Three on the Door

This week’s real post is proving difficult to finish and it’s grown out of control, like a mutant zombie cyborg alien amoeba run amok. Soon, it’ll be so long I might as well publish it as a book.

To tide you over, here are three games I’ve played recently. I’m not sure I can come up with something interesting to write about them but that does not mean they are less deserving of attention.

Today let’s look at a platformer-painter, a rock hard 3D puzzle and an FPS roguelike.   

Multilytheus

I had a lot of fun with Multilytheus (Astro Assembly, 2013) but it’s hard. It’s a 3D puzzle game inspired by “At a Distance, Metroid Prime, Corrypt, Half-Life, Doom, Super Mario 64, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the artwork of Paul Klee.” It has this wonderful sense of visual chaos, but the meat here is the puzzle.

Once the game has herded you through the tutorial bit, you’ll find yourself in a constant battle of wits with the environment. Solving one puzzle always seems to break another and this mental ballet back and forth continues all the way through. It’s full of little a-ha moments.

Downsides? Failing to make a jump here and there can lead to a lot of irritating backtracking and, as far as I can tell, it’s not possible to load your save game while playing. The startup titles are unskippable which is a pain on return plays. There are a couple of spots where you have to notice there’s a hidden room (the “spot a portalable wall” problem).

But this is the kind of game that makes you feel smart in the act of conquering. Warning – contains flashing graphics in places.

Action Painting Pro

Action Painting Pro (Ian MacLarty, 2014) is another game from the same Ian MacLarty who was behind the omigodgettingfasterandfaster runner Boson X (Mu & Heyo, 2013) as previously discussed on Electron Dance.

It’s a platformer where your every movement paints the background canvas and, upon your death, the game frames the resulting work of art. There’s no score or achievement here other than the final picture itself and there’s the interesting rub: a lot of the pictures I made were rubbish. To make something that has some real quality, rather than just a single arc of painter doom, requires a smidgen of determination.

Below, I’ve included a few of the results that I liked. Please feel free to share my paintings free of charge. I always give back to the artist community.

Tower of Guns

It’s early days for new release Tower of Guns (Terrible Posture Games, 2014). According to the developer, it’s an FPS roguelike “for your lunchbreak”.

After a few attempts I got through to the third section but then died in seconds. I’ve barely scratched the surface with all the guns, rooms, enemies, upgrades, downgrades and perks available.

There’s something oddly floaty about it and taking out opponents doesn’t feel as satisfying as your mainstream FPS – but the random nature of the game is a big draw. Looking forward to see where this goes.