Below Freezing
It has become something of a joke on-line to compare things to Dark Souls. When writing a review, most writers will opt to reference something democratic to cut down on the length of a piece. This is supposed to work in that readers will be familiar and can draw parallels without explicitly being told how something is exchangeable .
What has happened, though, is that reviewers have gotten faineant and started referring to anything “ hard ” as Dark Souls. This came to a heading when a review for the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy claimed the game turned into Dark Souls due to its difficulty. What does one pronounce, though, when a game immediately bills itself as a riff on Dark Souls ? Immortal Planet is one such game and I ’ thousand kind of at a loss for comparisons .
Would it be tacky to say Immortal Planet is the Dark Souls of isometric RPGs ?
Reading: Review: Immortal Planet
Immortal Planet (PC)
Developer: teedoubleuGAMES
Publisher: teedoubleuGAMES
Released: July 27, 2017
MSRP: $14.99
Taking a page mighty out of the Souls playbook, Immortal Planet begins with a quick cutscene that vaguely sets the stage ahead immediately thrusting you into the military action. After that, you ’ ra left to scramble together pieces of the narrative at your own discretion. There are a few NPCs that will explain fiddling bits and pieces, but this is pretty much an experience centered on the gameplay and level blueprint .
The game starts by having you select from three different weapons and three different special abilities. While this is supposed to give you slightly different playstyles to mix up the fight, everything basically feels the same. You can besides finally find the early starting weapons and attributes, so this is truly equitable a way to acclimate yourself in the beginning with restrict aid .
After “ creating ” your character, you awaken from a stasis pod and immediately face off with an enemy. There are small little beacons on the floor that will pop up what each release on the restrainer does, but this actually is good Dark Souls in 2D, isometric line phase. You have access to a basic attack, a block, a dash, a sprint and the ability to change the form of your weapon, but all of these actions will consume region of your stamen meter. Stamina will recharge when you ’ re not actively performing anything beyond walk .
There are besides sub-weapons and items available for you to use, which are displayed at the bottom left of the screen. These are mapped to the triggers/bumpers on your accountant and allow you to shoot guns, throw grenades and perform spells/magic to attack from a distance. then there is the healing phial, which has a restrict to how many times it can be performed until you find items to increase said specify ( think the Estus Flask from Souls ) .
The big “ wrench ” on the Souls gameplay in Immortal Planet is that you can see the enemy health and stamen meters at all times. They are governed by the lapp ruleset that you are, so the fight becomes tactical in that you can coax enemies into performing actions that will leave them at low stamen and vulnerable to counterattack. Most of these enemies hit like cargo trains, excessively, so you ’ ll truly want to learn their patterns and when to retaliate if you hope to make it to the first gear knob competitiveness .
Enemies follow classical villain designs by telegraphing their attacks and having clear patterns for you to exploit. It is all sample and true stuff that Souls perfected through its versatile iterations, indeed fans of that series won ’ metric ton receive much to stumble about hera. For anyone wholly new, this will come off as sometimes punishing, but always rewarding and an experience that emphasizes raw skill more than anything else .
The party boss fights besides follow the same mold, though they typically have multiple health meters and versatile stages to their patterns. The beginning animal you ’ ll font off with is chiefly a giant form of the enemies in the foremost area, but the bosses do become more varied as you progress along, utilizing ranged or area-of-effect attacks to keep you moving. They complement the areas you ’ ll cross to reach them, in terms of purpose, which is decent .
There are four main areas to the bet on, though upon defeating the knob, you ’ ll unlock the second base half of each area for further exploration. The reason behind this concerns something from the plot about everyone on this nameless planet being deity, so they get reincarnated or something. I ’ thousand not actually sure what the whole deal is, but it highlights one of my biggest problems with the game .
Immortal Planet is a short game, clocking in at roughly six hours for a playthrough. It feels like a condense translation of Dark Souls for people with close fourth dimension constraints. That is very well and all, but you ’ vitamin d think that short length would facilitate enough newfangled ideas floating around to make every confrontation wholly alone. rather, the plot forces you to basically repeat everything you ’ ve barely done in each second one-half of an area. This besides includes facing off against the same bos, even if they are slightly more unmanageable.
It besides brings about how otiose the charge system is, since the compulsory have to level up is reasonably humble. indisputable, dying will see you drop your XP at your compass point of death and undertaking you with retrieving it while a second death will erase that XP ( precisely like Souls ), but simple enemies drop a batch of know and you can quickly amass a considerable measure of potency and endurance to in truth cheese out any troublesome spots .
The level plan is besides quite generous with shortcuts and interconnectivity, so you can find some capital farming spots to kill five or six foes, die and then repeat the process for flying XP boosts. Since it is never quite net which sphere you ’ ll need to head to first ( largely because you ’ ra free to choose ), you might stumble into the “ subsequently ” section and feel wholly underpowered. Since the enemies aren ’ t impossible, fair largely a annoyance, you inescapably end up cheesing the system to bring yourself up to snuff. This, in turn, ruins the earlier segments because the enemies are merely no pit for you .
That could all be forgiven if there was something to actually find in this universe, but Immortal Planet then forgets to include any secrets or extra loot. There are a few different weapons to track down ( the aforementioned trio of starter choices being available in the earth ), but they all basically control the same and don ’ thyroxine utilize any different kind of animations. There is not a one bite of armor for you to get, so you ’ ra stick with the nonpayment count for the entire duration .
While you can acquire different secondary coil weapons, those largely follow the like templates. There are laser beams that shoot different elementary effects, grenades that explode into different elemental effects, projectiles that shoot unlike elementary effects, etc. I don ’ metric ton even know if foes are weak against detail elements because a direct hit from each sub-weapon stuns them, so it ’ s not like internal-combustion engine has the potential to freeze over fire .
so any, the rate attacks and degree progression are kind of borked, but the kernel battle remains barely deoxyadenosine monophosphate tight as Dark Souls, right ? Well, not precisely. The isometric vantage point that the game employs very hinders your motion quite a sting. While you technically have access to 3D apparent motion, since the camera is always fixed in one commission, dodging around enemies can be bad. sometimes you ’ ll run straight into them, which stuns you if they aren ’ thyroxine abject on stamen .
When you ’ re stunned in place, you tend to sit there like a dunce and equitable absorb wrong. This besides happens when enemies peg you with junior-grade weapons, which in change state about constantly spells your prematurely death. It doesn ’ metric ton help that you can dash right off of platforms, which become hard to see due to the isometric line vantage point. There were a few instances where I was trying to simply dodge an fire and I ’ d immediately die because I stupidly went right off the environment .
There are besides a few platforming segments that task you with dashing over gaps, but not lining yourself up perfectly will result in the lapp site. While the majority of these are relegated to “ challenge ” rooms that unlock some extra abilities, there is one segment where you ’ ll necessitate to diagonally dash onto an inconspicuous chopine that is underneath an acid drip. Trying to cursorily perform all these tasks when you can ’ t intelligibly concentrate yourself is precisely an practice in frustration .
When the plot pits you into larger arenas and stops with funky platforming, it does perform solidly enough. I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate think the inadequate length does anything incontrovertible for the mystery of this earth, but that lapp stamina focused combat from Dark Souls is put to decent use. That sci-fi aesthetic is besides bang-up, since it feels slightly different from Souls ‘ more medieval designs. The majority of the game is like this, so it has enough fun moments to feel rewarding adequate .
The “ New Game Plus ” modality ( called Nightmare, for some reason ) is besides in truth cool in that it slenderly remixes the enemy and hazard placements, so it isn ’ t just a carbon copy of what you ’ ve already beaten with a “ heavily ” boundary. I ’ m not sure I understand why you start from feather one with your XP, but you then have access to all of the weapons the game has from the starting signal ( should you find them ).
You besides feel a tangible progress in your skill, since restarting after having tinkered with the game for a few hours resulted in me better understanding the specific quirks of Immortal Planet ’ sulfur animations and gameplay. deplorably, I can ’ triiodothyronine see myself actually wanting to finish this game again, which is a shame since the “ real ” ending is hidden behind “ New Game Plus. ”
actually, Immortal Planet is largely a game for Souls fans that equitable can not get adequate of FromSoftware ’ s particular mark of military action. While it could besides work as an introduction to the series proper, what with its light length, Immortal Planet doesn ’ t bring enough new to the table to in truth justify a purchase for anyone not already familiar with the Souls series. That it starts to recycle content in such a brusque time skeletal system is besides a crime, even if the fight can be engaging .
[ This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher. ]
