I played through the whole game and here is my review:
I love cosmology, sci-fi, and space, and I also grew up riding BMX and mountain bikes over jumps - so this game is a great fit in that regard. The game was recommended to me online after discussing my enjoyment of 'momentum games' like HASTE. I purposefully didn't look up too much gameplay footage so that I could keep some mystery going. I was quite hyped upon launching it and playing the first couple levels, but to be honest, the excitement wore off a bit as the game went on for me. It felt like a strong 'artistic expression' game, so I am happy that the creator actualized their vision, but it feels like there are some crucial misses here that make it less of a 'great game' and put it more in the category of an 'interactive experience'.
Pros:
- Fantastic atmosphere and vibes. The clouds, water, and bright lights really took you on a ride into the cosmos or brought the alien planets to life.
- One of the coolest ship control schemes I've ever encountered in a game. The 'gravity altering' and glide mode ideas are very cool, and force you to read the terrain in a way that spaceship games usually don't.
- The sense of speed is conveyed very well. Breaking the sound barrier in a cloud cover feels fantastic, the way the camera zooms out immediately and a 'sonic boom' occurs. However, other problems with the camera in different gameplay parts kind of spoil this (see below).
- The visual/sound queues for energy-level are readable enough and you get a hang of them pretty fast.
- The colors and visuals are fantastic. If you want to get stoned and feel like you're time traveling or going into another dimension, this will deliver.
Cons:
- The panning/right-stick camera/looking around is implemented very badly. Rather than keeping the ship as the center focus during right-stick camera movement, you weirdly 'turn' the whole frame of the camera, sometimes even moving your own ship out of view and losing perspective completely. It doesn't allow you to look below you properly to drop into steep downhills etc, which seems crucial for the momentum mechanic.
- The game does not have good pacing IMO. There are moments of real speed and momentum, and then other moments that feel like dead air where I was wondering if I did something wrong and was stuck, and there were no in-game or UI elements to indicate my current status.
- Multiple points in the game where I felt like the player's time wasn't really respected. If I was tired and wanted to shut it off for the time being, it felt like you had to keep dragging on and complete the level in order to save your current progress.
- The story elements felt largely disconnected from the physics-focused gameplay, and while I understand they are meant to be abstracted and promote some existential exploration to some degree, it just felt sort of out-of-place in this game that is mechanically based around momentum and dynamic movement.
Overall, I would love a more high-energy game with this type of ship control and momentum system, but this game really pulls in two directions between a fast, mechanically-based momentum game and a passive existential experience in a way that is frustrating.
For me, it's a 6-7/10. Worth buying on sale, but probably not at full price IMO.
