Haste

Peak game, do not hesitate, this is a good one!

prepu:)

[h3]Play the Demo. Current asking prices are too high.[/h3] Sale: $17.70AUD | Retail: $29.50 The high speed exhilarating slip & slide thrill of travelling at 100+kph weaving through tight geometry full of poles, ice, cacti & ruined structures whilst avoiding air to ground obstacles before launching into the sky to analyze the upcoming terrain to maximise my decline/incline speed with perfect landings for added top speed, all to chase the S rank for a level node, is unmatched. [b]However[/b] HASTE is bogged down by the roll the dice level generation & obstacle spawns, a bloated item list, stingy meta currency gains, the length of levels and most intrusive, constant story interruptions through visual novel elements that feature characters who aren't interesting outside of their beautiful designs & artwork. [b]When HASTE generates an error free level, It feels intense & it really shines. But the complete package is not that. It's a roll of the dice luck of the draw and the chase isn't worth the PRICE of admission at this time, and that's the great sin.[/b] HASTE could have benefited from a number of developer crafted levels instead of Procedural Generation, however that could have removed the incredible feeling & expression of brain power that occurs when the levels are generated near perfectly, as said before. [h3]GAMEPLAY, MOVEMENT & ITEMS[/h3] Outrun the void & your death, simple as that. Each level dissolves as you run, if you are too slow you will be caught & killed. The player has 3 lives (by default) and you have to use momentum and in-flight management to navigate through level corridors until you reach an escape portal with each level taking 1min+ to complete, relative to your skills, the items you acquire & your selected difficulty options. Zoe has few controls but you’ll mostly be using A & D to avoid obstacles and Spacebar to manage your momentum and entry/exit speeds from the sloped geometry. In spite of the simplicity the game offers multiple ways of mastery given the speed management system. At certain points throughout you’ll be able to purchase items that grant roguelike bonuses to your run such as increased speed, invulnerability etc. This makes the early game experience slower & harder than it should be compared to the demo, made worse on certain level generations as you may just die due to the speed of the void relative to your ability to increase your own. [h3]GAME STRUCTURE, LEVELS & STORY[/h3] The game contains a 7+ hour 10 mission story housed in shards within a hub world. Each mission shard is a procedurally generated tree of level nodes that you work through until you reach one of the 3 (excluding the finale) bosses in the game, with each boss receiving modifiers in later missions that somewhat change your approach to their repetitive appearances. You must beat Shard 1 to unlock S2, so on & so forth with a limited Endless Shard unlocking after S3. The tree contains multiple branching nodes between the first and last with the choice of navigation placed on your shoulders. The amount of nodes present increases with story progression as does the obstacle difficulty & requirement of split second decision. [b]Improved from the demo is the ability to select a path of nodes up to the boss ahead of time so that you don't return to the selection screen after each level (something that the game benefits greatly from).[/b] The levels are mostly straight line corridors of various heights of geometry full of craters, hills & incline/declines with various obstacles scattered in front of you & the occasional corner that will keep you on your toes & challenged. Note: The tight corners seen in the Demo seem to be removed. Static Obstacles provide variation to a run but after a few completions it all melds together losing that wow factor,; they include trees, lava colosseums, gravity orbs, train tracks & mines and you’ll encounter by themselves or in conjunction with the former orbital gun fire, rock pillars, lava plumes & missile shells that spawn in front of you with little warning. They use RNG spawns which can cause them to appear on top of you, ending runs unexpectedly. The shard & levels reward Spark currency depending on completion speed, with a set amount of Sparks (depending on meta upgrades) appearing throughout each level along generated ramps for you to potentially gather. Sparks are exclusive to the Shard and are used to purchase items from shops that appear mid-run. Each level node within the tree can be generated as one of the following:[list] [*]Vanilla Levels place you into procedurally generated biomes with random obstacles generated throughout based on the seed. [*]Disrupted Nodes are modified runs via fragment disruption. [*]Increase the damage you take w/ no benefit. [*]Reduce (no benefit) or provide currency [*]Reduce the cost of the next 2 items purchased at the shop [*]Increased or additional obstacles. [*]Challenge levels have vastly different objectives to the base game and can vary from simple conversations with NPC's to dedicated arenas. [*]A Black & White choice/tradeoff from an NPC. [*]Camps that heal the player when damaged & restore a singular life if lost. [*]Shops where you can use the accrued currency to purchase player improvement items and if you don't want the items you can reroll at an added cost. [*]Boss Nodes are always at the end of the tree and host one of the three bosses during Shards 1-9 - Snake, Convoy & Jumper, while S10 has a unique timed platforming boss to conclude the game.[/list] The shard path I would choose was clear from the get-go if there were multiple negative Disrupted Nodes present as they greatly reduce your ability to complete a run on top of the coin flip level generation, thus their addition offers nothing. The final boss is a test in awareness & ability but once again relies on RNG because most surfaces fail to have enough ramps to gain height before death. I had two runs killed because of poor level generation wasting 20+ minutes, twice. [h3]HUB & EQUIPMENT[/h3] The Hub world houses the shards that are marked with Mission numbers above them (poor visibility) & beams of light directing to the finale, with waypoint markers directing you to the next story related shard. You can replay any of the shards upon re-entry but you can also edit the Shard's seed & enable a time-trial mode by interacting with any shard before entry. The Hub also contains a campsite where you can talk with NPC's to purchase improvements, Hoverboard (Demo mobility item) side-grades & cosmetics using Anti-spark currency accrued successfully completing a shard (although the amount received (300-500 for 10-20mins) is trivial given the cost & range of useful improvements), you do receive shards after failure but it is significantly reduced to the point it doesn’t matter, despite the length of your run. 16hrs i could upgrade Spark generation & count to max w/ one of the 3 purchasable equipment. I have no desire to grind Anti-sparks to gain access to others. [list] [*]The Captain provides meta persistent upgrades, Maximum Health, Max Lives, Max Energy, Item Rarity % chance, Sparks during level generation and the how many Sparks you start with each Shard. [*]Gan reveals the item roster, where you can read their benefits outside of a run or check how many items you have yet to unlock. (13hrs playtime & I'm missing 13.) [*]Riza allows you to check your all time stats: Shards Played, Sparks collected, S Ranks achieved, Deaths, Distance Travelled, Airtime, Perfect Landings, Highest Speed and longest endless run. [*]Weeboh is the cosmetic vendor where you can change Zoe's outfit & color for a cost 500-5000), or [b]if you use the Steam Workshop, change her model to Goku, Rayman, Sonic, Tahm Kench etc without additional in-game purchase.[/b] [*]Niadaz Daro & Wraith sell their equipment - Hourglass, Grappling Hook & Cowl each with their own alternative movement bonus to the hoverboard. [/list]