Supraland Six Inches Under has exploration, puzzles, and combat! A first-person-metroidvania taking place six inches under Supraland.
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Didn't like it as much as the first one, probably because it was so much shorter. Doesn't really improve on the problem areas the first had, but is about as good at the good parts.
supraland é muito bom, os puzzles são mt bestas mas mesmo assim vc as vezes pensa q é burro pq n conseguiu fazer, joguei o primeiro mas n completei pq saiu da gamepass, mas esse foi platinadasso.
Aunque no lo pude acabar por falta de tiempo, es igual de interesante y divertido (y difícil), que la primera parte, con un aspecto visual "simple" pero muy agradable y unos puzzles que te harán pensar bastante
This was a nice improvement over the first game. Tighter puzzle design and combat (thankfully) took more of a back seat.
Supraland: Six Inches Under had very fun and interesting puzzle solving gameplay, but a few non-gameplay quirks made the game feel a bit unpolished as a whole. I did not play the original Supraland, since it was not on Xbox Game Pass.
The game did a great job making me feel ant-sized with how giant the major locations felt. However, aside from the main hub Cagetown, the rest of the areas didn't do the best job of utilizing large human scale objects as major landmarks. For example, the beach felt like a big water pool that was plopped into a cavern with orange rock. It felt like a beach, but no features of the beach itself felt ant sized. The artstyle was functional. It never got in the way of the gameplay, and suits the clay figures.
The music for the most part served as background tracks to suit the current scenario. None of the tracks stuck with me afterwards except the random German song in the credits, which I loved.
Many references were made to internet memes, video game franchises, and economic and immigration policy. I thought the Mario, Zelda, Minecraft, and Valve references to be funny since I played those games plenty when I was growing up. You are a plumber who jumps through pipes and collects coins. You find secret chests that make a little jingle when you discover them. You use either a wooden, stone, iron, or diamond pickaxe to destroy pixelated cubes. One NPC says "Valve works in mysterious ways". The internet/gamer lingo was for the most part fine, with a few hilarious moments and a few cringey moments, which is to be expected with references to internet culture. The general self aware tone of the game let me enjoy the cringey jokes in an ironic manner. The jabs made towards anti-immigrant sentiments and trickle-down economics had me laughing, but my politics align with the target demographic so they may not be as funny to you if you like Ronald Reagan. There was also an NPC who referenced "Once in a Lifetime" and I love Talking Heads.
All the previously elements would make for an OK videogame, maybe a 3/5 rating, however the gameplay carries this game hard. Each unlockable item is used in a variety of unique and novel scenarios throughout the whole game. My favorite was the magnet belt which lets you freely hover around metallic objects, and when upgraded allows you to boost while hovering. The hover was steady enough for puzzle solving, but still made platforming surprisingly fast alongside the fast run speed. The force beam was a cool evolution of the classic Zelda hookshot that could not only pull you towards wooden objects you attach it to, but also could attach to two objects and pull them together or form a platform to stand on or run across. There are plenty more items, but these two were my favorite. The first person camera and the puzzle designs resemble Portal, but the item acquisition and world exploration felt like a classic 3D Zelda game. Just like in Zelda, as you gain more items, you can access more chests and treasures from previously explored areas. The backtracking felt more akin to accessing a different part of Hyrule Field in a Zelda game rather than returning to a previous location in the entire world map of Super Metroid, so I would consider this more similar to Zelda than a Metroidvania.
Combat was my only major complaint in the game. I believe that removing all the combat sections would've made the game much more enjoyable. Swinging the pickaxe at enemies felt like a wimpy version of the Half-Life crowbar. The projectile items were fun to shoot, but left little impact on their target. I mentioned this game feeling unpolished, and that shines best in the enemy selection. The generic looking goblins that were likely premade Unity game engine assets completely broke my immersion in the game any time I had to swing at them. They don't match the style of the game and could've been replaced by bugs or clay monsters of the same material as the people. Additionally, the game loves to spam more enemies the further you get in the game, rather than placing them in interesting scenarios. The only time I enjoyed combat was when you first encountered the wizard dude because it was a reference to Ganondorf fights, but that wore off the third time I saw one.
If the non-gameplay or comedic components had more attention put into them, this would've easily been a 4.5/5, maybe a 5/5 depending on how well they were done. If I wasn't a big fan of the puzzle solving, I probably would've given this game a 3/5. This is a good example of how gameplay is not the sole important factor in a videogame. If the other elements aren't as polished as the gameplay, the experience will be hampered.
Overall, I loved my time with Supraland: Six Inches Under and highly recommend it to anyone who likes the puzzles of Portal, the puzzles and exploration of Zelda, or the puzzles of the Lego series games. I will try playing the first game and it's DLC bonus game when they go on sale to experience more of the great puzzle solving and platforming.
The game did a great job making me feel ant-sized with how giant the major locations felt. However, aside from the main hub Cagetown, the rest of the areas didn't do the best job of utilizing large human scale objects as major landmarks. For example, the beach felt like a big water pool that was plopped into a cavern with orange rock. It felt like a beach, but no features of the beach itself felt ant sized. The artstyle was functional. It never got in the way of the gameplay, and suits the clay figures.
The music for the most part served as background tracks to suit the current scenario. None of the tracks stuck with me afterwards except the random German song in the credits, which I loved.
Many references were made to internet memes, video game franchises, and economic and immigration policy. I thought the Mario, Zelda, Minecraft, and Valve references to be funny since I played those games plenty when I was growing up. You are a plumber who jumps through pipes and collects coins. You find secret chests that make a little jingle when you discover them. You use either a wooden, stone, iron, or diamond pickaxe to destroy pixelated cubes. One NPC says "Valve works in mysterious ways". The internet/gamer lingo was for the most part fine, with a few hilarious moments and a few cringey moments, which is to be expected with references to internet culture. The general self aware tone of the game let me enjoy the cringey jokes in an ironic manner. The jabs made towards anti-immigrant sentiments and trickle-down economics had me laughing, but my politics align with the target demographic so they may not be as funny to you if you like Ronald Reagan. There was also an NPC who referenced "Once in a Lifetime" and I love Talking Heads.
All the previously elements would make for an OK videogame, maybe a 3/5 rating, however the gameplay carries this game hard. Each unlockable item is used in a variety of unique and novel scenarios throughout the whole game. My favorite was the magnet belt which lets you freely hover around metallic objects, and when upgraded allows you to boost while hovering. The hover was steady enough for puzzle solving, but still made platforming surprisingly fast alongside the fast run speed. The force beam was a cool evolution of the classic Zelda hookshot that could not only pull you towards wooden objects you attach it to, but also could attach to two objects and pull them together or form a platform to stand on or run across. There are plenty more items, but these two were my favorite. The first person camera and the puzzle designs resemble Portal, but the item acquisition and world exploration felt like a classic 3D Zelda game. Just like in Zelda, as you gain more items, you can access more chests and treasures from previously explored areas. The backtracking felt more akin to accessing a different part of Hyrule Field in a Zelda game rather than returning to a previous location in the entire world map of Super Metroid, so I would consider this more similar to Zelda than a Metroidvania.
Combat was my only major complaint in the game. I believe that removing all the combat sections would've made the game much more enjoyable. Swinging the pickaxe at enemies felt like a wimpy version of the Half-Life crowbar. The projectile items were fun to shoot, but left little impact on their target. I mentioned this game feeling unpolished, and that shines best in the enemy selection. The generic looking goblins that were likely premade Unity game engine assets completely broke my immersion in the game any time I had to swing at them. They don't match the style of the game and could've been replaced by bugs or clay monsters of the same material as the people. Additionally, the game loves to spam more enemies the further you get in the game, rather than placing them in interesting scenarios. The only time I enjoyed combat was when you first encountered the wizard dude because it was a reference to Ganondorf fights, but that wore off the third time I saw one.
If the non-gameplay or comedic components had more attention put into them, this would've easily been a 4.5/5, maybe a 5/5 depending on how well they were done. If I wasn't a big fan of the puzzle solving, I probably would've given this game a 3/5. This is a good example of how gameplay is not the sole important factor in a videogame. If the other elements aren't as polished as the gameplay, the experience will be hampered.
Overall, I loved my time with Supraland: Six Inches Under and highly recommend it to anyone who likes the puzzles of Portal, the puzzles and exploration of Zelda, or the puzzles of the Lego series games. I will try playing the first game and it's DLC bonus game when they go on sale to experience more of the great puzzle solving and platforming.
98%