The developer has responded to my original review, and I frequently have an evolving review, as I play a game further. I would like to take this time to respond to the developer, as well as change my review up.
"Hi Orphanlast,"
Hello Mr. Developer.
"Someone reported an issue of the game freezing in version 1.0, which would occur only when pressing certain buttons on a controller as the game was starting up. As far as I know, this was fixed in release 1.1 (the game is up to 1.3 now), as I have had zero reports of game freezing issues since then, until this review. Most patches have addressed balancing and general bugs."
It seems to happen when the AI has to make a decision that it didn't predict. I'll shoot them with a gun three times and go for the one two light saber punch to the dome piece, and... it's as if the AI thought I should have just kept shooting the gun. The fact that I went for the light saber... it's too much for the AI, it seems, and the it freezes. Sometimes for a solid 60 seconds. I've never had it crash the computer. But... I've had it kill me a few times. And that bothers me a bit. But it happens infrequent enough that it's NOT ENTIRELY game breaking. I just finished playing the game for an hour.
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
RAM: 16.0 GB
64 bit OS.
I noticed, after I roll on the tight wire, going to the second city, after killing the Red Queen, that sometimes the game is just endlessly giving me free Biomass. It's weird.
Okay, NOW -- the review:
You have a light saber in this game. So you're like, a nomadic Luke Skywalker. And the equivalent to The Force, is the Biomass you collect after killing an enemy. If you collect enough of it REALLY quickly, you can heal yourself. But regardless of how quickly you obtain it, you still receive and retain it as a type of currency, and as a way to genetically modify yourself to become a better warrior. So there's RPG elements to this game. HOWEVER, you can get new clothing in the game. But it offers something very different than most RPG's.
Different clothing represents various factions. And so wearing various types of clothes functions as wearing disguises. And this feels a bit like playing Hitman on the NES, when you start taking on disguises. Even allies have various forms of dialogue based on how many times you talk to them, and what clothing you're wearing. This is a really interesting gaming mechanic.
Currently, where I'm at in the game, there's tons of world building. But no player character development. I don't know his motivations. What's his Catalyst? I don't know. I don't really care, really. This feels like a really polished "Flashback" game. Like... when I think of the old "Flashback" video game, I think of a game LIKE THIS! And when I play the original "Flashback" game... I actually think it sucks. BUT, it WAS amazing for it's time. The original "Zelda", "Zelda 2: A Link to the Past", "Metroid", and "Metroid 2" didn't have clear catalysts for the player character. And so a game with THIS type of pixel art is able to get away with not supplying one.
I suppose you start the game out, just... IN A ROOM... nothing special about that room. You're just in it. And you're naked (pixel art. It's G-Rated). And there's a shadowy figure, kind of like the "Dahaka" from "Prince of Persia: Warrior Within". I'm going to make a plot prediction and say THAT is my future self, making a time loop that must happen, forever. But for some reason this shadowy Dahaka figure -- he WILL kill the Player Character... that's the only hole in my logic here... I don't know... some Developers like having real tension in the progression of a video games story and game play loop. Other developers like the "Half-Life 2" fake tension that's propelling you forward as highly scripted events unfold. I'm glad this game went with the former, regardless of if I'm right or not.
This is an interesting MetroidVania, with a unique world... AND LIGHT SABERS!!!! HELL YEAH!!!
Why hasn't a Star Wars game come out, that plays like this? Seriously? It could come out TODAY and still be awesome. But it doesn't need to. Because we have Biomass.
I love the pixel art.
Well done.
The game just needs a bit more polish. That was a rough introduction to the game. My introduction, somehow, caused the game to freeze multiple times. And there were some really weird behaviors when starting a new game... It's kind of hard to describe. Because the nature of a glitch is confusion. How do you describe something that you hardly believe is right there in front of you, because it's a weird 4th wall breaking experience. Like a poltergeist.
