Energy Hook

Edit: I should preface this by saying that I have been fortunate enough to play this game for the past 3 years and that many of the things that seem obvious and easy to me might be more difficult for new players. If you are a new player I would recommend that you take time to learn how to play before you discard it for "being bad or boring or hard". Once it clicks this game is amazing and my original review might be more relatable. To me Energy Hook is a great "podcast game" - It's easy and satisfying to make your way across maps without really having to think about what you are doing. This comes from the games perfectly executed core mechanic, the swinging. It is so light and intuitive that you will always be able to go where you want to go without being held back or having to struggle against the game. For people that are looking for a bit more challenging gameplay there are missions where you can complete difficult courses and compete for highscores. However I would not go in to this game expecting it to be very hard to complete unless you want to be #1 on the leaderboards.

I never played Spiderman 2, but I love the idea that this dev was gonna make this game no matter what. You can enhance your playing experience with a Xbox One controller AND turn off the follow cam. But a mouse with programmable buttons does the trick. I do not recommend keyboard and a normal mouse. Here's why. You press space to charge your jump. Now you're in the air. You press left click to grapple onto something. You press left shift to boost your swing. Easy enough. Now you're in the air. Hold the Q/E to spin. Hold the 1/2/3 to do a trick. Hold the R/F to flip. Now let go of everything and repeat the left click + left shift for more boost. You'll be at a disadvantage with trick missions. There is a learning curve, but I got over it easy. It is so easy to get momentum and the game is very forgiving. Unless of course you want to specifically land in a certain spot, then you might as well be trying to fire an arrow over a building. If you're okay with a learning curve (You have to get to the second map. It's so much better than the first map and it's easy to get there), accepting that this is a game without story or polish in art assets (Can't tell wall from floor, white text pop ups).EDIT: I am so amazed that I am still learning new things even after I beat all of the missions. I've really gotten used to wrapping around corners and zipping across maps. I love the jetpack and the boost. Even if I don't swing, I can leap from rooftop to rooftop with a charged jump. I wish the dev got more funding so the maps would be more alive and animated. Or hey, even another map would be awesome. I would totally donate to the next kickstarter or next DLC for this game.

A comparison: I 100% completed Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4. It's a really fun, ultra-refined, beautiful looking game that deserves the acclaim it got on a mechanical level. I don't know enough about the Spider-Man IP to talk about it as an extension of that but the overall smooth, pleasing feel of swinging around and beating up thugs was compelling enough to push me through every speck of major content. Now that it's coming to PC, Energy Hook is bound to suffer in comparison. It's a humble, barebones game, not in itself a flaw but it has led to a few frustrating moments with out-of-place ledges and high speed swings that send the player flying off the small maps. A huge title like Spider-Man doesn't have these issues and the overall experience is far more beginner friendly because of its unobtrusive flow and easier controls. So why write about a six-year-old game with very few reviews? Because, despite its rough elements, Energy Hook needs more attention for what it gets right about the web-slinging conceit now that its glossy, expensive counterpart is making its way to Steam. As good as the web-slinging in the new Spider-Man is, its just a hair off of perfect in my opinion. Peter's weight and speed will often level out when travelling around the city, meaning his momentum doesn't build and effect the speed of his swings. There's almost a cap on how fast and wild you can fling yourself around because, once Spidey attaches his web to a surface, his downward momentum won't factor in as strongly to the proceeding swing. It's like his fall quickly halts so the player can't go ludicrous speeds and smack into every wall in New York. Energy Hook is far less automated in this regard. It is entirely player-dependent, and getting good means becoming intimately familiar with the angle of your upcoming swing, the charged jump you'll make, what structures are in your way etc. It's more demanding on the newcomer, and I can see some people giving up because its not as easy to learn. But Energy Hook understands the appeal of this gameplay hook (pardon the pun) better because of how satisfying it is to feel like a heavy subject at the end of a rope, launching into the air and barely making that perfect follow-up swing. The boost especially helps in maintaining control of the player character, as it is propulsive enough to counteract any powerful swings you may make, and when combined with that speed and weightiness can lead to beautiful executions of stunts you weren't sure you could pull off. It also leads to those share of moments where you awkwardly collide with a nearby building and have to reorient yourself, but that's what makes the flawless swings more special. Nearly every swing in Spider-Man is a flawless swing, and it despite it being a very good version of the concept it gets old in a way that Energy Hook doesn't even though there's not really a whole lot of tasks or content in the latter. So, even though most people will pay full price for Spider-Man when it comes out, I would invite anyone who spent time bumming around in Spider-Man 2 on PS2/Xbox/Gamecube to buy this as a comparison point. You may like it, you may get frustrated by its shortcomings, but I'll proudly call this my webslinging game of choice for its exceptional, uncompromising gamefeel. Spider-Man has the wider appeal but Energy Hook takes its core and exceeds what the huge, talented team at Insomniac could manage because their game had to be more accessible. I'd say that's worth ten bucks.

this scratches a particular itch which may occur in some people from time to time and it scratches that itch perfect of course it's mainly fun for a few minutes here, a few minutes there - invite some friends over, have them check out this new little gem of a game,,, just have plain old fun for a few minutes, half-an-hour at the time it's exactly what it says in the description and if you too have this 'itch', I dsay it's worth the moneys

Not a bad game. The gameplay is actually fun. But it lacks content, replayability, and presentation. I remember playing Spiderman 2, just swinging around NY for hours. The combat and missions felt like a gimmicky filler, so I'm glad there's none of that in this game. But Energy Hook is still missing something. It just feels really unfinished and unpolished. There's no bugs, but there's hardly any content to begin with. You can only swing around for so long before you get bored. Even the positive reviews have less than 10 hours of gameplay time. Furthermore, this game isn't updated anymore, so there won't be any new content or updates. If you loved the swing mechanic in Spiderman 2 and want to swing around for an hour or two again, I'd say get this if it's less than 5$. Otherwise just skip. P.S. I don't own an Oculus Rift so this is not a review of the VR experience.

[h1]An Early-Access Spiderman-esk Grappling Game with Parkour Elements[/h1] https://youtu.be/n4Uk4dAt-g8 This game is very similar to old Spider Man games where you launch a web our of your hand and attach it to something in order to create a rope to swing on, except in this game you use a line of energy alongside a jetpack. You can also do a variety of stunts such as in-air tricks and wall-running. + Visually the game looks pretty good + It's quite fun to swing around, you go extremely fast while also gaining great height + Each level is very open giving you plenty of room to fling yourself around + Challenges (such as racing through rings) with leaderboards - The camera is very jerky and disorientating, especially when trying to change directions - The combo/trick point system isn't very rewarding at the moment - Currently there's not a whole lot of content (it is in Early Access though) (Suggestions:) ~ Add more enemies / obstacles, I feel like this game would be a lot more fun if perhaps you were being chased by something, or if there were traps / dangers to avoid, or if there was an overall goal to the game. Something more than simple challenges ^ Or perhps a new challenge like "get to ____ before the time runs out"

This is a pretty fun game, It reminds me of Spiderman 2. Has alot of parkour elements and time trials. Very fun :3

this game aight. remembering what buttons do what can be a little difficult at time but other than that. kinda dope

Supported this game on kickstarter because the creator was behind the swinging system I loved in Spider Man 2. Unfortunately this game is not polished enough for me to be happy with that investment. The environments feel unfinished, but that's fine as long as swinging is awesome. Unfortunately it's not, the aiming of the hookshot is always pointing in the same direction, which is always too high up, and you don't get any control over it so you're unable to do tricks that allow you to grab to specific parts of the building, and you're always on the mercy of the hook grabbing something out of sight unless you're looking straight up, these things definitely make this game suffer in terms of feel.

The game definitely harkens back to Spider-Man 2's swinging system, and the developer has been active in continuing development throughout Early Access. There are definitely still issues with the game, but it's in Early Access, so I would expect that (I experienced some weirdness navigating menus with the controller, for example). All-in-all it's definitely worth a look if you liked the locomotion-based gameplay in Spider-Man 2.