[h1]Video (gameplay + commentary):[/h1]
https://youtu.be/y4_wZO2b90o
[h1]Review:[/h1]
Up front let me say that I don't totally dislike this game and I hope it improves, at which point I would love to switch this "not recommended" rating to "recommended." I think some of my issues below are even covered in the developer's post-release roadmap and I'm looking forward to seeing how that all goes.
Bottom line: At the moment, I don't think the game is particularly fun as a platformer.
The game has some good things going for it: some very pleasing visuals, very soothing music, and some low stress environments where you don't feel like you need to rush your platforming.
All that being said, the platforming levels themselves as well as the overall feeling of movement leave much to be desired. Jumping is very floaty and feels like you're gliding on the moon. Likewise general movement feels slightly like you're skating around, and also your momentum is hard to stop if you're trying to change direction in mid air. None of these things to me are issues individually, but combined it leads to a lot of situations where you're overshooting small platforms and falling either into a bottomless pit (where the game kindly sets you back more or less where you were when you fell), or far more punishing, you fall all the way down to the very base of a series of platforms you were slowly but surely making your way up.
Which is also part of the issue I think: a lot of the platforming is simply scaling a multitude of platforms to get to the top of something, be it to collect items needed to reach the exit, or to get to the exit itself. This is both not particularly interesting and feels severely punishing if you fall after climbing 30+ platforms only to have to do it all again.
There are some deviations to this formula, but they too I think could use some refinement. As an example, one puzzle has you picking up colored cubes and putting them on colored platforms which can only be reached by carrying the cube while hopping over platforms suspended over a bottomless pit. The issue here is the cube covers half your view. Ultimately it just makes platforming feel cheap and frustrating as it feels like the game blindfolded you rather than tested any actual measure of your platforming skill.
This was my general impression from all the stages I played. Again, the game looks nice and sounds nice, but handles not great and the platforming elements just weren't very exciting. And again, I'm hopeful the game improves. I think it has a lot of potential and I'd love to come back and relax with the game's soothing music and hopefully upgraded platforming.
I also wanted to mention -- though I'm confident this will get fixed pretty quickly -- I ran into a showstopping bug about 5 levels in where after falling into a bottomless pit, it respawned me somewhere without platforms, and thus I was stuck in an infinite loop of falling. Even restarting the game couldn't fix this. Again, I'm sure this'll get fixed fast, but worth noting until it does.
