Climb the Tower

At a fifty-cent price point, one could expect a reduced amount of content. This I can concede. But for game at any price, even free, a certain level of quality is expected for it to be worth one's time. This game does not reach that level of quality. I can forgive the ugly graphics (the first level seems to be the worst-looking); I can even forgive the janky controls (more on that later); but I cannot forgive the design. I forced myself to beat first level before I would write this review, and I almost didn't. I found the last sequence to be so bad that I quit. Then I read the reviews and thought, am I missing something? I couldn't write the only negative review without being sure. So I went back and managed to finish the first level, which I found easier when using the mouse and keyboard controls instead of a custom controller binding (even though I firmly believe a 3D platformer should be optimized around using a controller), and even began the second level. But my opinion did not change. There are three main issues I can pin down with the design. First is the perspective: this game requires a good deal of precision in its platforming, but I found that the first-person perspective made it difficult to gauge where I was standing on a given platform, and I often fell off during a wind-up before a jump. This was worsened by a glitch of some sort that caused me to fall off non-static platforms when trying to move around on them because my momentum was not synced to the momentum of the platform. But my core problem with the game was just poor level design. It's hard to pin it down, but the segments just weren't consistent made. The third part of the first level, with the moving platforms, was probably the strongest example of this. The first thing I noticed was that the rhythmic timings were not synchronized -- most were, but a few were not, and there seemed to be no reason to it. The third-to-last jump was the worst, because you're forced to jump midway through the movement of the platform. During the fourth and final segment of the level, the aforementioned glitch cropped up and I simply could not adjust my positioning on a given platform without falling off. Even when it worked, the feel of the platforming was underwhelming. This game is not broken. It reaches a degree of competence that many players would decide that it's worth their money and time, since it does not ask for much of either. However, I simply don't feel this way. I love 3D platformers. They're my favorite genre and I've completed several of them. Perhaps not quite like this one, with a focus purely on gameplay and little else, that is also played from a first-person perspective with mouse and keyboard controls. But it is that exact feature of the game -- that all it has going for it is its gameplay: there is no story; the visuals are low fidelity and uninteresting; it brings nothing new to the table -- that condemns it to mediocrity. Because the gameplay is unpolished and unfun, and I cannot confidently recommend this game when I find it so lacking.