Into the Loop

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [i]Into the Loop[/i] is a single-button physics game with the rest all dependent on the momentum at the time of your button press. It's easy to pick up, but super difficult to master. The main premise of the game is that there is a small spinning circle that is spinning inside another circle to start. When you press the action button, it releases the constraining circle and the smaller circle within flies off with the tangential vector, with nothing acting on the circle except for the game's gravity, until it manages to successfully land inside another big circle. The way it lands will determine whether it then starts to spin and gain velocity, and thus momentum, in clockwise or counterclockwise fashion. It can be released prior to or after reaching the game's designated terminal velocity of the object. Each level has a number of point counters inside larger circles, and those circles you need to enter at least that many times to collect all of the point counters before the exit circle, in green, will apear and allow you to complete the level. The game is broken up into 100+ preset levels where you progress through and gradually see all of the different obstacles that can be found within the game. These levels you have to play through one by one in sequential order. But once you make it past one particular level, you can return to it any time to try to improve your score (by time). There is also endless mode, where after certain amounts of progression in the main game, you unlock. There are different features/obstacles in this mode, but you have to unlock them through playing the actual game and getting through the preset levels. This is no simple feat. Endless mode does not account for time but gives you scores for getting into any subsequent big circle with a required entry marker. The scoring seems somewhat arbitrary, but seems to be calculated based on how fast you manage to leave the previous circle, to chain together more sequential actions. It's set up in this risk-reward system to give players the motivation to push that button perhaps faster than you really should. Once you complete one level(seed) in endless mode, you move onto another randomly generated seed and if you fail, you restart at the level that you are currently on, with your score reset back to 0. To be completely honest with you, I am not sure if I am going to finish all of the main levels to see all of the game features. The game starts to wear on me after so many failures in a row. It's not that I cannot tolerate failure and in doing so, learning how to succeed. Some of the levels are just set up in seemingly sinister ways as to really try to test your patience. I am at 50+ levels and there are challenges that have some timed components that really make me antsy, plus I admit I just do not have the time to sit patiently and fail for the 100th time at a challenge and still have the motivation to keep going. [h1]Graphics[/h1] Minimalistic, but this works really well. It highlights the actual mechanical aspect of the game without too many flashy components. [h1]Music & Sounds[/h1] Not much music, if any, I wasn't really paying much attention to it. The sound effects are also nothing to write home about, there's this whirring acceleration sound when the small object circle starts to speed up inside the big circles. Not much else really. [h1]Audience[/h1] For single-action challenges with a strong emphasis on time of button press, many failures, and is in general rather difficult, the game is going to draw a very limited audience. [h1]Pricing[/h1] At $5.99, it's perhaps a bit more than I would like to pay for a game of this type. I understand there are enough levels to make me fail enough to feel miserable, and that there are endless randomly generated levels in that mode, but overall, I would like to see the game in the $2-3 range instead, it would just feel more at home there. [h1]My First-Look Video[/h1] https://youtu.be/guzfY_Xcl8Y [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [i]Into the Loop[/i] is a game that is very limited in target audience, and can cause a combination of frustration and strange satisfaction upon completing a small challenge after many failures. It's not expensive but perhaps more than I would like to pay for it at the asking price. Make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before diving in. I am cautiously recommending this one, because I do think it has its merits, but also not necessarily something I want unsuspecting players to drop money into and then proceed through the spinning torture chambers. Buy/play at risk of your own sanity. Score: 6.5/10 [quote]I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.[/quote]