Maybe this was born too late. It’s a beautiful resurrection of a style, sensibility, and approach to design that is apparently destined to be continually forgotten. It is and is not retro. This is like the game we dreamed about after experiencing its ancestors long ago. It’s an earlier ideal of pure action given high def form—faster, stronger, smoother, better than what came before.
A lone swordsman slashing through a dystopia at high speeds. Run fast, slash faster. Jump, double jump, and climb your way to the heart of the empire. And it all feels so good.
You begin the game with the abilities of a hero and then the game gives you more along the way— and expects you to fully master everything it gives you. Jump, slide, and dash at just the right times. Quick swap between those eternally cool plasma swords to dispatch different threats: break enemy shields, reflect incoming lasers, start fires, and freeze enemies. Use specials to summon futuristic animal companions for aid—keeping an eye on timing and positioning and the meter. And you have to be quick about it all to survive. But it all flows naturally once it’s really in your hands.
The existence of a map and the possibility of exploring and backtracking might have set up misleading expectations: “look there’s a mysterious city to be explored however you see fit.” But that’s not quite the spirit here. The game is at its best when you are moving fast. So just follow the arrow for a really good time. Stray a bit from the path if you want to find some upgrades to make the experience a bit easier. But exploration is more or less a diversion from the core experience.
The all-knowing arrow hovering in front of you will unfailingly guide you through everything if you let it. This creates a kind of focused linear simplicity inside an interconnected environment. Fight your way into and through a futuristic citadel, down to the lower depths of the oppressed underworld, up to the top of a panopticonic tower looking over it all, slash through the dystopian leader, and watch the sun set on empire as you reenter the atmosphere on the back of of your defeated foe.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
And some other afternoon, you can do it all again. But even faster.
A lone swordsman slashing through a dystopia at high speeds. Run fast, slash faster. Jump, double jump, and climb your way to the heart of the empire. And it all feels so good.
You begin the game with the abilities of a hero and then the game gives you more along the way— and expects you to fully master everything it gives you. Jump, slide, and dash at just the right times. Quick swap between those eternally cool plasma swords to dispatch different threats: break enemy shields, reflect incoming lasers, start fires, and freeze enemies. Use specials to summon futuristic animal companions for aid—keeping an eye on timing and positioning and the meter. And you have to be quick about it all to survive. But it all flows naturally once it’s really in your hands.
The existence of a map and the possibility of exploring and backtracking might have set up misleading expectations: “look there’s a mysterious city to be explored however you see fit.” But that’s not quite the spirit here. The game is at its best when you are moving fast. So just follow the arrow for a really good time. Stray a bit from the path if you want to find some upgrades to make the experience a bit easier. But exploration is more or less a diversion from the core experience.
The all-knowing arrow hovering in front of you will unfailingly guide you through everything if you let it. This creates a kind of focused linear simplicity inside an interconnected environment. Fight your way into and through a futuristic citadel, down to the lower depths of the oppressed underworld, up to the top of a panopticonic tower looking over it all, slash through the dystopian leader, and watch the sun set on empire as you reenter the atmosphere on the back of of your defeated foe.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
And some other afternoon, you can do it all again. But even faster.