The Mess-Hall Blog

Well, I’ve now played the first 5 or six levels, and it’s not getting any tougher, just more enjoyable.
Ok, so it is moderately harder, but not much.
The level design is nothing short of superb, the flow from side to side and puzzle to puzzle is amazingly smooth.
You need to be very aware of your environment, not like a first person shooter, but still aware or whats above, below and at the side.

The time to complete each one too is another brilliant facet, you need to take about 5 minutes and more to complete each stage. But it never gets dull either.
I’m pretty sure that once I do get deeper into the game, it will get harder, but for now, it’s easy but not boring.
In fact, the more I play it, the more I discover, and thats where this game differs from many others like it, it feels like a version of super mario without being a platformer.
I think it’ll have plenty of replayabilty (that must be in the OED?) because you miss things the first time around, and it’s great trying to find them the second or third time around.

The controls are also a hell of a lot easier than Gravity Crash or moonlander type games too, so you wont need to buy new joypads because you were frustrated, and it only takes a minute or two to get used to them. With 2 different weapons to use, and 2 different types of thrust too. The main weapon is like a bullet type thingumy, then the next is like rockets, just hold the fire button for the rockets. BUT not for too long, your ship overheats if you fire too many rockets, and you crash and burn.
The left joystick is for manouvering the ship, while the right points it in the direction you want to fire, but if you hold both on the direction you want to move, you move there with more thrust.

So, what do you have to do?
You have to save scientists who have created this underground world in the search for minerals and energy sources. Only trouble is, they did’nt see the dangers, and now they’re stuck. It’s upto you to get them out to safety. Or kill them. But I would’nt think that thats a good idea. I’ve killed a few accidentally, and while you can still finish the level, I assume killing them all is a bad thing.

Along the way you’ll find help in different guises, one of which is the water slug. If you pick it up and drop it on lava it unleashes a massive torrent of water and solidifies the lava and lets you pass safely. Another very usefull and re-usable tool, is the sponge. Drop it in a lake, let it collect the water, then pick it up again and carry it to where it’s needed. It will leak like a sponge too, so cooling lava as it goes. Both are replenished by a plant, so if you loose/destroy one of them, go back, and you’ll find another.

The graphics wont win awards, but they do exactly what you need them to do, differentiate different substances. Still they water does look and feel awesome.
The sound is spot on, but the background music is brilliant and a good range of different tracks too. Seeing as PJMonsters and PJEden had downloadable soundtracks, dont be surprised if this one does’nt too.
BUT it’s very very quiet, you really need to crank up the grammy (sound) to hear what I’m I mean.

So far, I’m well impressed, I’m seriously loving this game. For how long depends on the difficulty, and how much more there is to complete it. But if it’s anything like PixelJunk Monsters, then the longevity will be counted in months rather than hours or days.

For £6.29 its an absolute bargain. And deserves a VERY HIGH rating.

Actual Gameplay video:

You’ve seen the video above, well, I’ve also created a slide show.

Loading...

This work is licenced under a
Creative Commons Licence.