Recent reviews by turtle_hat

Impeccable platforming fun, a great challenge for 3D platformer enthusiasts, and with some of the strangest movement mechanics out there. One of your most useful movement options is a simultaneously kinda a walljump, kinda a wallrun, and kinda a double jump. And as you play you'll somehow become an expert at using it as all three :)

this game's art is rough but that's because it lets the animation be so beautiful. and the art is actually also beautiful BECAUSE it's so rough!

just have a nice time looking around as the boat makes its way down the cape and ask fun questions to yourself. like, "why are we using flags for sails?" "are those people nailing boards just for their crewmates to remove the nails again?" "are these flags steam-operated?" "are we sure this ship is seaworthy?" you won't get any answers of course but it's very fun to think about.

i don't remember this episode what

Dragon March feels like a Shockwave/Flash game from the LEGO website circa 2003 and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.

Visually, this game rules. I mean just look at it! LOOK AT IT! Cyberspace has never felt more cyber. There isn't a single thing in this game that doesn't have an extra little touch of care and novelty. The metal dragons all have different emotions while waiting for the player to pick them up! The pause menu has little dragons marching across the bottom! The gear on the Files screen rotates to the syncopated beat of the music! Every user interface element has these aughts-inspired curves and gradients that make the whole thing look smooth and fun and like it was built to make people happy. It's so refreshing to see! And it's got a prerendered 3D opening cinematic!!

It's great fun, too. The fact that you're constantly moving creates a really unique challenge. You have to make different considerations for avoiding enemies and hazards than you would if you could stop, and it keeps you alert too. You don't usually have to worry about the train of dragons behind you--they don't get hurt by enemies or hazards--which is good, since just getting Cereal through the level is challenging enough. But they do matter! Once you've built up a long line of them, you start needing to plan out your route more carefully. A few times I'd take the obvious, direct route to a dragon or key only to realize my dragons were still in the way of my escape route, and so I'd have to work out a different path. So the mechanic's interesting when it counts!

The music and sound are super cool too, they really support the vibe built by the visuals. I love how the sound for tripping over something includes a clip of that one metal pipe sound effect. Also the main menu music hits you like a brick, I love it.

I had a few issues, but I don't think any of them hurt the game that much. You steer your player with tank controls, which sometimes caused me to rotate further than I wanted and walk into a centipede or my dragons. I think it might be nice if you could point Cereal directly towards the mouse or in the direction of the joystick... maybe there could be a setting for that? The animation for restarting a level is also a bit long, especially when you have to fall to the bottom of the level for it to restart you. Maybe there could be a separate death animation for falling that starts right when the player goes out of bounds, and a button to skip the restart animation in general.

Ambystoman's done a stellar job so far and I'm so excited to play more levels. Two thumbs up! :D

madeline cgleste

the character designs are like exactly my jam, and they're animated with such a wild amount of expressiveness, the whole game is a joy to look at. the gameplay rocks too, some moves and level sections are a bit finicky but it's mostly really good at understanding the intent behind your actions. idk go watch the trailer it feels exactly as good as that looks

the game's just a little over an hour long but it gives you a lot to think about. every now and then i still mull over the philosophical question it poses about whether life has purpose in a world that's had all purpose exhausted from it. i think football 17776 makes for a good companion piece to it in that regard, they discuss it from different angles. so ummmm play it! its environment is pretty to look at as you walk through it and there's many cool little details to be found

This game's graphics might be really old, but its aesthetics are timeless. Approaching the Sunspire was possibly the most breathtaking experience I've ever had from a game. Unreal's environments do feel pretty unreal, and Alex Brandon's soundtrack is phenomonal (as always) and adds a bunch to an already great experience. The combat is intense and pushes the player to do their best, every weapon and tool fills its own niche, and the levels are an overall joy to play through. If you like other classic FPS games like Half-Life or Deus Ex, I highly recommend putting Unreal Gold under your belt too; it'll likely make it onto your list of favorites.

Okay, straight facts first.

This game only has 11 levels, one of those being a tutorial and another being much shorter than the others.

Each level can be completed in under 10 minutes, and the entire game can be completed in about — or under — two hours.

Yet,

I've somehow managed to rack up over 150 hours in Mirror's Edge.

And I still plan on playing more.

That must speak volumes for itself.

Honestly, I don't quite know why I love this game so much. It might be the absolutely stunning views of the city from above and below. It might be the fantastic, complex but easy to learn gameplay. It might be the art style, which is very minimalistic yet bursting with color and character. It also might be the fact that I just want to strive to become better and better at a game which I love for all the reasons stated above. Whatever the reason is, I think this game is utterly fantastic, and if you've been considering a purchase, get this game. I know Catalyst is out already, but even if you have that, still get this game. It's a great experience, and even if you don't play it as much as I have, I almost guarantee that you'll still have loads of fun with it.

Also, another great but unintentional feature that makes this game great is its plethora of exploits. Yes, this game is very broken, yet in all the right ways. It allows you to, with practice, knowledge and skill, play the game faster than it was ever intended to be played. This leads to near-endless replayability as you find out new ways to complete the levels faster and faster. It gives you a great sense of progression when you remember back to yourself, before you knew that side-jumping and turning in the direction you jumped instantly gets you to your top speed, and realizing how slow you were back then. However, even though the game is broken, it's never unplayable. Every bug left in the game gives the player an advantage, and at no point in the game are you blocked from progressing due to something you didn't intend to do.

In conclusion, I absolutely love this game. Why?

No idea, Faithy. I just go there for the pretzels. ;)



Because of my experience with it, I nominated Mirror's Edge for the "No Apologies" Steam Award.