PC/Mac game)

'Year Walk' is a game set to divide opinion due to its slow pace and quiet, ambient atmosphere. The game revolves around an ancient Swedish ritual called Årsgång that required its partakers, called yearwalkers, to undergo a series of challenges that would allegedly result in visions of the future. These visions however may come at a grave cost as there is no guarantee the year walker will survive this ancient practice. As a lover of folklore the premise of the game was far too good to pass up and now, with the winter month fully descended upon us, I felt now was the best time to try it out. I wasn’t to be disappointed.

Developer: Simogo 
Genre: Puzzle, interactive fiction 
Release date: 21st February 2013 (iOS) 6th March 2014 (PC), 3rd April 2014 (Mac)
Platforms: iOS, PC and Mac
ESRB: Unrated (Horror imagery)

‘Year Walk’ is very much one of those ‘interactive fiction’ type games where it feels as though you’re playing through some kind of novella rather than an actual game and its strongest features are by far its chilling atmosphere, obscure storyline and sublime aptitude at weaving together horror, fantasy and folklore. You play as a mysterious person who has chosen to partake in the ‘year walking’ ritual in an attempt to predict your future and this starts out with saying alone in the dark, whilst fasting, during New Year’s Eve. When the clock strikes into the New Year you leave your solitary confinement and walk around the forest that surrounds the cabin, meeting strange and frightening creatures that offer up challenges in the way of puzzles for you to solve. 

 
What I particularly liked about the game was how it drew you in with just enough mystery to peak your interest but then made it quite difficult for me to find out what was going on. Initially the game is quite frustrating as it feels as though you’re just walking around in circles and getting nowhere. Everywhere I turned I found myself locked out of somewhere with no obvious way of getting in and it took a while for me to realize that I really needed to pay attention to the smallest of details in order to navigate not only the twisting and turning woodland but the game itself. A pen and some paper turns out to be absolutely essential for this game as jotting down everything from landmarks, patterns, symbols and even your path through the forest as its very easy to get turned around and find yourself lost, despite the presence of certain key landmarks. What really struck me however was the actual appearance of the game as there’s just something about its very simplistic artistic style that reminded me of a hand crafted Christmas card where everything is rather whimsical and ethereal. Spindly, silver skinned trees stand boldly against a velvety backdrop, the snow crunches beneath your feet as you are inexplicably drawn deeper and deeper into the dark, mysterious world. ‘Year Walk’ has such a fantasy feel about it that it feels as though you are exploring a gentle winters scene in some pure and innocent fairytale but the creepy imagery and frightening jump scares drop you back into reality with a bump. The constant clashing of splendor and viciousness keeps you on your toes and is very effective at maintaining the emotion that comes with an ever changing, ever evolving reality where nothing is as it seems. 

This is one of those games that sticks in your mind long after you’ve finished playing it, haunting you as though there’s something else in the snow blanketed world that needs to be revisited. Its haunting storyline, horrific scares and utterly immersive atmosphere all amount to an extremely unique experience that, for the modest price tag, is worth diving into. I should mention at this point that you may sink rather than swim in this grim tale as it’s a puzzle game with a whole new level of difficulty. In fact, I found some moments of the game utterly unbearable not because of its poor quality but of how frustrating and obscure I found the puzzles to be and there was plenty of time spent struggling on through things I found could have been made a little clearer. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a challenge and I admit that games have become significantly easier in recent years but when you spend a good ten minutes on one puzzle a little resentment does start to build. It’s not until I was fully absorbed in the ‘puzzle game’ mind frame where I started to take note of every tiny detail and utilizing my ‘companion app’ guide to learn more about the folklore that I really started to make headway. 
 

The companion app is an unusual addition but, after initially dismissing it as an added extra for those who enjoy reading in games, I realised it had a noticeable effect on the game itself. At first it appears as though the companion app is simply detailing the ritual of year walking in full detail, providing additional information on the symbols and characters you come across, but towards the end you find that you may enter a passcode into the journal. It’s not until you have ‘completed’ the game and come back to that journal that you find the game is far from over as the full story is revealed to you through additional gameplay and scenes. 

Something I found slightly problematic about Year Walk was the controls as it was originally made for touchscreens. Several puzzles require you to move your mouse in the same way you would a finger which, for me, felt really strange and I was glad there were no reaction based puzzles as this would have been pretty hard to re-enact with a mouse. Whilst the controls are nicely interactive for touchscreens, for instance using your thumb print to activate certain stones, there were times when the game was unclear about what kind of user input was required, leaving me to paw helplessly at the screen until something worked. Translated onto a PC what this tended to result in were plenty of puzzles that you didn’t know how to even begin tackling them due to the zero amount of guidance from the game.

‘Year Walk’ is sadly a very short game that, provided you knew all the answers to the puzzles already, would take a pretty meager 30 minutes to complete. The only thing that really extends the length of the game is the difficulty of the puzzles and I would have loved additional gameplay and more storyline as the game is such a unique experience it seems a pity not to extend it with additional content. That said, the pacing of the game is fantastic and nothing is rushed and, whilst the slow nature of the game may annoy some, I enjoyed the softly softly approach to exposing the mysteries that this game held. The emphasis on audio appealed to me, from the audio based puzzles to the enchanting music but this may necessarily prove to be problematic for those with hearing difficulties. The game has no spoken dialogue, everything is text based, but the requirement to hear for the audio based puzzle may stop many people from progressing in the game and it’s a shame there’s no alternative. Minor niggles aside, ‘Year Walk’ is all in all a pleasantly surprising game that is very sleek and very intelligent in its design and the way in which everything plays out and slots together. I adored this means of learning about Swedish folklore and I enjoyed the complexity of the story that, when you get around to completing it the first time, only gets better and better. I can imagine this game is not for everybody due to its slow pace, emphasis on atmosphere and frequently frustrating moments but for me it was a delight to play and I highly recommend it.

The Good:

• Very stylish game
• A constant uneasy atmosphere that something's wrong
• Beautifully artistic
• Genuinely creepy with plenty of scares
• Inclusion of the companion app is a nice touch
• A unique way of learning about folklore
• Intelligent, well pieced together, good pacing
• A story that keeps you guessing, even after it ends
• The kind of game that stays with you after you've finished it

The Bad:

• Audio puzzles
• Zero guidance when solving puzzles results in a lot of guesswork 
• The controls for solving puzzles are frustrating 
• Rather short in length 
• Slow pace may annoy some

The Score: 9/10

Final thoughts: “I’m so glad I finally got around to playing this in time for Christmas, it’s an absolutely stunning game with so much creativity and thought poured into it. It was such a twist to find out its horror elements but the creepy imagery worked really well with the dreamy nature of the game.”

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Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey - Quick Review (Free iOS, Android, Windows/Mac/Linux game)

It’s been a long time since I genuinely enjoyed playing a word game as they tend to make me think of something from the GCSE bitesize website I used to have to suffer through at school. At long last however, a game that requires me to string letters together to form words has broken me out of this mental block and it took barely any time at all for me to be fully engaged in this cute, well-crafted and charming game.

Developer: Bacon Bandit Games
Genre: Word game
Release date: Feburary 5th 2014
Platforms: iOS and Android
Age rating: Rated 9+ for the following: Mild horror themes, mild cartoon/fantasy violence.

'Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey' is a fresh and vibrant game with plenty of adventure game features such as quests, turn based combat and a stack load of upgrades, potions and items to help you advance your way through its numerous stages. To play a word game that’s not just about the spelling but about the overall gaming experience is such a relief as it’s very easy for a game to get wrapped up in its educational value and forget that games are supposed to be fun and engaging. As you progress through the game you must spell out words, the letters you pick and the length of the word all have a direct impact on the amount of damage you’ll do to monsters so the better the word, the higher the damage. It’s very easy to get caught up at the start of the game in bashing out some simple words but the difficulty level is quickly ramped up and you must adjust to this by exercising those brain muscles and coming up with better, more complex words. In this sense the game maintains its stance as a game about learning since it encourages you to polish your English and expand your vocabulary but, thankfully, this has no negative impact on how enjoyable the game is. 

My only current irk with the game is that many words are unrecognized and, whilst these are being patched over, this could prove irritating to players. The reason for this mostly seems to be that this is a game from North America and many of the words not included are British but, to be fair, there are still over 190,000 words in the game and the developers are working to update the dictionary. Something to look forward in this game is not just these guaranteed dictionary updates but the likelihood of additional levels and features so even when you’ve completed the game there’s still reason to keep checking back. Currently though the amount of content available is very impressive and, though there is some 'pay to win' features you don't have to buy any of them and everything can be obtained legitimately. Besides, it's a free game so you can forgive them for attempting to get even a little bit of their investment back. As you move through the levels you'll notice a large array of enemies and backgrounds which greatly enhances the overall experience as one too many mobile games tend to have repeating, scrolling background and listless, cloned creatures so it's refreshing to see someone put some hard work into the atmosphere and content of their game.

The room for expansion in this game is fairly large as even though the game currently remains simple but not simplistic it would be still be nice to see a few extra mechanics to make combat a little more varied. Overall, this is a reasonably challenging game that’s extremely fun and very professional looking. You wouldn’t believe this was an indie free game as it is incredibly polished with crystal clear graphics and fun, upbeat music. There’s no timer on battles so there’s very little pressure to defeat the monsters quickly making this a casual game that is as fast paced as you want it to be so and its easy to use controls, simple game logic and its overall charming nature makes 'Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey' very accessible for not just grownups but kids too. I highly recommend this game for anyone to play.

The Good: 

• Looks fantastic, vibrant and professional
• Makes spelling fun! No, really.
• Good assortment of enemies, all of whom are well animated
• Detailed levels in different locations
• Use of quests, storyline and items gives the game a nice RPG feel
• Quite challenging, use of items essential to not die
• Achievements for added playability
• Very accessible, easy to get into
• Lots of stages and I liked the inclusion of a world map
  

The Bad: 

• Could use different attacks to make combat more fun
• Needs a bit of bug fixing here and there

The Score: 9/10

Final thoughts: "This has changed my opinion of word games, this is a really fun game. ...I can't believe they're not charging people for this."

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Broken Age, Act 1 - Full Review (PC/Linux/Mac, Android and iOS Game)

'Broken Age' seemed like the perfect game for me to play but, upon completing Act 1 in its entirety, I was left with a confused, almost guilty, feeling of disappointment and frustration. What made it worse was that reputable, professional websites had glazed the game with sickly sweet praise and admiration, hailing it as a fantastic example of point and click adventure games. I rather strongly disagree, as you’re about to find out, and though I admit the storyline is fantastic there are far too many basic elements missed out for this game to be considered as ‘one of the greats’. That said, this game is certainly a steal at its low price and overall the game is very good value. 
 

Developer: Double Fine Productions 
Genre: Point and click adventure 
Release date: 26th January 2014
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS
ESRB: Not rated (some mild threat, no blood/gore)

The backstory behind the development of this game is far from ordinary. To begin with, 'Broken Age' is one of the most crowdfunded video game projects as it acquired a whopping $3.45 million from more than 87,000 backers. The project began in 2012 and the game marked Tim Schafer’s return to the point and click genre after his fantastic game, Grim Fandango which is being re-released for PS4 and Xbox One and which was originally released in 1998. Despite its extreme backing though it appeared that this may have actually lessened the quality of the game. The end result is, whilst visually polished, wrongly suited to the originally intentioned audience and, quite simply, an inadequate addition to Schafer’s portfolio. As a standalone indie game this would be fantastic but unfortunately it failed to live up to the hype.

Gameplay and storyline

'Broken Age' Act 1 is made up of two different stories, that of a girl named Vella and of a boy named Shay and each story has vastly different settings. Regardless of which character you start with you’ll likely find that the game comes across as very cutesy and perhaps even a little too sickly sweet but this is simply a façade. Without going too far into the storylines the characters have in common a desire to break traditions in their lives that have, up until now, gone unquestioned. The gruesome realities of what is actually occurring strips away that initial sweet demeanour and instead the cheerful nature of the characters and environments take on a whole new form, one that is much darker and much, much more unnerving. 
 

It’s here where 'Broken Age' truly excels as the storyline is quite fascinating and will draw you in with its twisting story and cheerfully disturbing atmosphere. The ever present, in your face, indication that something is wrong but nobody else seeming to notice it is a constant source of fascination and you will desperately want to find out what’s going in in the two strange realms that you’ll inhabit. The characters too are likeable though, admittedly, quite unemotional and rather bland despite the famous voice actors. Whilst the storyline is interesting enough and with brilliant twists there are some key issues with the game that are very difficult to ignore. To begin with, it feels as though it’s being aimed at a much younger audience and not at those who would have previously enjoyed classic graphic adventures such as Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, both of which Tim wrote for previously. The complex puzzles, standard ‘pick up everything you can find’ mentality, vast environments and wry sense of humour that typically lift a standard point and click to a successful one have all been stripped away leaving something quite superficial in its wake.

Overall there’s a genuine lack of content and substance as characters have very few dialogue options and the environments are very limiting so there’s simply not much to discover in what could have been sprawling worlds of characters, places and puzzles. The few characters that are present are quirky and interesting but you can never just chat to them and waste away a couple of hours getting to know their unique personalities so, in this sense, the game feels a little sparse. There’s this strange, unfinished feel about the game that’s reflected in not only the lack of character development but the small, limited environments. These rather simplistic environments quickly become a problem when you’re faced with one of the many puzzles in the game. Often, a point and click adventure game would have you picking up random bits of, seemingly pointless, tack with plenty of red herrings thrown in there just to screw you up. Large locations or, in the very least, a broad variety of areas where the solution to your puzzle may lurk is key to making a puzzle difficult as often you’ll be searching doggedly for more items, racking your brains to figure out what kind of obscure combination you need to come up with. Broken Age lacks this, entirely so. At one point I had to find a particular, very important, item that had been lost but I found it sitting out in plain sight on just the next screen. Another puzzle simply consisted of getting to end of a conversation. It’s almost as though the developers didn’t trust their players to continue playing if they found the puzzles too challenging and this lack of faith in players is evident in the huge amount of hand-holding that takes place

  
When important plot elements have been stripped away of challenge it’s not just frustrating, it’s disappointing. I find it hard to imagine this game ever becoming ‘one of the greats’ and instead it sits as something which is nice, different, but nothing special. The lack of puzzles and choices meant that the length of play was disastrously short and far too easy for seasoned graphic adventure gamers and, whilst some hail this as a return to the 'nostalgic' era of point and clicks, it feels painfully modern with a strong focus on visuals and not enough on actual, substantial, gameplay.

Graphics and audio

The artwork of the game may not be to everybody’s taste but it truly is quite beautiful with a strong hand painted, fantasy appeal. The style and design of the worlds and its inhabitants does nothing for its childish feel however and overall it’s all a little bit too cute and quaint. Despite this, the worlds are gorgeous with a stunning array of colours and details that make each and every area feel bursting with life. The contrast between the two storylines is very apparent, not only in its gameplay content but in the design of the environments. The differences between the smokey oranges and dreamy pinks of Vella’s world to the moody blues and vibrant preschool colours of Shay’s world simply add layers onto the, already distinctive, atmosphere. A curious feature present within the game is its ability to be played in a ‘retro’ graphical mode which makes the game appear in an slightly pixelated, pre-renovated 'Monkey Island' 1 and 2 type design. Whilst usually I would have been extremely interested in this it’s clear that the game was not designed to be played in this format so it comes across as a very low quality conversion. If anything, it looks as though you’re just squinting at the HD version. 

The audio is, overall, very good and I liked almost all of the voice acting except for several occasions where I found the protagonists to have a lack of emotion. Despite pushing the budget out and employing the talents of very talented actors including Elijah Wood as Shay I felt as though Shay’s emotion was completely out of context with what was occurring in the scene. When his dialogue was supposed to indicate frustration the voice came across as depressed, when he was supposed to be confused he sounded passive. Though this is partily intentional as Shay is fairly a depressed character this uninterested tone persists even in moments of great peril where what he is saying suggests he's feeling emotion. The voice of Vella too had some inconsistencies between script and the voice acting and overall I felt there to be a lack of emotion when faced with action packed, highly distressing scenes and this tended to ruin the scene’s atmosphere. Aside from this, the game sounded as good as it looked and there was plenty of general chit-chatter in the background and little comments from the protagonist which gave you a better insight into their character.

Overall

It would be easy to simply look at the game, its history and its origin and stamp it with the mark of ‘fantastic’, ‘ushering in a new era’ and things of the such but upon closer examination, Broken Age does none of these things. It’s boringly simplistic, painfully unemotional and with very, very little build up to anything that happens. I found the storyline enjoyable, gripping even. My attention was constantly drawn to what was going on on the screen and Shay's story in particular was a mixture of fascinating and hilarious. My desire to find out more about the strange world I’d been dropped into was what primarily kept me going however as the gameplay was rather simplistic and, generally, the more I progressed the more let down I felt. 

The game had a lack of depth, a lack of real challenge and, also, a lack of something else, something I can’t put my finger on, it’s as if it very much lacked the heart, soul and dedication you’d have expected from a game with so many backers, so much time poured into it and so many people working with it. I don’t know what happened to render this game so disappointing and it’s a great shame to say that about what could have been one of the greatest modern age point and clicks. I hope wherever Tim Schafer is now that he looks on this game and thinks to himself, ‘I could have done better’ because if he doesn’t then I’m not sure what happened to his creativity in that sixteen year hiatus. Whilst my disappointment is evident I’d like to finish by saying that I will play the upcoming Act 2 to 'Broken Age' but, truly, it’s only to find out what happens in the end. I can only hope it presents something more appealing to lovers of classic point and click adventure games.

The Good: 

• Different, original storyline
• Attention grabbing with its odd premise
• Beautiful, hand painted graphics
• Lovely animations
• Nice variation of environments
• Likeable, personality filled characters
• Great cliff hanger

The Bad:

• Far too easy, a lot of hand-holding
• Not enough puzzles
• Voice acting can be off in places
• Limited, small environments
• Not much to explore or discover
• Very little to no item combination
• Feels superficial and focused on its graphics

The Score: 6/10

Final thoughts: "I'm looking forward to playing the next part of this but only because of its storyline. The game is far too easy with limited environments and, generally, it just doesn't feel like a traditional point and click."

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Blek - Quick Review (iOS and Android game)

Never have I quite played an iOS game that is as elegant and unique as 'Blek' is and, amongst all of the faceless, duplicate puzzle games that swarm Google Play and the App store, this intuitive brainteaser stands out vividly.

Developer: Denis Mikan 
Release date: December 3rd 2013 (iOS), June 30th 2014 (Android) 
Genre: Puzzle 
Platforms: iOS and Android

The game is excessively simplistic and takes full advantage of touchscreen technology where the aim is to draw lines that hit all of the circles on the screen. It sounds a lot easier than it is as each time you draw a line it will repeat on itself, over and over again until either all of the circles are collected, it bangs into dangerous black spots or wanders off the edge of the screen. The way in which the line comes to life is quite an intriguing thing as the way in which you draw it dictates the way it will move once you’ve finished drawing it. Draw arches as though tracking the path of a bouncing ball and the line will follow this track as though actually bouncing itself. 

The difficulty level of the game goes through several phases as, at first, it’s quite an unusual concept to adjust to but after just a few levels you’ll think yourself an expert at it. It’s not until you get about midday through the game, there’s 60 levels overall, where you’ll start really struggling with some very tricky and often frustrating puzzles. Not only is the gameplay and premise very enjoyable but the game itself oozes personality in its sleek, stylish graphics and dreamlike music. It’s for the best that the music is so calming as, when you’re forced to think outside the box in an abstract manner, there will be times where you’ll be too frustrated to continue playing for much longer. The game is best in short bursts and is very easy to dip in and out of as the levels often take very little time and, overall, the entire 60 levels won’t take you much longer than a couple of hours to complete. Due to the various ways a level can be solved however there is some degree of re-playability and, besides, 'Blek' is such a likeable, attractive game that it’s nice to return to even after completing it.

Currently there is some concern with the way the game has been ported onto Android phones as there’s no clear way of how to exit the game and, upon pressing the back button, you’ll be taken back a level and not to the home screen. A lot of users have also reported crashing which is such a shame as the game is truly elegant and quite beautiful.

The Good:

• Imaginative game that encourages thinking outside the box
• Addictive and time consuming 
• Challenging but rewarding 
• Lovely music, beautiful graphical style, very elegant 
• Innovative gameplay stands out from the crowd

The Bad:

• Some control issues with buttons and menus
• Very short lived and will not take long to complete 
• Difficulty curve becomes quite steep mid-game
• No S-Pen support for Android users

The Score: 8/10

Final Thoughts: "Finally, an iOS puzzle game that actually makes you think about you next move."

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Orbitum - Quick Review (iOS game)

Never has the very real threat of falling into a black hole felt so calming. Orbitum is a strangely hypnotic game where every second counts in your struggle to stay alive by hopping from one orbital line to another. 

Developer: Happymagenta Ltd.
Genre: Action arcade
Release date: 2nd July 2014
Platforms: iOS (Ipad and Iphone)
ESRB: E - Everyone. 

Essentially you’re playing as a very bright, white planet that is being steadily dragged into a black hole by its extremely strong gravitational pull and, though you can hop away from this fatal void and take refuge on orbits that are farther away, these quickly decay beneath you. Despite the inevitable decay of the line you’ve, in the very least, bought yourself some time to consider the nature of your existence and perhaps the overall meaning of all of this. Though it’s tempting to just flee from the danger entirely you’ll find yourself trapped in by an, equally deadly, red barrier. This barrier that switches between being an unearthly mist or a solid red line prevents you from venturing too far out and leaves you stuck between a rock and a hard place. Between this fatal barrier and the deadly black hole suctioning you in there’s not much you can do except move between lines with lightning fast reflexes. The increasingly strong gravitational forces and the ever-present blockade of doom aside there’s even more threats to contend with; red, triangular obstacles are continually thrown in your general direction to keep you from lolling about too long on any particular line. 

Ok so perhaps lolling about isn’t the right term as the game generally feels like you’re running on a treadmill with some sadist at the front of it, turning up the dial to make you run faster and faster. All the while, there’s a life threatening pit behind you that, some kind of lava filled, shark infested, spike laden ditch that you’re not too keen on falling into. So you keep running, helplessly and hopelessly because there’s nowhere to go except not in the death-pit whilst your sadist buddy laughs and throws knives at you. Why you’d choose to partake in this masochistic game of ‘stay alive and stay fit at the same time’ is questionable but, there’s no doubt about it, Orbitum is somehow very good stress-relief. On a much needed positive note you’re also thrown helpful items like a shield or extra points that revolve around on the orbital lines, tempting you into making a premature jump so you can grab them. Green hexagons are the items that give you additional points to boost your high score whilst blue cubes will reward you with some kind of helpful item, such as the shield or a hyper-jump powerup. 

Underpinning all of this is an electronic female voice updating you with what you’ve just picked up, the new level you’re on and things of that sort. A weird, hypnotic electronic music track plays continually in the background and generally I found it both distracting and helpful though it did grate a little after just a few minutes of play. Despite the grating, the rhythmic beat from the music actually gave me something to time my jumps against and, in this sense, it acted as some kind of celestial, auditory anchor in a sea of… death. The learning curve of the game is spot on as whilst you only start with one or two of those red triangles and plenty of helpful items the pressure quickly increases as you become more familiar with the game. By the time you’re a couple of minutes into he game you’re battling against multiple triangles and working within a much larger space when the game switches its background colour to pale rather than dark. Overall the game is fairly addictive and very challenging, with its low price tag and clean cut, simplistic graphics its worth playing if you enjoy reflex based arcade games.

The Good:

• The challenging nature of later levels keeps you playing
• Hypnotic and mesmerising game draws your attention 
• The game design is clean cut and rather tasteful 
• Shifts in the colour scheme and associated gameplay changes adds depth 
• Simple to understand and easy to get into

The Bad:

• Music can be grating and distracting
• Not particularly original and brings nothing new to the table 
• Not the most addictive or fun of survival games

The Score: 5/10

Final thoughts: “That was weird, I have a headache, I don’t think lava filled shark spike pits are a thing, but they should be.”

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