Yes, yes, I know everyone praises this game for being developed by one person. That is cool and all, however I, unlike many other reviewers, will not use kid gloves to rate this game. Moving on:
Story: 4/10
This is a reasonably complex narrative that honestly reeks of pretentiousness or a lack of understanding in what makes a good narrative. It is pretty obvious that only one personYes, yes, I know everyone praises this game for being developed by one person. That is cool and all, however I, unlike many other reviewers, will not use kid gloves to rate this game. Moving on:
Story: 4/10
This is a reasonably complex narrative that honestly reeks of pretentiousness or a lack of understanding in what makes a good narrative. It is pretty obvious that only one person made this, as the characters have no depth. The overall story regarding the One Concern, Mother, the characters, and overall lore is just not interesting or told well at all. Loads of dialog that is very, very boring. I can read logs in Metroid Prime, Axiom Verge, or other games all day. These other games have no voice acting also, but have a strong narrative. I feel like this person should have gotten a volunteer friend or family member to help with the story to ensure that it made sense before release. The game would honestly probably be way better if the game play elements existed without any of the story being included. It is really that bad. For readers, this is an honest review, not a "favor" to the creator like so many others have posted to support the developer. The story should be better or removed period.
Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are retro style 8-16 bit-ish. Overall, pretty good. It is animated very well. I like many of the character designs. I will note that some of them are pretty bland, but some aren't. Particularly, the main two characters are my favorite of the entire game and have the overall best designs and art. The overall art style of the game is kind of bland and not very creative looking. No area will look impressive to you, even compared to previous games of a similar style. Due to being the most consistent part of the game, I gave it a decent score.
Sound/Music: 3/10
I love good music and sound. This game has neither. The is one or two areas where the music is kind of catchy, but not because it is that good, so much as how it loops very quickly and is easy to remember as such. After I stop playing for a few days, I won't be remembering or looking to purchase or download the soundtrack. I feel like this could have been done much better even if only by a single person.
Gameplay: 3/10
The 3 is for the fact that some of the bosses are pretty fun, challenging, and unique. Otherwise, the entire game is a giant chore. The powers and abilities are very infrequent. Collectibles in the game can be very challenging to get and sometimes involve fun puzzles, but amount to nothing. They are typically just pieces used to buy and equip tweaks. Tweaks allows all sorts of different abilities, but there are only a handful of them in the entire game. I spend the whole game collecting everything possible and was only able to buy a few tweaks. There are many more items to build tweaks, and puzzles surrounding those items, then actual tweaks to build. When I realized this, I was not happy to say the least and it really feels like a completely wasted opportunity.
All abilities usually involve your wrench or a few other weapons. Eventually you kind of start looking for more movement options or weapon powerups. Move movement options never come like they do in Metroid and Castlevania games, but instead a few weapon mods come and most do very little besides one in particular that is received near the end of the long, meaningless dialog fest. There are one or two little mini-games that are included. One in particular involving boxes was pretty fun and definitely should have been expanded on more later, but nope. Two minutes and it's never to be seen again. Combat outside of bosses is tragic, kind of like Super Metroid, until you reach actual Metroids. Enemies typically just **** there and do nothing or move very slowly. A few shoot projectiles or get aggressive towards the very end game, but are never close to being a threat even on the hardest difficulty. Platforming is sometimes a bit addicting, but not fun, as there is nary a challenge to be had in the jumping around. Don't expect any crazy moving platforms like Mario, or difficult jumps at all. The primary gameplay involves dropping bombs to open doors or finding a way to go up or down. Most puzzles feel exactly the same as the last, so the game gets boring very quickly. I was excited to see how the puzzles would progress as I got new abilities, but it seems the the developer lacked creativity or time to execute.
Lumping in controls here, they are solid and there are no bugs, but a few minor frustrations with how you move in the are or when shooting. You can run and shoot, but not use your wrench for some reason. Another character cannot run and attack at all. The game is not buggy in my experience, so another plus I suppose.
Overall: 4.25
Iconoclasts can be fun sometimes, but overall is a missed opportunity. Compared to another similar,solo developed game, Axiom Verge, this is very underwhelming. Don't believe the hype.… Expand
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