THE GOOD PARTS
The idea for this game rocks. I really like it a lot and this interpretation of the theme was great. The challenge is there (it really demands some attention from you because you have to keep track of at least 3 objects in the last 3 levels). The art was good too, it felt easy on the eyes and looked great throughout my whole playthrough.
The most praisable thing about this game is its core mechanic and the interpretation of the theme, IMO.
THE BAD PARTS
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There’s no reason for this game to not be a browser-based one. I think this is this jam entry’s demise. Literally, go to Unity > Build Settings > WebGL > Switch Platform > Build and that’s it: this game would have 10-12x more ratings this way because the truth is NOBODY wants to download and execute a file that they don’t know what it contains or does. I was kinda hesitant to run it on my end but since I had already answered your comment on my game saying that I was going to review it I ended up playing it, potentially compromising my system in the process; otherwise [if I hadn’t answered anything before checking this game’s page], I would have thanked you for your time and your rating and moved on to another game.
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With a great challenge, comes great precision demands. If you’re going to expect me to slow down time, jump, wait a couple milliseconds, jump again, accelerate time, risk being hit by a spike, jump, slow down time in the air, land and wait for a couple milliseconds, jump again, accelerate time, land on the platform and immediately jump to safety (this being only half of the level) then you BETTER… YOU BETTER HAVE CRISP CONTROLS AND PHYSICS. The controls in this game are OK but they are overshadowed by the demands of the level design. If you don’t have time to polish your controls with coyote time, some “stickiness” to better handle slanted platforms, corner correction, etc (which is perfectly understandable due to the time constraints and this being a jam entry) at least lower the difficulty a little bit. Don’t take me wrong, I completed the game but once that difficulty spike came I died and died and died and died like this was Dark Souls + Super Meatboy + Clunky Controls.
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I want to clarify on the clunky controls part for anyone that reads this. The controls/physics AREN’T really clunky, they are OK/good enough for any other platformer game but for THIS ONE they FEEL subpar [after the difficulty spike, of course] and it’s all because of the difficulty of some levels; a lower difficulty would have left me barely without anything to say on the bad parts thing because, the way I see it the person that developed this game had an objective and it hit the mark correctly, but this little detail made one level in particular feel a little bit frustrating.
MINOR DETAILS
- Some smaller audio/visual cues would have been great, BUT, it’s completely understandable that they are missing due to time constraints. Some places where I can mention that these would fit well are every time the Illuminati triangle touches the timeline circles or right before a chomper is about to bite.
CONCLUSION
This game is great. Its idea feels good to play (save for some scenarios); it feels rewarding to complete it [I recommend everyone that sees this to give it a go and try to go past level 5]. Some polish here and there, or some straightforward difficulty adjustment would have made it a nearly perfect jam game but its greatest shortcoming (not being a browser-based game) is, understandably and sadly, stopping a lot of people from enjoying this magnificent jam entry.