This is probably one of the worst attempts at creating a 3D platformer that I've dealt with in recent times. The jumping feels extremely restrained with little horizontal movement, so every jump feels unsafe. You'll also splat if you fall more than the height of two jumps, so you'll be finding that you splat a lot because surfaces often look very non distinct in this world that's filled with this mix of bright lights and dark blocks and walls. And if you fall off the stage, you'll usually have to fall the entire vertical distance until you splat on the ground below... which can take upwards of 15 seconds or more because the platforms are usually elevated well above the ground. As a result, there was a ton of downtime because it's so easy to fall off the stage in the worlds with a subpar jump and no mechanism to cut your falling momentum (or improve your somewhat slow walking speed inbetween your jumps) in the beginning of the game.

The combat is also a giant problem. Firstly, your weapons feel like peashooters against most of the enemies' lasers and shots. I get that this is probably intentional, but this makes combat an uphill battle when it's already so tedious. You can't fire your weapon unless you're aiming down your sights, and when you do, your movement slows to a crawl. As a result, you can't strafe your enemies' attacks effectively. This results in this awkward cycle where you have to aim down sights, fire a few shots, get out of aiming down sights, try and anticipate and dodge an attack, and then aim down sights again to try and attack the enemy. Or you could just try and stomach the attacks, but that also doesn't work very well because the enemies drop far less health pickups than any damage they inflict upon you. It's also worth mentioning that enemies are often flying above you, and the extent at which you can angle your aiming upwards is very noticeable and rather limited, so you often have to run away from the enemy just to be able to aim at the enemy (and that's no small task on these small platforms where you could very easily fall off!). So combine this with enemy attacks that are fairly difficult to react to (the lasers are almost instant in their appearance and you have to anticipate it coming), difficult aiming (at least on a controller, since I use a controller for 3D platformers; a slightly faster reticle speed and a lock on for enemies would have been greatly appreciated) and a constant need to reaim, respawning enemies very early on, and very weak firepower at the beginning of the game when there are plenty of enemies you will have to confront, and combat is a disaster.

The one thing I'll give Recompile credit for is the way it attempts to spin its narrative, through indirect storytelling conveyed using logs scattered throughout the worlds. Unfortunately, all the platforming and movement and combat in-between just makes the storytelling not feel worthwhile. I really wanted to like this game and progress further to get more upgrades, but the barrier of entry due to its lack of understanding on how to make a mechanically solid 3D platformer with good combat was just too much. If Balan Wonderworld didn't exist, I would state with no reservations that this is the worst 3D platformer I have ever played that still had a respectable budget to put effort into its outer appearances.

Reviewed on Aug 24, 2021


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