A Review Of Gravity Platformer Airscape, Now Has Linux Demo

Airscape: The Fall of Gravity is a playful gravity platformer that feels like an essential buy to any fan of challenging platformers. The game has been made by a small group of students from around the world, under the name Cross-Product, and is a joy both to play and watch:


Despite its high production values and unique gameplay, Airscape has been a commercial flop, and has so far only sold 150 copies, according to designer and programmer of Airscape Daniel West in his post-mortem on Gamasutra. That makes me all the more glad I decided to buy a copy on release, since it has been one of my most memorable game experiences this year. And as a dubious bonus, my Linux sale might also have made a bigger dent on the sales statistics per OS than it otherwise would have.

The story starts when you and your group of octopuses are suddenly abducted from your peaceful home inside a water-filled asteroid. You're all lifted up through the sky by a massive tractor beam, but you alone happen to fall off and come crashing down on an unfamiliar planet. Dazed and confused, you have but one thought; to reunite with your friends.

Through the first few levels, Airscape is relatively standard platformer fare. You can walk, jump and run, and you have to avoid minor obstacles, like pits and moving enemies. In each level, you'll find a small amount of sea critters held captive in orbs, and your objective is to rescue as many as possible of these and make it to the goal pad. Some of these sea critters are timed challenges, and if you can't make it to them in time, a spacecraft will arrive to take them away. Their locations will still be marked though, so if you see an empty dotted circle, you'll know what you have to do.

After making it through the first zone, the space map opens up, and you'll see the next zone of levels, as well as a fortified containment level. From now on you're free to zip through space and select levels as you wish. There are four containment levels in total, and for every one of them you beat, you open up a few more zones on the map, until you've unlocked all 15 and the final boss. Here's where you also get a bit more freedom of choice: Each containment level holds one of your octopus kin captive, and when you release an octopus, it's added to your lineup to choose from at the start of each subsequent level. The different octopuses have their own unique skills, which facilitate different play styles, and it's likely that you'll find a favorite among them. Some can't run, but compensate for their lack of speed through other means. One octopus can slow down time in its near vicinity, and is thus a good choice for when things start getting hectic. There is also a teleporting octopus, which has the ability to zap straight past certain obstacles. It requires a bit of precision though, since it's easy to smash straight into the ground or an enemy, but this octopus seems like a good option once you start learning the ropes.



The way gravity works is that there's a pull perpendicular to whichever surface you're closest to. In effect this means that if you're going uphill, the surface will tilt towards you to keep you on a level plane, and if a jump brings you closer to the ground above you, you'll flip around and fall towards that surface. In water, there's no concept of gravity, and you're free to move whichever way you want. There are hotkeys to adjust the screen rotation rate while playing, so it's easy to adjust rotation to a level you find comfortable.

One of the game's main strengths, in my opinion, is that there's a ton of variation; not just in enemy types and obstacles, but also in game mechanics and design. The gravity mechanics enable a level design where the ground not only is functional, but also has a curved and visually appealing topography. There are both low and no gravity levels, and even a level with alternating gravity. Enemies range from robotic tanks and aggressive UFOs to sniper rifles, homing missiles, huge showers of meteors, and a bunch more.

Each zone have their own orchestral musical themes. I'm especially fond of Eclipse, which has sort of a gothic rock opera feel to it. At least that's what I'm imagining it to be, though I don't have anything to compare it with for reference. You'll find the soundtrack on Bandcamp, where you can give it a free listen before deciding to pay-what-you-want for high-quality downloads. The visuals are colorful and clean, and though there isn't a ton of variation in textures, there's an attention to detail that makes the world feel alive. Like the leaves and cotton balls floating around in the foreground, and plants jiggling a bit when you walk past them. There are also some subtle changes in the expressions of the octopus protagonists, like when their eyes bulge slightly when an enemy is near. Another thing that I found adorable is how when you rescue sea animals, they bob about in a trail behind you throughout the rest of the level.



It took me slightly less than 12 hours to rescue enough sea critters to unlock the boss encounter and get through the game. That time also includes finding and completing two hidden levels and well over 2000 deaths and retries. There are more than enough sea creatures to rescue to complete the game, and since difficulty varies between levels and your choice of octopus and player skill, you might find that you'll get through the game faster. The hidden levels can be unlocked by finding a hidden exit in some of the levels, and levels with such exits are marked on the map once you've rescued every animal in them.

The game can be played with either a keyboard or a gamepad, and though I prefer keyboard controls, my wired Xbox 360 controller works well both in menus and in-game. Most input buttons can be remapped, and in addition to movement and screen rotation, there's also an input to quickly restart from the last checkpoint. There are a few graphical settings that can be tweaked, but I had no problems running the game at a stable 60FPS on my laptop. I did eventually decide to turn a few settings off, but only because the back- and foreground effects started to give me a hint of motion sickness. By default, the game will try to adjust settings to give you a stable performance, but this can be turned off if you prefer to tune things manually. There's also a timer that can be turned on and will be displayed in the upper left corner, which should be handy for speedrunners.

Airscape is unlike anything I've played, and though it looks like a Super Mario Galaxy in 2D, you should expect something closer to Super Meat Boy or Dustforce DX in terms of difficulty. The game has a fair share of checkpoints though, so less experienced players should still be able to get through it with some persistence. I finished the game a week ago, but I'm far from done with it, and have been picking it up for a bit every day since to try to rescue more sea creatures and uncover more secrets. My recommendation is that you go buy this game now.

The game is available on Steam and DRM free from the Humble Store (comes with a Steam key).



Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.