Last updated on September 7th, 2023 at 07:31 pm
A stylish game that remembers much Flashback by Delphine Software
An awesome miniature game. It operates in a tiny window and is an indulgence in retro Metroidvania features, cut down in complexity and mixed with the setting and save-system of Resident Evil. Small but satisfying, good atmosphere, the story is pretty good for a small game.
My star scores as above are indicative of each individual field independent of the game’s resultant quality. It has simple but effective graphics, but for their simplicity I couldn’t score them beyond a two. It’s by no means beautiful, it’s just functional, comfortably so.
The audio is limited -frequently, one sound is overlapped by another and functions such as tazer-usage become silent. I feel the atmosphere would have benefited from more ambient noise – and I found the ‘combat music’ during certain scenes quite annoying. It reminded me, amusingly, of Duke Nukem, but didn’t make the game much more fun to play.
Gameplay is a straight rip of the Metroidvania classic style, and that’s just fine by me. Simple but entertaining, a good execution of these mechanics.
Story surprised me; it’s unoriginal, but mixes the modern, corporate brutality of Resident Evil with the ‘mad science’ of the early 20th century setting, achieving something which in the end rings of a mixture of Another World, Resident Evil, and Bioshock’s retrofuturistic Rapture.
The interface is perfectly adequate to the task, and has a nice inventory system. I particularly enjoyed the Captain’s letter of regret.
I prefer this to Iji, despite it being a simpler and less visually attractive game. It has a spark and a sense of speed and fun lacking in many other recent games of this genre.
Game description:
Mysterious disappearances numbering by the hundreds plagues a once quiet and scenic town. Its up to investigative reporter Alex Rig to discover the answers to the unexplained.
Arrow Keys = run, jump
Z=shoot straight
X=shoot up
C=Open / Activate / Use
Space Bar= Backpack Inventory
Escape= Quit
F4 = Switch Screen (Full / Small)
