Developer: Reflections
Publisher: Ubisoft
Rrp: £5.99 (Steam), £5.99 (Uplay Client), £5.99 (Humblebundle)
Released: 4th Feburary 2015
Available on: Steam, Uplay and Humblebundle
Played using: an Xbox 360 control pad
The world is dying. In a desperate plea to save it the inhabitants have sent out Botanical Utility Droids (or B.U.Ds) on fully automated ships to search for the one thing that will save them, a Star seed. These droids and their unique climbing abilities are the last and best hope they have.
You play as B.U.D (Botanical Utility Droid) and your mission is to find and grow a Star Plant and retrieve a Star seed.
You grab onto things in the world by using the left and right triggers of your control pad. This also allows you to climb nearly any surface. I must say I actually like this mechanic, but once again this mechanic is marred by B.U.Ds controls (I’ll get on that subject a little later).
Once you’ve found the Starflower you’ll need to grow it by making it drain energy from the floating green islands in the sky. This is done by climbing up the Starflowers stem and grabbing hold of an offshoot. Once you’ve done that you’ll be able to make the offshoot grow and steer it to where you want, of course the shoot can’t grow forever to eventually it will slow and then stop.
From the very moment I stepped into the game proper I could tell that this games controls and I weren’t going to get on. You see, you aren’t entirely in controls for B.U.Ds body. Traversing the world can feel like such a chore because B.U.D trips and stumbles over every minor inconsistency of the surface, essentially causing him to ragdoll. It’s legs flail and on occasion the body would topple over or collapse in on itself. This quickly becomes infuriating because it makes the game more difficult needlessly.
This is a crying shame because the game seemed so interesting beyond that. The world it provided for me to explore was colourful and pleasant, and while very small still felt like it was alive. But every time I set out to explore B.U.D would jiggle its little idiot legs and I’d fall off a cliff into deep water (one of the few ways you can die). Or when I performed a quick stop after running B.U.Ds body would continue the momentum and fling B.U.D off a ravine.
Thankfully there are tele-routers (I’ll call them teleporters from here on out) so you can activate that will respawn B.U.D if it should break. These teleporters also allow you to fast travel between them so you needn’t keep making the arduous climb all the way if you fall.
The teleporters also allow you to scan the flora and fauna of the game world. All you have to do is drag them over to it and it will do all the scanning for you. Doing this has no real bearing on your overall mission but does show some of the humour of the developers within the log entries of the data bank found in the pause menu.
Scattered around the world are crystals you can collect, the more of these crystals you collect the more powers you unlock (although I feel the first ability you unlock is a let down).
As far as game worlds go this is one of the smallest I’ve ever played in, at least in a horizontal sense. Vertically though, that’s a whole other thing. I actually got a sense of vertigo while looking down in this game. It makes sense to make the games world more about the height than width when you consider its about making a plant (albeit a big one) grow.
It’s also quite a pretty game in a polygonal kind of way, it’s filled with very bright and vibrant colours. It’s actually quite relaxing… When B.U.D isn’t flailing or falling.
Is this a game I can recommend though? Well actually yes, though it is a rather tentative one. I was won over by the charm of this game despite its controls best efforts. The whole thing lasts approximately three or four hours, though if you go after all the crystals that will increase by quite a bit more.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
A Story About my Uncle
Tiny & Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers
Mini Ninjas
