Radium 2

Here we have a reflex/timing/control game with only left/right movement to think about, but excellent level design and plenty of challenge for your finger-to-eye coordination. You have two nodes at either side of your screen, a maze of tubes and a ball which you have to navigate along these tubes to the end. You have a choice of controller, keyboard or mouse and what you do is click/press left and/or right to pull (when it's green) or push (when it's yellow) the ball. You quickly learn to use both at once to lift the ball upwards or push it down, and it's generally all about the timing of your pulls/pushes to keep the momentum of the ball going at enough pace to get over humps etc. There are, of course, all manner of obstacles such as spikes, magnets, bouncers, speed-boost chevrons and so forth. Level overview shows 26 sections (one per letter) with 5 levels per section. You have to complete all 5 levels to move on to the next section, which I like, as it allows me to try other levels rather than being stuck on one for ages. Selecting a level shows the target time, your best time and the online leaderboards - I'm on a few of them! Yay! [h1]Sound & Vision[/h1] There's a green-on-black vibe. This is not supposed to be a pretty game, so if you're in it for the graphics then you should skip this one. However, it's very clean and functional and does the job. You can choose your background theme: solid grey; metallic; metallic + gears. As I said, you won't need a GTX1080 for this. There are 13 background tunes all named after chemical elements (natch). I think music was the major improvement the dev decided to make following Radium (which has none) and he's come up trumps. These are great tunes. You can switch between them (learning how to do so is an achievement) or you can leave it on auto-shuffle. I'm particularly fond of Og | Oganesson and I leave it on all the time. [h1]Difficulty[/h1] Each level has 3 ratings. Complete it for one mark, beat the stipulated time for 2 and (I think) beat a quicker, unstipulated time for 3. I was comfortable up to section D when it started getting tricky. At section G I was really starting to struggle... and there's still the rest of the alphabet to go! On top of that there's Speedrun mode. I'm slightly confused about how this works. I think you're supposed to play through the entire game and get an overall time which you can then try to beat. As you play through Speedrun mode there is no level overview and you can't switch between levels, you're just forced to complete one level after another with an overall time displayed. [h1]Steam[/h1] This is 'one of those games' with the alphabet and symbols for achievements so you can spell things out on your profile. This is becoming quite common. Anyway, the range of achievements is very good, compelling you to fully play the game and chase objectives. Top marks for that. 6 trading cards; Steam Cloud; Steam Leaderboards; fully cross-platform. All in all a nice collection. [h1]Value[/h1] I've had Radium (the predecessor of Ra²) in my library for ages but never got around to playing it, so I fired it up for comparison, only to find more or less the same game but less polished. The main differences are that Ra² has fabulous music, online leaderboards and you can use mouse/controller buttons. He's made a few small tweaks to the levels but they are basically the same for both games. I would certainly recommend Ra² at its current price but if you're strapped for cash you might want to go for Radium, at less than half the price. [h1]Verdict[/h1] It would be classed as a 'casual' game, with it only requiring left/right movement, but it gets very tricky indeed. I'm having a lot of fun and with 130 levels plus leaderboards it's something you can play for a long time in short doses, improving your skills along the way. Great game, with a 'budget' version available (Radium).

This game deserves to be hyped! I'm really not exaggerating when I say — and I said it before when I was playing Radium — that this game is more than a worthy 'replacement' for Super Meat Boy! I went for 3 points (A+ in SMB ;) on all levels and can say that the overall difficulty level is at least close to the same as in Super Meat Boy. Patience & carefulness is needed a lot of the time, but the tractor beams are capable of accelerating the ball very quickly, so be extra careful and focused and use your tapping skills; spikes & saws are all over the place! I think that the Pareto principle maybe goes up here (nice progression in difficulty): the 20% hardest levels = 80% of the amount of deaths and vice versa. What also made this game more challenging than its predecessor Radium, is the fact that many levels are lengthy and require repetition. Repetition or not, the game never bored me, not even 1 level did. If you feel, while you're at it, this game might get repetitive, play more! To me it looks, but more, feels like Super Meat Boy, but it's still very original and nicely inspired and I sensed the passion; most of the levels are unique, well-designed and nice to look at. The difficulty level is what I'm looking for, as it takes care you're really being tested; how are your nerves today? How's your breathing? How well can you concentrate? How patient are you? Can you stand the pressure? Not kidding when I say, applicants should play this game, so that companies can determine at least some weaknesses and strengths, be it the moment though. Anyway, a game should be rewarding, and this one definitely is! Adding to that, some nice leaderboards (TBF) in which the one and only developer jaekkl is ranked as well, and I can only recommend this game, that has a nice soundtrack to it! 9.5/10 Would like to see how many times Radium Boy died ;-)

This is a strangely addictive game. I find it frustrating enough to hold my interest and yet simple enough that anyone can play. The only thing negative I would say about it, is that it is priced a little too high. If you catch this on sale I think it is fun game that you can play for a few minutes and put away and come back to over and over again.

Ra² is, like its predecessor Radium, a physics-based game where you guide a ball through a variety of levels. For me, the highlight of this game is the diverse gameplay elements it employs to keep things interesting throughout its many levels. Most levels focus on your ability to control the ball, but the challenges you face to complete a level vary in entertaining ways: - finding your way through a labyrinth - timing your movements to avoid hazards that move in patterns, which sometimes makes it a rhythm game - finding out a short and low-risk route through sometimes non-linear levels, and it can happen that "short" and "low-risk" are two opposites where you have to decide between the two - optimizing your way to control the ball through linear levels, making it a racing game Memorizing and training a level is often necessary before you are able to pass through it, so dying and retrying is normal. The levels are quite short , from 10 seconds to maybe a minute in a few cases, and the turnaround time between a failed attempt and the restart is a few milliseconds. No waiting for screen fades, no annoying messages or detours through a menu. The potential of frustration is balanced by a constant sense of improvement because you are memorizing the levels and becoming more skilled at the ball handling with each retry. Also there are no random elements in the game. And then there are time limits to beat, which is alot of fun if you are that kind of person who likes a challenge. Being observant and finding out ways to optimize your run through the levels is very rewarding. Hunting for achievements is a joy in this game. It feels rewarding and not unfair. Achieving 100% is entirely possible with some patience and training. The leaderboards are also a motivation to keep trying.

[h1]Hass! Liebe! Hassliebe![/h1] Südlich von Hamburg programmiert einer 2017 ein Spiel mit zwei Eingabemöglichkeiten und ich hasse es! Äh, mir hat es so Spaß gemacht, dass ich es hasse! Äh, es ist frustrierend gut, dass ich es abbrechen musste. Zu empfehlen? Auf jeden Fall! [b]Ein Teilchen, so gut wie 1898[/b] [i]Radium 2[/i] oder abgekürzt [i]Ra²[/i] ist eines dieser Spiele, die man gerne mit „leicht zu lernen, schwer zu meistern“ beschreibt. Und tatsächlich braucht man nur die linke und die rechte Pfeiltaste drücken und es tut sich was (Controller habe ich nicht ausprobiert). Ein grünes Radium-Teilchen macht sich auf den Weg durch den abwechslungsreichen Hindernisparcours. Mal muss es Spikes ausweichen, mal müssen wir es hochziehen, mal den richtigen Schwung mitgeben und manchmal verwandelt es sich in ein gelbes Teilchen – die Polarisierung wechselt und alles reagiert fieser Weise umgekehrt. Was ein Gehirnverdreher! Wenn dann auch noch die Gravitation sich ändert… https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2934607550 Das Design hat mir sehr gut gefallen: Der Kontrast zwischen schwarz/grau und grün bzw. gelb ist augenfreundlich und stilsicher, die Level abwechslungsreich aufgebaut, zoomen ab und an hinein und nur selten trüben kleine Fallen den Spielfluss. Noch dazu begleiten einige rockige und atmosphärische Musiktracks unsere Versuche, die in Kontrast zu anderen Spielen, auch nach dem 10. Hören nicht nerven. [b]Marie Curie – warum?[/b] Von den 5 x 26 Level habe ich 112 gemeistert, jetzt wurde es mir zu frustrierend. Insgesamt kann man sagen, dass ca. ¼ der Level gut zu schaffen sind, bis zur Hälfte des Spiels merkt man seine Fähigkeiten spürbar verbessert und beendet diese Level nach mehreren Versuchen. Dann wird’s happig: Nun verlangen die Level schon einiges an Konzentration und Frustbewältigung ab, dafür wird man aber mit großer Freude erfüllt, hat man ein Level erledigt. Das letzte Viertel ist nur für Verrückte, die ihre Finger-Augenkoordination über lange Strecken aufrecht erhalten können – wie gesagt, mir wurde es irgendwann zu viel. Bis dahin war das Erlebnis aber toll! [code]Ra² ist ein tolles, stilsicheres Geschicklichkeitsspiel, das mit zwei Tasten auskommt, dafür aber in den späteren Level sehr anspruchsvoll ist. Für kurze Sessions und koordinierte Finger ein wirklich schönes empfehlenswertes Erlebnis, das ich nach mittlerweile 12 Stunden abbreche – der Gesundheit zu Liebe ;-)[/code] Lust auf Reviews mit einmal mehr und einmal weniger archäologischen Anmerkungen? Probier doch meine Kuratoren-Gruppe [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/archaeoplays#curation]The Archaeologist plays…[/url] aus.

Wer Radium schon gemocht hat, der wird Ra² lieben. Die Fortsetzung des süchtig machenden Spiels wurde um einige Kniffligkeiten erweitert, die euch herrausfordern. Ausserdem gibt es 2 neue Spielemodi: Den Classic und den Speedrunmodus. Neu ist auch die Highscoreliste, die euch ermöglicht mit anderen Spielern zu messen. Ab sofort kann also um den ersten Platz in der Liste gekämpft werden. Für die Erfolgsjäger sind Achievements auch wieder mit inbegriffen und auch Tradingcards. Absolute Kaufempfehlung!

Довольно сложная, но интересная игра с кучей разных фич. Основана на физике.

Nice puzzle games, with only two controls (left and right), which controls whether the ball will be attracted to the left or right knobble. This is one for the hardcore gamers, I went to sector D (i.e. 20 puzzles in ?) and things are becoming harder and harder. It remains fun nonetheless