_-= The most negative thumbs-up review you'll ever read? =-_
I'm sticking to my "i won't thumbs down even tho i hate it", cuz I don't want to be quite that spiteful. ;P
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Been on my "play next" / "players like you, love..." shelf for a while. I eyeballed it, and kept my distance for a while (game-related pun not intended). Today on a bored whim I foolishly installed and started playing.
I won't thumbs down though personally I find it loathsome.
I _hate_ physics puzzle games, and also not much of a fan of "miss one properly timed click and you fail the whole run" sort of games (e.g. hardcore platformers).
Well, guess which two genres this game combines... :(
(For that matter, I kinda hate "time mechanics" too! :P)
The superficial presentation that it's much more arcadey and "casual fun" than it actually is... Don't fall for it!
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On one hand, any game that gives the player a near-instant "restart level" function is commendable for QoL. (Hotline Miami comes to mind.) On the other hand, in terms of beating your head against the wall levels of difficulty ... such a feature is not a good sign.
I'll still try to slog thru as it appeared "innocent" enough, with so few achievements, and maybe there's a [i]relatively[/i] quick 100% here. (Sure ... 112 mins played, 1 achievement unlocked. Not off to a great start then are we? :P)
Minimal bonus points for illustrating gravitational systems and orbital mechanics. As I'll most likely never launch anything into space, much less get there myself, anything that helps me "get there" in terms of imagination, is appreciated. (And, looking at community hub, there are ppl quite a bit more informed than me who are doing formal guides using proper terminology etc. Hoping that after browsing a few of those, I'll feel less helpless in-game.)
But extra malus points for trying to pair it with a "chill" soundtrack, as if that makes up for the game being super frustrating. Ugh.
BTW I absolutely got this in a bundle. Never would have purchased it directly. I know my tastes and this ain't them.
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Aaaand, several play-hours later, "breezing thru" some achievements, then hitting a brick wall on a certain level (F3A3). Very tempted to rage-thumbs-down, cuz i'm just petulant like that. :P So, why didn't I?
In searching for "tips", etc., was amazed to find out the dev actually wrote a blog to the effect of "we see so many of u having probs with these, so here is explanation of the technique." I wouldn't call it exactly a walkthru but it is a clear description of the skills/techniques u will need to use.
I'm impressed.
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100% achievements; sayonara and KMFA. Just an aggravating little peckwad of a game. At its best, boring. At its worst, hellish.
[b]It really just comes down to this: the game cheats in several very frustrating ways (and taunts you to boot.) To call the challenge "asymmetrical" is being far too kind.[/b]
This could have been a truly mellow fellow, but no.. devs want u to make a career out of this.
And btw the gravity sim isn't what I thought, either. Not only does [i]your[/i] mass not attract anything, but the mechanics of the attractor objects are such that the smallest possible attractor can absorb basic objects of any size. Oof.
Anyway, let me tell you about a superior piece of software... It's called "Cheat Engine". And the skills I learned [i]there[/i] are at least transferrable, whereas those I learned in osmos, are not. :P
P.S. -- 005247C0
