On this episode of the Polyspice Game Recommendation Podcast, Thorbjorne, Robert, Gerardo, and Greyson take a look at the digital card-game spinoff of the indie fighting game Rivals of Aether, with the dynamic mobile deck-builder that is Creatures of Aether! Did it do enough to immerse them in the competitive world of card games? Listen in to find out!
Creatures of Aether is available on mobile devices for iOS and Android. If you have any thoughts or comments about the game, feel free to let us know on our Twitter!
Platinum Games is a developer that any fan of videogames should be keeping an eye on. Being responsible for games such as Madworld, Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101, they have a pedigree for producing fast-paced, highly polished action games with satisfying gameplay and oodles of personality. Vanquish is one of their less often discussed titles, and I’m here to hopefully help rectify that. If you’re looking for a quality shooter that will both challenge and entertain you, all while breaking the mold of most other shooters, then you need to play Vanquish.
Vanquish is a gameplay first experience. There is a story holding things together, but it is light touch for the most part, rarely taking the spotlight off of the shooting. While I’m all for an engaging and well-written plot in any game, Vanquish carries itself so well with nothing but the strength of it’s core mechanics.
There are plenty of well done cutscenes in Vanquish, which should be expected of Platinum, but as should also be expected, the gameplay is where the really crazy stuff happens.
Gameplay
Vanquish is a cover-based third person shooter, but not one in the vein of more traditional games of the genre such as Gears of War or the Uncharted series. While in those games you’d most often find yourself popping in and out of cover to simply shoot at enemies, Vanquish is much more frantic in pace and at times feels even grander in scale than either of those contemporaries. It’s a bombastic experience that rarely ever let’s up, especially the enemies you’re up against.
Even on Normal difficulty the game can be quite challenging, as you can die fairly fast if you don’t either get behind cover or act quickly while out of it. From the very start you’re expected to hone your twitch reflexes and effectively survey the battlefield under pressure in order to survive. The solid checkpoint system and quick loading times keep the pace fast and makes death more of a slap on the wrist than a real punishment, and you’ll be back in the action before you lose your sense of flow. This is also helped by the great lineup of usable guns.
The gametakes a unique approach to carrying weapons, and even manages to subtly incorporate a solid upgrade system into its arsenal as well. Instead of the typical shooter standard of only being able to carry two guns at a time, Platinum Games just had to give it a little bit ‘extra’ and let you carry three guns. This small change allows for a great deal more versatility in the player’s chosen layout, which often shifts between different combat arenas.
Proper use of the different weapon types is crucial in assessing each combat scenario, and you’ll have to get used to using each weapon at least somewhat.
Every class of gun has different situational perks that makes them all advantageous somewhere in gameplay, and all of them can slowly be upgraded if the player collects the proper items. On top of that there are two different types of grenades, one for regular damage and another for immobilizing your enemies. Only being able to carry three of each at a time limits how much you can rely on them, but also seriously accents their usefulness, as they are extremely helpful (and fun) to use.
Mobility
The feature that most strongly distinguishes Vanquish from other cover shooters is it’s high emphasis on fast-paced mobility. With the press of a button, you go from trotting around the battlefield to rocketing across the ground at meteoric speeds, propelled by jets covering your suit of power armor.
The amount of mobility that the dashing slide grants the player is a truly revolutionary element for a cover-based shooter. The aggressive, push-forward nature of the enemies means that you need to be constantly assessing the situation sprawled out across the battlefield, and moving from cover to cover very often. Organic opportunities for creative approaches present themselves often in gameplay, and this is enhanced further by the second core mechanic of Vanquish, the slow motion ability.
It is difficult to properly describe just how good it feels to rocket around the battlefield like this. It must be experienced to be truly appreciated.
The slow motion ability can be triggered manually at nearly any time for greater precision when aiming and performing complex actions. You have to be careful not to overuse the ability for risk of overheating your armor, leaving yourself unable to slow down for a couple of seconds. The slow-motion ability also works in tandem with the dash, allowing for greater precision during high-risk mobile maneuvers, and even triggers automatically when you’re pushed especially close to defeat. These two additions to gameplay shake up the typical cover shooter formula plenty by themselves, and the consistently fresh level design and bombastic set-pieces help bring it all together.
The presentation is also quite solid, and effective at staying coherent even in the middle of the action. The environments are often large and fairly open, with the largely muted color-scheme allowing for the brightly-colored robotic enemies to stand-out clearly even in the middle of an intense firefight. The PC version of Vanquish is also capable of displaying at as high as 4K resolution, which really helps immerse you in the intensity of the action, as well as help to convey the blockbuster level of spectacle that the game often indulges in quite well.
Conclusion
Vanquish is the logical conclusion of developer Platinum Games making a third person cover shooter; it’s highly technically polished, fun and fast as hell, and a unique gem among it’s genre. Running at only $20 on Steam and $25 on PS4, it’s a fair price given it’s shorter length, and what is there is extremely high quality on the gameplay front with no fat to trim. An easy recommendation for fans of quality action games, and anybody looking for something truly fast-paced to break up the tedium of slower shooters.
On the fifth episode of the Polyspice Game Recommendation Podcast, Thorbjorne, Robert, Gerardo, Daniel and Greyson discuss the legacy collection that is Super Mario 3D All-Stars! Less than a month before it’s locked away, we’re here to tell you why it’s worth it! If you haven’t made up your mind yet, now’s the time. Click below to find out why it’s worth a buy!
Super Mario 3D All-Stars is available until March 31st, 2021 for Nintendo Switch. If you have any thoughts or comments on the game, feel free to let us know about it on our Twitter!
I like playing weird games, that’s not a secret. Practically every game I’ve recommended so far during my time with Polyspice could be considered at least a little bit weird. From the puzzle-matching cooking quest that is Battle Chef Brigade Deluxeto the space shooter J-Pop odyssey that is Vitamin Connection. Weird games just grab my attention.
But what makes a game weird? What is a weird game? To say a game is weird implies that there are “normal” games, which I’d argue is only partly true. Sure, there are genres of games and popular trends in gaming, but videogames are an ever-changing medium. Game design is more art than science, and without experimentation with weird ideas, we wouldn’t ever see anything new or interesting.
Today I’d like to talk about what I consider to be the absolutely definitive “weird” videogame. A game that isn’t just a truly unique and excellent experience, but also illustrates just how great games can be when you throw out conventional wisdom and experiment with gaming as a medium. That game is Suda51’s magnum opus, Killer7.
Suda51
Killer7is a game that’s impossible to classify into a single genre. In the simplest of terms, it is an action-adventure shooter with a horror influence that swaps between first and third person. It was originally released for the Nintendo Gamecube and PlayStation 2, and was re-released on PC through Steam just a few years ago.
Killer7 was the first game from Japanese game designer Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, to come to the West. Suda as a designer is known best for his experimental and self-proclaimed “punk” style of making games. He seeks to defy established tropes and conventions of gaming in all his work. This usually involves a great deal of blood and gore, and eccentric mechanical and gameplay choices, of which Killer7 is the epitome of this style.
“Style” really is the word of the day here. Well, that and “strange”.
Combat and Puzzles
Killer7’s moment to moment gameplay involves exploring the current level you’re in through branching paths that you explore freely while moving on rails with a single button. You must also keep your ears alert for the giggling of Heaven Smiles, many deadly types of which lurk around every corner. They only become visible when you scan the environment for them in first person, and only dispatched after shooting their own unique weak-spots. You also solve adventure game style puzzles with key collecting and riddles aplenty, which will test your memory and observational skills quite often.
Whether you’re dealing with the combat or the puzzles, it will require the utilization of Killer7’s best core mechanic; swapping between the members of the Killer7 at will. After fulfilling certain requirements in the level, you can swap between each mysterious and deathly skilled member of the team. Each of the Smiths has their own weapon as well as unique ability, and you must learn to utilize all of them in even balance in order to complete each level. Thankfully they all play well enough that this isn’t a problem.
Dan Smith is a basic shooter who can deal extra damage with a charge shot, Kaede Smith is the Sniper of the group with a slow rate of fire, Kevin Smith (no relation) can throw knives and never has to reload, and so on. Each member of the team has something significant to contribute to gameplay.
Deconstructive Gameplay
It doesn’t take much time at all in Killer7 for sights like this to become the new normal.
The basic combat is helped along by a great variety of enemies, as well as methods of disposing of enemies, on top of some solid if simple RPG elements. You can upgrade each character’s abilities and gun skills a certain amount in each level, provided you have enough blood. The difficulty does eventually get pretty high towards the end of the journey, but the difficulty curves naturally to get to that point, and it hardly ever feels unfair to the player.
What I’ve discussed so far are the basic and more easily understandable gameplay mechanics of Killer7. However, there’s a lot I’d rather not discuss, as this is a game that’s best enjoyed going into it knowing as little as possible. It’s a game that makes tons of tiny alternative design decisions that make for something potentially alienating or off-putting, but much greater than the sum of its parts.
Every basic element of Killer7 has been intentionally somewhat tweaked to make itself seem skewed and off-putting to the player. The health bar is off kilter, the controls and camera are highly unorthodox, and pretty much everything else about the whole game is at least slightly strange. More often very strange. This extends to the entire narrative as well.
Plot (No Spoilers)
I will now attempt to explain the basic plot of the game while doing my best not to spoil anything serious:
We’re off to a great start here already.
In an alternative timeline where all forms of domestic and international terrorism have been eradicated, and the United Nations is on the verge of declaring world peace, a new threat emerges in the form of the mysterious beings known as the Heaven Smiles. A mysterious sleeper cell of giggling homunculi with permanently fixed grins and explosive organs.
In the midst of a massively entangled political struggle between the United States and Japan, the UN calls upon the services of the eponymous Killer7 (also known as the Smith Syndicate). The Smith Syndicate is very mysterious. They are a group of seven highly skilled assassins, all of whom are led by the leader of the syndicate, Harman Smith.
Most of the important legwork for the group is handled by Garcian Smith, a stone-faced cleaner who gets insider information on the syndicate’s next assassination target. He does so through shadow-lurking informants, seeking to calm the storm of or even turn the tides of the West vs. East political struggle.
Anything else that I could tell you would just further spoil the experience for you, and frankly I’m not sure if I would even be doing the whole thing justice. Killer7’s story is a web of conspiracy dotted with disturbing subject matter and absolute chaos. Yet at the same time it often feels so reserved, the pacing is never too fast or too slow, and the difficulty cleanly scales up over the course of the game’s linear story; a story built up additionally by the presentation.
Presentation
The PC Remaster of Killer7 runs very smoothly, and really shows how the visuals of the original have barely aged at all. They still look quite good.
There really isn’t a game that looks, sounds, or plays quite like Killer7, even after all this time. The game’s graphics and sounds are just as intriguing and bizarre as the story they come packaged with.
Killer7 still looks great over 15 years after its release. Itwas one of the most noteworthy games to ever implement cel-shaded, not because it was among the first to do it, but because it went in so hard with the style. Every texture, character, or otherwise is drenched in solid, bright colors with heavy shadows. The contrast of the colorful, cartoonish visuals juxtapose strongly with the game’s dark subject matter and themes as well.
Child abduction, organ harvesting, and political assassination are all core elements of the game’s story, and that’s leaving a lot of details to the side. Killer7 earns it’s “M” Rating easily. You’ll see inhuman monstrosities explode in fits of laughter, brains blown out the back of people’s heads, and genuinely disturbing subject matter presented with complete stone seriousness. But it wouldn’t be a Suda game without a splash of his signature eccentric style to offset the more serious tone.
The script is dotted with small moments of dark or absurdist humor, often coming out of left field. This somehow defies expectations and doesn’t undermine the more serious parts of the script. It becomes more disarming than hilarious, as you’re always left unsure what will happen next. Trying to anticipate what’s next would just be a lost cause anyway, best just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Conclusion
Killer7 will not be a game for everyone. It’s extremely strange, at times very cryptic, and it’s not easily put into a singular category genre wise. But again, all of these things and more are exactly what I love about it. Like I said, sometimes we need experimental games that break the rules and get weird on us, otherwise we’d never see anything new or interesting, and even after over 15 years, Killer7 still feels new and interesting.
The combination arcade shooting and survival horror gameplay has never really been replicated in the same way elsewhere, and very few games before or since have attempted to tell stories nearly as dark, bizarre, or openly political in quite the same way either. Killer7 truly was a product of it’s time; a more experimental era where bigger developers were encouraged to experiment and take risks. An era that feels long past now. Thankfully, with the game now available on Steam at a reasonable price, it’s much easier than it ever has been before for people to try it out.
If you consider yourself a fan of “weird” or “alternative” video games, then you absolutely owe it to yourself to play Killer7. It’s fun, funny, creepy, disturbing, and even with Suda51 still making cool and interesting games to this day, we still may never see anything quite like it ever again.
On this special fourth episode of the Polyspice Game Recommendation Podcast; Thorbjorne, Robert, Gerardo, Daniel and Greyson discuss all of their favorite games that they played through in 2020, whether they were new this year or not! From cartoonish RPG games like Bug Fables and Ni No Kuni II, to intense management games like Surviving Mars, to controller breaking frustration-gauntlet platformers like Spelunky 2, we’ve got a little bit of everything and more!
If you have some thoughts you’d like to share on the Podcast or the games we talk about, please feel free to let us know about it on Twitter!
There are many ways to make a good video game; and there are many ways for a game to be good. Some games are great because they tell amazing stories unique to the medium. Some games are great because they present truly unique and innovative gameplay mechanics. Then there are games like Disc Room; which is great because it does just one thing, and it does it incredibly well.
Gameplay and Premise
Disc Room shares its strengths with games like Super Meat Boy, Devil Daggers, and to a certain extent SUPERHOT; In that, they all take a simple concept that’s easy to understand, and build on it with deep gameplay and a high skill ceiling.
The core concept of Disc Room couldn’t be much simpler to understand and that’s exactly what makes it great. The premise is simple; you are a scientist that’s part of a team exploring a mysterious disc floating in space, and you must make your way through a series of rooms and survive dodging a never-ending onslaught of different spinning blades, or “discs”. You may think you’ve figured this game out at first glance. But trust me, this game is probably smarter than you.
At first, you start off just dodging some run-of-the-sawmill spinning discs. But it does not take long for things to get substantially more difficult, and for the discs themselves to begin adapting. There are dozens of different discs that you’ll end up facing throughout the game, and as soon as the second room you will be thrown for a loop.
I’m not joking, some of these levels will eat you alive! (literally)
Let’s not mince words, Disc Room is a very hard game. It’s perfectly doable if you’re just aiming to beat the game itself. But you’re likely to die dozens of not hundreds of times. Most levels have a goal along the line of surviving for a certain amount of time. But many others have unique objectives that force you to switch up your tactics and approach the level completely differently.
Every room is a veritable Bullet-Hell worthy amount of deadly discs flying through the air at different speeds; all of different sizes and shapes, and you have to remain on your toes constantly in order to figure out what each room wants from you and how best to tackle each objective.
The Art of Balanced Difficulty
But even after many, many deaths Disc Room never reaches the point where’s it’s completely unfair or obnoxiously hard because of several key things that it does very well. Firstly, the game controls very well, with subtle movements being easy to pull off in tight spaces which you’ll often have to do, and your running speed usually being just fast enough to dance through the danger, but not so fast that you can’t keep track of your character or overshoot a gap between hazards.
Secondly, you die in one hit from any hazard, can start over very quickly with no penalty. The levels themselves rarely last much longer than 30 seconds to a minute in terms of what they expect you to do. In short, any failure is just a brief slap on the wrist; and you can try a level over and over again without sinking an unreasonable amount of time into it. On top of that; every level has a sort of par time achieved by the developers, and this essentially acts as a secondary goal for each level. They can be very challenging to reach. There are tiers of completion to strive for without making it overly difficult for the average player just trying to make it to the end; which adds even greater depth and replayability to the experience.
Adding further variety to the core gameplay are the abilities that you unlock over the course of your playthrough; such as slow-motion and a short range dash. You can have one equipped at a time, and they can seriously change the way you approach each individual level; which creates additional layers of potential strategy.
Dodging the discs is one thing, but doing so while stepping on every white tile is a whole other thing entirely.
Presentation
Presentation was honestly the last thing on my mind while playing Disc Room because of just how intense and attention-demanding it. Though the graphics and sound are nothing to sneeze at. The hand drawn style is bright and clean looking; with a nice variety of colorful backgrounds as well as countless different incarnations of discs; whether they be small, large, sharp, or extra sharp. There’s even what is essentially a bestiary in-game that catalogues all the different types of discs with descriptions and stats of how many times you’ve encountered each; which is a really nice addition.
The story may not be the main focus of the game, but I found myself at full attention whenever a new hand-drawn cutscene comic would appear, due to just how quality they were.
A variety of in-game options allow you to additionally customize a lot of minor elements of the game to better suit your own experience. There’s a button dedicated to simply speeding up the gameplay. Which you can do if you want to add even more challenge for yourself; as this makes maneuvering the discs and making subtle movements at least twice as hard. Which I had a lot of fun using whenever I wanted a little more out of a specific room. There’s also an optional speedrun timer, multiple opportunities to change the color of certain graphics. In general lots of small choices that allow you to play the game your own way without compromising. It’s design or gameplay to any significant degree, which is just how I like it to be.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a challenging, replayable, and refreshingly fun game then I can absolutely recommend Disc Room. Honestly, I could see this game as an easy platform to just slot more levels into over time; just like Super Meat Boy did. As it’s practically built to be expanded on with such a strong and already well-explored central theme and core gameplay mechanics.
Disc Room is the kind of quality game that I can pretty much recommend to everyone. The only thing I could see deterring people from wanting to try it out is how hard it can be. But the game is far from unfair. There’s a lot of satisfaction to be found in besting the challenges it presents.
As it stands, Disc Room is one of the best games Devolver has published in recent memory; as well as simply one of the best games of 2020. It’s a beautifully executed and engrossing gameplay experience that gives me the kind of satisfaction that few other games can. It is absolutely worth it’s asking price of $15.
Disc Room is available now for Nintendo Switch and PC.
This could be you, if you’d only buy Disc Room!
Greyson is an aspiring author and YouTuber with dozens of consoles and hundreds of gaming hours under his belt. He’s always looking for something new to play, and is always happy to share it with other people. He also likes the Shantae games, like, a lot.
On this month’s episode of the Polyspice Game Recommendation Podcast; Thorbjorne, Robert, Gerardo, Daniel and Greyson discuss the experimental, art-house style 2D Platformer Mibibli’s Quest!Brought into the world by the hands of Resni, a unique and outspoken indie developer also responsible for games like Peen Peen and Salad Fields, Mibibli’s Quest turned out to be quite the intriguing experience for the crew to talk about. Join us on for our third episode of the podcast to see if this game was just too strange to recommend, or maybe just strange enough.
Mibibli’s Quest is available for PC through Steam and itch.io. If you have some thoughts you’d like to share on the game or the podcast, feel free to let us know on Twitter!
On this month’s episode of the Polyspice Game Recommendation Podcast; Thorbjorne, Robert, Gerardo, Daniel and Greyson all discuss the mobile and Switch physics-based crane puzzle game Part Time UFO!
Part Time UFO is a game developed by Hal Egg. A smaller division of the company behind the Kirby series. It has just as much charm and polish as anything we’d expect from the pink puffball. A game of surprising style and depth. The crew had a lot to talk about with this one; and we’re so excited to bring it straight to you in our second episode!
This game is available now for mobile devices and enhanced on Nintendo Switch. If you have some thoughts you’d like to share in the game, let us know on Twitter!
I don’t get excited for new games as much as I used to anymore. I’ve been disappointed or lied to too many times to summon the same level of hype I was able to just a few years ago. I’m not innocent in this issue. I’ve built up my expectations far too much for some games in the past. Only to have them dashed by what is often a perfectly good game. But still not something that could have ever lived up to my expectations.
This makes the rare occasion that a game I got excited for actually turns out not just to be good. But even BETTER than I expected, all the more special. This was the case with the recently released Going Under; a game that exceeded all my expectations for it, and then some.
Going Under is a 3D roguelike dungeon-crawler from indie developer Aggro Crab Games, which is now available for purchase on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PS4. It seeks to satirize and lampoon the ever-changing and consistently exhausting job market of the modern age through strong writing, clever game mechanics; and by depicting failed tech startups as literal rotting dungeons full of actual feral monsters. And it succeeds tremendously.
“A delicious alternative to home ownership.” If this joke hits a little too close to home, then you’ve come to the right place.
Internships Are Heck
In Going Under you play as one Jacqueline Fiasco. A recent graduate who has just started what she was told is a marketing internship for a company called Fizzle Beverages. A startup company recently funded by the delivery drone-manufacturing, machine learning integrated corporate titan that is Cubicle. On her very first day, Jackie swiftly learns how much a racket her new position is; as she is tasked with entering the crumbling remnants of other failed startup companies in the building; which all take the shape of randomly generated dungeons full of monsters which she must defeat.
Going Under nakedly and brutally satirizes the modern corporate landscape. It lampoons as many elements of the millennial experience and late-stage capitalism. It does so as often as it can. Everything from the dungeons, to the monsters, to the power-ups and loading screens are part of the joke; and the team at Aggro Crab really took the premise and ran with it.
This premise alone is what initially captured my interest in Going Under. But I stayed for everything else that it had to offer. While maybe not as lengthy and by extension not as deep as other roguelikes such as Hades or The Binding of Isaac. Going Under still offers an extremely fun; and unique experience that shouldn’t be missed.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Going Under is pretty straightforward. You enter one of several dungeons. Each themed around different types of tech startups. Then you make your way through three lengthy floors loaded with rooms full of monsters; equipable skills, and merchants scattered randomly about. Like other roguelikes. You then manage your health and resources as best you can in order to make to the boss at the end and defeat them.
Fans of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild may find the combat system familiar. Combat relies on the basics of attacking; dodge rolling out of harm’s way, and carefully picking weapons all which break after enough use. There are also many different skills that you can unlock and equip in the dungeons, and which can often synergize well together. Take for example one skill that creates allies to fight on your side alongside another skill that increases your strength when surrounded by allies.
Skills
These skills can be leveled up the more they’re used. You can then decide to start a run with a specific skill that you prefer. This works in conjunction with the mentor system. A really enjoyable mechanic that skillfully weaves the side characters directly into the gameplay.
If you fulfill some specific goals for the individual characters while down in the dungeons. They will eventually provide special perks for having them equipped as your mentor. Such as additional item drops or access to new merchants. But even without their assistance, you’ll have plenty of weapons to work with.
Combat can get pretty hectic, but you just need to keep your distance and assess the situation.
One of the key features that differentiate the game from other roguelikes is the Deadrising-like quality that nearly everything at every level can be used as a weapon. Everything from swords and maces to pencils and t-shirt cannons are available for you to strike down the downsized masses. There’s a surprising amount of depth and strategy top which weapons you pick.
Some weapons have elemental properties, others have longer physical range or do more damage when thrown; there’s tons of variables to experiment with in a 3D playground of combat strategy. Again somewhat like Breath of the Wild.
There’s also spells in the form of apps to keep track of, as well as various different types of items. So there are plenty of variables to work with. The game can get tough at times too, especially during the intense boss fights. But the difficulty generally scales at a natural flowing pace, alleviating the issue somewhat. Just like the best roguelikes. Every failure in Going Under is truly an opportunity to grow and do better next time. I just found myself coming back for more.
Graphics
In terms of aesthetics, Going Under may be simple graphically, but it still sticks the landing stylistically. The game’s artstyle was inspired by the common noodle-like character design used in many corporate commercials. It is very easy on the eyes. Character and monster designs are all great as well as easy to make out from one another in the middle of pitched battle. The color palette is equal parts warm and cool, with lots of solid. It’s bright colors that make each dungeon pop and feel distinct from each other.
The main hub area is really vibrant and pleasant looking, which is good because you’ll always end up back here.
Music
The music is very enjoyable as well; providing a nice variety of tracks with varied tones and instruments that all suit their respective scenario; and end up being pretty catchy as well. There’s guitar riffs, drum beats, the sound of squeaking mattresses, and even a few lo-fi tracks to keep you vibing. It’s the kind of music that’s perfect for a roguelike. Because you’re meant to hear many of the tracks many times on repeated runs of dungeons; and they’re just so catchy and well-made that you won’t get tired of them. I’m listening to the soundtrack now as I write this; it really is that good.
Writing
Going Under does some truly exceptional things with its writing. I expected the game to be funny. After all, it is a satirical game. Though I cannot say I expected to become as emotionally invested as I did. All the characters have their own desires and arcs, and the narrative takes twists you might not expect.
The game skillfully weaves the theming of the story and setting into the mechanics. It creates a consistent world that lives and breathes with its own logic; not too far from our own. If you’ve ever worked a day in your life – especially if you’re a millennial. You will find something to relate to in Going Under.
Dang.
A Comedy Game With Serious Themes
Going Under may be a comedy game, and it is very funny. But it also managed to wring genuine emotion out of me several times. This game touches on very real topics, albeit lightly in some cases. But still with more conviction than most other games would dare to do. There’s discussion of debt. The ethics of data collection; and even workplace harassment, and all of it is handled with either genuine tact and respect; or comedic irreverence where appropriate.
There are very real themes affecting very relatable people in Going Under, and it doesn’t pull any punches. I found myself with my mouth hanging open more than once when reading through dialogue. Just completely taken aback at how real the subject matter suddenly got; or uncomfortably laughing with a familiar pang of existential dread at how familiar a lot of it felt.
I won’t lie to you. This game almost got me to cry at one point, and it came from a mundane dialogue exchange. There was just something truly touching to me about one of my co-workers who I’ve come to know and respect offering to send Jackie into the dangerous dungeon with a lovingly hand-crafted box lunch. Because she’s been so busy she’s barely been eating.
Honestly, this was so sweet I actually almost teared up. I had become invested in the lives and stories of the Fizzle employees, and the game was using that to strong effect.
If a piece of media is going to make me cry, it really has to work hard to earn it, and I feel that Going Under absolutely earned it. By combining a gameplay mechanic and a narrative element seamlessly together, Aggro Crab managed to illicit real empathy and sadness from me over what is basically a bunch of colorful shapes arranged in a specific order. That takes serious skill.
There are moments like the one I just described sprinkled throughout the experience; on top of the continuous plot, the game has – a rarity for roguelikes at least that I’ve seen – and it elevates the setting and characters to a higher level than mere set- dressing or background elements that you might expect from a similar game.
This turned the Fizzle main area into more than just a hub-world for me. Every time I came back from a dungeon run. Even if I had died before the boss and failed. I was still excited to return and see what new developments were happening in the office among my favorite (and least favorite) co-workers. Whether I was listening to the office financial advisor explain cryptocurrency; feeling a pang in my chest as someone got yelled at by the higher-ups even though they were right; or petting the office wiener dog I always had something interesting come back to.
Small But Polished
Going Under is not a perfect game. I did encounter some minor but noticeable bugs throughout my time with the game. But Aggro Crab has been working diligently to improve any issues brought to their attention since launch. I can mostly excuse minor issues like these for an independent studio’s first title.
I managed to get 15 plus hours out of my first playthrough of the game; and still with some additional content I’ve yet to complete. Priced at only $20, I would say that Going Under is priced quite reasonably. I’d even say it has a great deal of replay value inherent in it’s roguelike structure. Even if there is less overall content than, say, The Binding of Isaac or Hades.
Not to mention, the game is planned to have to have content updates in the future. Including any entirely new dungeon, new skills, and new items. So any concerns I may have about the length at present won’t be applicable for very long. I suppose I’d like more dialogue in general, because I enjoyed every bit of it that I got. But really, I have no other serious complaints. Going Under is a game that does practically everything well.
It’s hard not to love a game that solves the camera clipping into the main character like this. Peekaboo!
Conclusion
However, you choose to describe it at the end of the day. Going Under is a seriously quality video game with loads of love and personality injected into it. The jokes and hyper-millennial attitude might not be for everyone. But I feel that the quality gameplay. Sincere dialogue and great characters will provide something that may appeal to just about anybody.
It’sa game with great gameplay, great comedy, and great writing, among everything else. I loved my time with it, and with additional content planned for it in the near future. I’ll absolutely be coming back to it. I personally think it’s one of the best games of 2020. I can only hope that it ends up getting the attention it deserves for being as good as it is. And for what it has to say.
Going Under is available now on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch
Greyson is an aspiring author and YouTuber with dozens of consoles and hundreds of gaming hours under his belt. He’s always looking for something new to play, and is always happy to share it with other people. He also likes the Shantae games, like, a lot.
There are a lot of interesting creators in the video game industry. There are mainstream Triple-A developer with huge budgets and heavy duty marketing, smaller independent developers who tour convention scenes and spread positive criticism mainly through word of mouth, and then there’s the classic tale of the lone bedroom programmer. This leads me to our subject for today, the highly unique works of one particular developer, his partner, and the weird and dreamy game they made together, Salad Fields.
Puzzle game
Salad Fields is a self-proclaimed “dreamyqueer” puzzle game where you have to solve challenges by pushing blocks around, peppered with interesting mechanical gimmicks and loads of bizarre charm. This game comes to us as a joint effort from developers Resni and Jars, a couple development team, the former of which gave the world games like the highly underrated arthouse platformer Mibibli’s Questand sexually explorative titles like Peen Peen. I know less about Jars as a developer, though I believe they’ve helped Resni with music in the past, and now they’re fully on board with the creation of Salad Fields.
Ever since Resni’s last game with Mibibli’s Quest I’ve been doing my best to keep my eye on him as a creator, because there’s really not much else I’ve seen before quite like his work. It’s often unapologetically queer and sexual, irreverent and comedic, and always well-designed and uniquely executed on a technical level. Your always in the market for weird and charming gameplay and writing when it comes to this person’s work, and with Salad Fields I’d say we have another success on our hands.
Let go of your inhibitions and let the weird and wonderful wash over you.
Salad Fields is a block-pushing tile-based puzzle game, and really that’s about as simple as it can be summed up. There is a framework of sorts that gives you a reason to do the puzzles. But for the most part the game doesn’t bother with an extensive explanation of the setting and circumstances, and honestly, you shouldn’t worry too much about it. You’re here for some solid mechanics and a unique personality, and boy does this game have it in spades.
Graphics
Starting with the graphics. The game has a mixed media artstyle consisting of a pixel art at different scales. And intentionally dated looking 3D renders of character an objects like one might have seen in the 1990’s on old computer screensavers or bowling alley animations. I personally love the look of this game. I found the style and tone to be a fairly even mix of ironic and genuinely charming. This mostly stands out when interacting with characters and collecting one of the game’s many veggie pickups. And let me tell you, seeing a lumpy and nobly piece of broccoli rendered at 5 frames a second accompanied by the phrase “vegmazing” really put a smile on my face. The pixelated landscapes are also very varied in style and color palette, with every item and location looking visually distinct and nicely detailed.
Remember, whenever you’re feeling down, just remember that you are absolutely Vegmazing.
Music
The music is also fantastic. It ranges in tone from intense and rocking to eerie and emotional. Always complementing the level each track is made for quite well, and helping to create an almost other-worldly atmosphere in conjunction with the off-color dialogue.
Gameplay
I’ve saved the gameplay for last in this recommendation because I have the least to say about it over everything else that this game has to offer. It’s very solid and fun gameplay. Just that on the surface it’s very simple. It’s more complex elements are both difficult to describe, as well as surprises I’d rather not spoil for you. You push blocks to solve puzzles, which often involves pressing switches, avoiding insta-kill hazards, and utilizing limited-use magical power-ups. There’s a lot of balls up in the air a lot of the time. And it can be difficult to juggle all the mechanics without getting confused and flustered. But over time you’ll come to understand and appreciate how each new mechanic operates.
If the density of this screenshot scares you, you should see level 2.
Design
Salad Fields also has a surprising number of quality if life design choices for a game so difficult. Firstly, while the level design connecting the puzzles in each level can be somewhat repetitive and have twisted, overlapping layouts. This is easily handled by the addition of a competent map on the pause screen. Additionally, early on you gain the ability to conveniently warp between the actual puzzles themselves within each level.
Salad Fields can be quite hard when It wants to be, which is what I should have expected after the classic Mega Man style adventure that was Mibibli’s Quest. But it’s a more cerebral type of challenge. Resni and Jars have managed to get some seriously intense challenges and mechanics out of a formula as tried and tested as pushing blocks around.
Am I saying that the ability to skip through the gameplay is a genuine positive? Yes. Am I saying that the gameplay is bad and that I want to skip it? No. I’m saying that the puzzles are quite hard, and occasionally when I’m stuck on a particularly difficult one and all I want to do is see what cool or weird thing happens next for the fun of it. It’s a nice feature to have. The game also very kindly keeps tracks of what puzzles on each level you have completed and which ones you have skipped. All the while you can come back and solve them for real if you eventually feel up to it. I just really appreciate that Resni felt obliged to cater to two completely different audiences and actually put in the effort to make your experience easily changeable at any time.
My experience
Whatever it’s minor flaws may have done to hamper my experience. I came away from Salad Fields confused and happy. It’s base gameplay may be a very old formula. But it spices it up greatly through seriously challenging puzzle design as well as very unique and well-realized gimmicks. A lot like what he managed to pull off with Mibibli’s Quest years prior.
It’s an inexpensive game that hides a weirdly unique and richer experience than you might be expecting. It’s mood-swing writing and dreamy atmosphere paired with excellent music, unique and elegiac style, and surpsingly deep and difficult gameplay makes for a great game that I highly suggest you check out if your either looking for a real challenge or just want something weird and unique. I’ll have to keep my eyes on Resni and Jars in the future to see if anything else cool shakes loose. Please give Salad Fields a try! It might just expand your horizons, and even if it doesn’t, it’s still quite fun.
Preach.
Greyson is an aspiring author and YouTuber with dozens of consoles and hundreds of gaming hours under his belt. He’s always looking for something new to play, and is always happy to share it with other people. He also likes the Shantae games, like, a lot.
