Gateways - 360 - XBLIG review

[Sketcz]

I thought this was only coming out next week, but apparently it's out right now! I've put 60 minutes into it, and so far it is fantastic. (I'm also cross posting this from elsewhere)

Briefly: it's Super Metroid meets Portal, with a whole lot of retro 2D charm and some ingenious puzzles. It's also only 240 points!

It's a Metroidvania, undoubtedly, but instead of acquiring new abilities you get new "gateway guns" - the first being one that produces two transportation gateways. Walk through one and pop through the other. Having only played an hour I've only gotten two guns so far, the second one shrinking or enlarging your character.



The puzzles for these are ingenious, taking into account not only location, but also gravity. If you can't jump horizontally far enough, you can put a gateway on the nearby wall, and the second one at the bottom of a shaft, and then jump down - the inertia you build up will fling you through the one on the wall, clearing the obstacle.

You can also acquire extra health pick-ups, a jump booster and a torch for dark areas (this is also needed for light-sensitive puzzles).

There's also enemies to negotiate, and so far they can be defeated like Mario enemies. Jump on their heads enough times to kill them. Some are particularly large, requiring you to increase your size before taking them on.

The best bit is the map and hint system. Instead of doors like in Metroid, it's puzzles which block your path. Every puzzle has a help point, where you can spend the power balls you've been collecting. Spend 5 and it tells you if you have the needed gear to solve it. This is fantastic, because at a glance you can check the map and see where new areas are available to you. Something which is frustrating in similar such games is not knowing when you're able to pass through earlier obstacles, but now you can just check the map and see, ah! I can now access that room from earlier.



If you spend 40 balls meanwhile, it shows you how to solve the puzzle. Which is great for people who get stuck. You can't really abuse it though, because out of the... I'd say 8 or 10 puzzles I've solved so far, I bought the solution for two and now I'm completely out of energy balls. So it's not possible to buy your way through - save them for when you need it.

My only criticism is that it's an Indie Game. Meaning you have to be online to play. But the game is also available for PCs, DRM free, if you prefer that route.

I can see this being something I put a lot more time into.

['Press Start To Begin']

That looks like the kind of game I need to play right now. Thanks for posting about it.

[Sketcz]

Put more time into it, and it gets better. Recently got the time travel gun, which allows you to make two portals, walk through one, end up at the other, and see your previous self. Allowing you to solve puzzles which need 2 or 3 or more characters (I've only had a max of 4 so far - and that's pretty mind bending, because if you touch one the time warp cancels itself).

It also shows how robust the game engine is. There was a puzzle with a simple solution of making yourself bigger, so you were tall enough to reflect a laser beam with a handheld mirror. I didn't think about this, so set up a complex time travel system where three of my guys were reflecting the laser from one to the other, to get it to the right angle. It's difficult to explain without images, but I like you can over-complicate things. After solving the puzzle you can watch the optimal solution for free - which I did, and was like: whoa! That's so simple. Still, I'm rather pleased with my three man set-up.

Also a great physics puzzle I came across: you put a gateway on the ground at the bottom of a tall shaft, and then another next to it, and jump through the one, then hold down jump button. As you keep falling through one and then the other, you increase your momentum allowing you to shoot all the way up the shaft.

There's also been hints that next I'm going to acquire the rotation gun, so I can walk on walls!

It's really unfortunate this is only on XBLIG, because I fear it will put many off buying it, despite it being one of the best games on the system.

[charlesr]

This looks amazing. Adding it to my queue now.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Pr...5-d80258550bea

[S_rank]

This seems bloody brilliant from my small time with it i dont know what microsoft are thinking this game should have been on the arcade section .

[Sketcz]

It wasn't their decision. Smudged Cat Games did it because of the difficulty involved with getting a game published on XBLA. The guy behind it, David Johnston, previously made Shuggy for XBLA, which did poorly. His story is here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...games_the_.php

It seems that XBLA again was too big a risk, whereas XBLIG allowed him to bring it out far more easily.

The development of Shuggy has been a bit of a headache and a cause of concern for me over the last four years. So much so that it has made me consider if it's what I really want to do, particularly considering how badly the game has sold to date. My wife and I now have a newborn baby (a lot of this was typed out using one finger as I held my baby in the other) so I'm not sure I can face the financial risks that game development brings.

I have another couple of projects in the pipeline that I'd like to see finished, and see how they go, but I'm just not prepared to take the same risks that I took in order to complete Shuggy. They'll probably be released as Indie Games. While I will always love playing video games, and dream of crafting my own virtual worlds, I fear this may be the end of game development for me.

[S_rank]

Thats pretty sad to hear how shuggy has done hope this does well from him as he deserves succsess with this as it is really unique and interesting and the sort of games that gamers should be championing.

[Sketcz]

I've reached the end - it took about 5 hours?

Except now I'm stuck on the last puzzle, which you can't buy your way out of. There's 2 lasers and 4 laser-switches, one of which is behind a door, opened via pressure pad when you're small.

This final puzzle obviously requires use of ALL Gateways guns: time travel to send those 2 beams back in time in order to get the necessary 4 beams, plus rotation so you touch them with the mirror at the correct angle, plus shrinking your guy down to open the pressure door, and then a regular portal so you can escape from the pressure pad afterwards, jump once more through the time travel Gateway and exit the room.

I think I'll wait for the Youtube video for this one!

All in all, a fantastic game. Well worth the £3 or however much 240 points equals.

I also love how wonderfully subversive the atmosphere is. The enemies are all extremely disturbing vivisection experiments, and Professor Ed when he jumps around he goes "Eh! Huh? Wha!?" which makes him sound completely insane. At first you think it's quite a cute looking game, but there's a bit of a dark edge underneath.

[SmudgedCat]

Hey, I'm the author, David Johnston. I'm glad you liked the game!

The last puzzle is a bit excessive but I wanted to finish on something that required using all the guns together. I've already put a video online of one possible solution - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj5VttL4f1E

It's worth pointing out you can hold down the button for the mirror so you can freely rotate it rather than it being locked into certain positions. Most of the time it makes lining things up tricky but it can come in handy for the final puzzle.

[S_rank]

Ive been taking my time with this savoring it haven't bought any of the solutions to the puzzles yet one thing i like is how you are always unlocking a new ability so the game is staying fresh . I have a slight problem i have just found the time warp gun and got the option for having 2 version of my self but i cant seem to get it to work i can have one version of my self but not 2 im not sure what i am meant to be doing