I like the neon aesthetics in the tunnels and on the obstacles. It also makes it easier to spot obstacles and their gaps.
The controls felt a little awkward. The mouse and keyboard control was extremely confusing at the start: it took me a while to catch onto the fact that the rate of turn is determined by the distance between the screen centre and the pointer's current position. Though I did manage to pass the normal difficulty, I found it unintuitive to have to return my mouse back to the screen centre after a turn. The controller was easier as the pointer returns back to the centre automatically. I did try the advanced controls, but it felt more distracting and so I preferred the simpler schemes for both controller, and mouse and keyboard.
I accidentally found the extreme difficulty, and I gave it about 20 attempts. It think it is very good design that the obstacle rotation cycles start the same way on each run. This meant that you could brute force a strategy with patience and time: I got to the last quarter of the first cave tunnel after the red bulkheads before writing this review.
I think a large part of the difficulty stems from a combination of the controls and the obstacles:
- You have 20 seconds, so speed is a priority. You can rapidly pick up speed with the boost on top of the normal acceleration
- As you are in space, it makes sense that you need to also be pressing the forward button whilst pointing in your target direction to actually turn. This is fine and is logical
- The method to turn feels fine when travelling at high speed and you have the space to swerve around it
- The bulkhead doors close shut over time, which adds some degree of urgency. On it's own, this is fine
- The laser and physical obstacles have plenty of gaps to exploit. These are manageable at high speeds provided that you have the time and space to react
I think the issue occurs when all these elements are used together: the time limit, controls and high speed encourage linear movement with few detours and deviations, but the spacing between consecutive obstacles and the cave layout encourage slower movement and tighter turns. As the ship is quite fragile, you are punished quite heavily for going at high speeds as you are unlikely to avoid things. This is a larger problem on hard and extreme difficulties. Compounding the issue further are the targeting lasers that will hit you at lower speeds as you enter the caves, which also encourage higher speeds in an area where there's turns and obstacles.
Here are a few suggestions that may help strike a balance between these elements:
- increase the spacing between consecutive obstacles. This would allow the player to move at higher speeds by giving them more time to react and reposition themselves after passing each obstacle
- remove the targeting lasers. The speed of the ship should be for getting to the goal in time, and the player's ability to react and manoeuvre should be the factor for safely bypassing an obstacle. Alternatively, have the lasers gradually point towards you instead of instantly locking on
- have the turns be more gradual. The cave walls are quite dark, so it's not easy to gauge how much the player needs to turn. Alternatively, have the level be more straight
- have the bulkheads close partially instead of fully. Thematically, it makes sense for the bulkheads to shut fully. However, if the bulkhead is nearly shut, this reduces the space and options that the player can use when attempting to take on the next obstacle. Leaving a gap would give the player some options for manoeuvring and help with predictability. Alternatively, have it so that the bulkheads start shutting only when the player is in range
I think a good example of obstacle spacing would be F-Zero GX on Chapter 5.
I like that the short time to restart also encourages retrying. Overall, the foundation of this game is fairly solid, and it is still a fun game once you get your head around the controls.
An epic escape game that needs a little more tuning.