Star Sign is a pretty alright game trough and trough. It has simple controls that are easy to grasp but hard to master, and fun to swing around. The environments are pretty charming with sweet and clamming sound that enhances the setting. With the biggest flaw of it being the level design.
The level design is both confusing and repetitive. Confusing in the sense that sometimes when you think you have done every single path that the level has to offer, you don't advance because there is another area you have to go trough, but have no idea where to go or direction. There are big beams of light in the sky you could look at for direction for a path, but when you done all of the paths in you're line of sight, it hard to find that one more path/light that could be up way high in the sky. Objectives could defiantly be made more clearer. The level design is repetitive in the sense that it make you do the exact same challenges. It's fine for the first level, but the second level is almost identical in terms of challenges. Jump from vine to vine with no challenge or gimmick obstacle in you're way, Hop in a tornado and reach for the furthest vine over and over, slingshot from platform to platform from very long distances and such. I feel like it never grows to be more interesting or even more involved then it's stale swing to swing set of vines and grind ropes.
I also have to point out that the checkpoints are very few and far between. Sometimes minutes apart. I personally don't mind the challenge of less checkpoints, and I do appreciate the options of extra challenge difficulty trough no checkpoints and the fun idea of the floor is lava, which is really cool! But I feel like the game would benefit by having a easy difficulty for those who are having a hard time with the long stretch of level design without a checkpoint.
(UPDATE: The dev has since updated the game to be more customizable with how you want to tackle difficulty in the game. If you want more checkpoints, but same amount of jumps, you can do that. If you want to have the normal amount of checkpoints with more then 2 jumps and aim assist, you can also do that as well. Allowing the player to mix and match however they please. The fact you can do this is just awesome to see!)
With that said, the other aspects of the game are pretty good. Namely the controls and movement. The controls are easy to learn since they are only four actions. Jump, swing, slingshot, and sprinting. You get quite the feeling for swinging around pretty fast that you feel like you are in absolute control over. You can speed up you're swing and momentum jump with the sprint button that acts like a boost while you swinging. The way in which you can control you're speed/control is pretty flexible depending on the trajectory of you're swing. The slingshot is a pretty good option for movement too from a standstill if you don't have that much space on the ground, or to make you very own way above the skies without need land or rocks above you. It's a pretty cool detail that opens up the approach you could go for.
While the level design is pretty repetitive, the game does allow you to grapple onto any surface and or terrain there is in the entire game. This can allow you to use the movement you learnt and apply it to the path you see fit. You could follow along the path, or take a slight shortcut if you climbed up the floating island and skip all the vine climbing, or even cutting trough all of it and making you're own path if you think you can. You can even use the terrain to save you're self from a dangerous fall if there is a wall nearby. It really opens the door and can even make a playtrough unique.
The world does a pretty good job in making you believe in it's dreamlike qualities. For example, in the first level, there are the normal nature things you find out in the woods, trees, ponds, vines, mountain and such. But when you get to the next level, all those things get re decorated to fit the theme of that sky-box. Which is pretty neat, but noting note worthy by itself. Expect for the fact that music accompanying the levels really fit whiten the floating landscapes and feel right at home. It's nice, sweet, calming, and flowing with peace. The type of music you would fall asleep to, hence it's dreamlike qualities. The music does the heavy lifting for it's world design and presentation. Though a issue I have is sometimes the game would go very quiet and nothing would be playing, which makes for awkward silences where music would be well welcomed. But sometimes, as you make you're way trough a certain path, the music would come right back while you were swinging and taking in the local surroundings which is a really nice feeling. I appreciate the detail to more dynamic things like that. But could be implanted in a more fitting way where the silence would be not existent.
Overall Star Sign is a mostly well made game where you can defiantly feel the passion and love trough playing it. While the level design could be better in displaying you're objective and the variety, and the lack of easy mode could be a turn off for some players. Everything else is pretty good. Not amazing by no means, but gets the point across pretty finely. If the game play and screenshots appeal to you then I say I would recommend it, but wait for a sale.
