Whether it’s the growing importance of indie developers or simply the collective longings of a nostalgic user base, this latest generation of consoles has seen a number of games that seek to blend old-school two-dimensional platforming tropes with modern technology. The supposed goal here is to use the familiar gameplay template that was most popular when we were kids to contrast the heavy, mature story, but also allow modern developers the chance to put their own spin on the classic platformer genre. This is usually a good thing, as we’ve seen in excellent titles like Braid, Fez, and Oblivionbut sometimes developers can get too carried away by nostalgia and forget that even the decades-old games we adored as children had flaws.
This brings us to the topic of today’s review: Pid. The title is an acronym for “Planet in Trouble,” and the story puts you in the shoes of Kurt, a boy sent on an intergalactic adventure that would look perfectly at home in a modern, edgy children’s book. I won’t cover much of the game’s story in this review because it’s the best aspect Pid and should be experienced by playing through the game, but luckily I don’t have to. Pid it may not be a success, but it is an interesting failure.
Everything is still the same
The first thing you’ll notice on startup Pid is the excellent art and character design present in the game. Using a mostly muted color palette and a highly stylized concept of what bipedal creatures can and should look like, the developers at Magic and Delight have created an area that is both alien and alluring. It’s a place you’d want to spend a lot of time exploring — or at least you would if the game’s minor design choices didn’t make it a huge task.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The key problem with Pid is that its designers managed to emulate every aspect of the classic platformer, from the tight controls to the intense difficulty, with one exception: seemingly very little attention was paid to designing levels that are actually fun to beat. This won’t seem like much of a problem at first, but as the game progresses, you’ll find yourself facing the same puzzles over and over again, just placed in quite different environments. Given how much has been performed Pids playability may be, the only truly novel concept the game can be judged on is the strength of its level design, and in that respect it’s quite lacking.
It’s also a real shame, as there are some neat tricks in the game that, while not necessarily inventive, could have been used to much better effect in a game with better creative design. First of all, the in-game gravity gun which, as the name suggests, allows Kurt to control Pids gravity to solve puzzles. This gimmick alone could have been enough to propel this game to classic status, but without new and interesting puzzles to test your weapon skills, there’s little to get excited about after holding the device for an hour. Unfortunately, this applies to all the items you will find in the game. Even the ones that seem the most interesting at first (the smoke bomb, for example) are never fully utilized in the game’s puzzles. If this game didn’t work for more than 15 hours or so, I’d almost feel like the developers were forced to throw out a bunch of ideas that would have really paid off. Pid out.
Despite all the above, the biggest problem with Pid it’s not like the game is repetitive or doesn’t do anything that could be described as “new” and “exciting”. Instead, the biggest problem with Pid is that here in 2012 the game simply has no purpose for existing. Too many aspects Pids the design is wildly executed. The jumping, for example, is almost identical to that seen in Braid, right down to the level of control you have over your character while in the air, to the speed at which it falls back to the ground. Similarly, while the aesthetic design is pretty good, it’s not nearly as striking as the one seen in the Oblivion (though certainly aiming for a similar “alien but familiar” atmosphere). Pulling ideas from these games is certainly a form of flattery, but without anything to really set Pid except as a separate game, I come up empty for reasons to recommend Pid compared to any of its predecessors.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Conclusion
The worst thing I can say about the game isn’t that it’s “bad”, it’s that it’s completely unremarkable. Despite the inventive aesthetic and excellent sound design, there is little to mention Pid. There are a number of other games that aim to do almost exactly the same thing as Pid, but they almost universally accomplish this task while Pid it falters under the weight of its poor level design. In the platformer genre, interesting level design is most important Pid it’s just not there. Pid has the opposite of interesting level design.
If Pid seems intriguing, do yourself a favor and play Braid, Oblivion, or even Super Meat Boy instead of that. You’ll have more fun with either of those options.
Rating: 6/10
(This review was written using a downloadable copy of Pida from the publisher.)
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn