Outland (PSN & Xbox Live Arcade)

[Dread Not]

Has anyone else played this game? I just finished it and it's fucking fantastic. It's one of the best downloadable games I've played, probably second only to Braid, and one of my favorite games so far this year.

The story is totally disposable. Something about sister goddesses and a chosen hero blah, blah, I didn't pay much attention. It's all about the gameplay. You navigate a 2D world full of traps, obstacles, and enemies, metroidvania style. The cool part is that enemies and traps come in both light and dark varieties, and you can switch your character between light and dark at the push of a button, just like in the classic shmup Ikaruga. If your color matches that of the trap you won't take damage, and you can only damage enemies if you are the opposite color. You also need to switch your color to use certain platforms, switches and other parts of the game world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhACVOXH ... ure=relmfu

I found the controls really tight for both the combat and the platforming, and the game has terrific pacing, doing an excellent job of introducing new elements. Almost every time I started thinking something like "This game really needs to introduce some new enemies," I got what I asked for moments later, and the new abilities you unlock as you progress are the kind you really look forward to gaining.

My biggest complaint with the game is the exploration elements. I love metroidvanias, but in Outland's case, the items and upgrades you scour the world for are pretty ho hum. There are upgrade statues where you spend money to increase your health and mana. There are money chests, but you collect plenty of money from fallen enemies and will always have plenty to purchase upgrades. And finally there are little golden idols to collect that have ZERO impact on the gameplay unless you collect all of them, which can be quite a chore.

The game also isn't as challenging as some made it sound. At most I usually only died once at certain sections, and there are tons of checkpoints, so you don't lose much progress if you perish. The epic boss fights are a rare exception and require some very tight reflexes to overcome.

There is also an arcade mode where you speedrun through a level to compete on leaderboards, and there are also several online co-op arenas. However, I sadly haven't been able to find any other players to play co-op with for some bizarre reason. Still, the single player alone took me about 8 hours to complete, and with the quality of experience I feel the game was definitely worth the $10 I spent to download it.

If anyone else has played it, let me know what you think.

[Chardok]

Waiting for From Dust please GTFO.

[Stark]

I played the demo, and it didn't grab me at all. I hate puzzles and don't really like platformers either, so there was no hope for me.