This review contains spoilers
Despite being a game I was incredibly late on to play, Celeste was a fantastic experience 5 years later. The story is essentially a girl named Madeline who is seeking to climb the mountain called Celeste, and that she wants to reach the summit. Nothing too grandiose or detailed, just a simple plot at that.
The real reason why people enjoy this game are the characters and I really don’t blame them at all. Madeline is really climbing the mountain because she suffers with anxiety, depression, and has panic attacks. She wants to climb the mountain because she feels she has no purpose other than to accomplish a challenge. And that a ‘part of her’ is fully embodied being the fear of people accepting her based on who she is and trying to push people away. It’s such a relatable character that is being told for today’s audience, in a tough-as-nails indie game.
The gameplay is quite short, but they always have interesting gimmicks to get through the platforming. Throughout the game, Madeline has the ability to dash in the air acting as either a recovery for a jumping error, or a ways to get to an area further out. But in all of the levels, they all have certain gimmicks like traffic light blocks, orbs that move when you input a direction, or even turning yourself into light and flying around the level. It always made me learn what to do with these and how I should implement them to their fullest.
If you are thinking this will be an easier game to play since it is slightly short, there are plenty of challenges in these levels. You will be dying a lot in this game… If you want harder, there are two more chapters you get in the game that are even more difficult, especially the final one. But there are also collectibles you can grab like strawberries, which do absolutely nothing except affect the rank of your ending, cassette tapes that give you harder variants of levels and if you beat all those, you get EVEN MORE harder levels to play, and crystal hearts that help get through gates within the last two chapters.
All of that stuff is entirely optional but I did just a few B-side levels and chapter 8. I’m not that much of a masochist to do all of them just for chapter 9. But it is a solid recommendation if you or a friend are looking for a hard game to play, especially being a platformer too.
The real reason why people enjoy this game are the characters and I really don’t blame them at all. Madeline is really climbing the mountain because she suffers with anxiety, depression, and has panic attacks. She wants to climb the mountain because she feels she has no purpose other than to accomplish a challenge. And that a ‘part of her’ is fully embodied being the fear of people accepting her based on who she is and trying to push people away. It’s such a relatable character that is being told for today’s audience, in a tough-as-nails indie game.
The gameplay is quite short, but they always have interesting gimmicks to get through the platforming. Throughout the game, Madeline has the ability to dash in the air acting as either a recovery for a jumping error, or a ways to get to an area further out. But in all of the levels, they all have certain gimmicks like traffic light blocks, orbs that move when you input a direction, or even turning yourself into light and flying around the level. It always made me learn what to do with these and how I should implement them to their fullest.
If you are thinking this will be an easier game to play since it is slightly short, there are plenty of challenges in these levels. You will be dying a lot in this game… If you want harder, there are two more chapters you get in the game that are even more difficult, especially the final one. But there are also collectibles you can grab like strawberries, which do absolutely nothing except affect the rank of your ending, cassette tapes that give you harder variants of levels and if you beat all those, you get EVEN MORE harder levels to play, and crystal hearts that help get through gates within the last two chapters.
All of that stuff is entirely optional but I did just a few B-side levels and chapter 8. I’m not that much of a masochist to do all of them just for chapter 9. But it is a solid recommendation if you or a friend are looking for a hard game to play, especially being a platformer too.