Developer: Videocult
Publisher: Adult Swim Games
RRP: £14.99 (Gog.com, Steam and Humblebundle)
Released: 28th March 2017
Available on: Gog.com, Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: An Xbox 360 Control Pad
Approximate game length: 15 Hours
The end of the world happened except, well… it didn’t. The human race as a species is gone but the world and it’s strange new denizens live on. Where there were once great industrial complexes now stand ruins within which the new life on this world establishes itself.
A survival platformer. It seems strange to be that I’ve not come across such a combination before? Maybe it’s just because it’s not something I really go out looking for, survival games I mean. Either way, this one caught my attention, mostly because of the adorable protagonist, the humble Slugcat.
Upon start-up the game will have you choose between three difficulty settings, Monk (easy), Survivor (normal) and Hunter (hard). I don’t mind admitting that I played on the Monk setting to start with and I’m glad I did because even on the lowest setting this game gave me a good hiding.
In this world you must remember that you are by no means an apex predator, in fact you’re prey to a great deal of things from animals to plants. Even the weather is against you, rain in this world will kill you if you aren’t hidden away in a hibernation chamber. Otherwise you drown in the pipes or are crushed by the sheer volume of water descending upon you. The hibernation chambers are also the only way to progress and save the game. In order to progress in you need to find a specific amount of food, which is determined by the difficulty you selected at the beginning, and hibernate in a hibernation chamber. If you do succeed in finding the food and hibernating your ‘karma’ will increase (which I’ll cover later).
Some predators will follow you from screen to screen unless you can lose them, trick them or kill them. That last one can be quite the task though as I said earlier, you’re no apex predator. Interestingly you can trick two predators into fighting each other granting you some time to make your escape.
The pixel art on display in this game is impressive the world feels incredibly detailed and beautiful. With every creature you encounter feels like a part of the new ecosystem that now inhabits this world.
This is one of those games where your character doesn’t improve its skills at all but instead the player themselves improves and learns. It’s strange to think of a game as a metroidvania but for that game to have no skill unlocks, except… there sort of is. You see in order to progress further in the game you need to increase your ‘karma’. This is done by eating food and sleeping in a hibernation chamber, with each successful hibernation your karma level goes up by one. However dying makes you lose a level. Anyway, at certain points a gate will appear which will remain locked until your slugcats karma is at the right level. What I’m saying is its not unlocked by finding the right upgrade or move but through surviving which is a test of the players skill.
I really could do a deep dive on this game, I was very tempted to but decided against that as it would turn into a bit of a rant how we should care for the environment more and…. I’ll stop there.
What I found most interesting about this game was that at first it seemed the only thing you needed to do is survive. But once you complete a few forging runs and survived the game starts to direct you toward a goal. Admittedly that language used by our guide was hard to understand at times and it take some trail and error to understand what I needed to do but I never felt that the game was punishing me. If anything I felt encouraged to find out more and continue.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Hollow Knight
Ori and the Blind Forest
Axiom Verge
