Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Has anybody ever heard of Michael Gagne? He's an awesome artist that has an eclectic body of work, including the animated film The Iron Giant, the graphic sci fi series ZED, Batman:Spore, and numerous other random books and stories. I am a huge Gagne fan girl. He is also my preferred source for avatars.

Sooooo......I was thrilled when I heard about this game he's working on, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. I really hope he finds a publisher soon!

Anyone else heard of this guy or the game?

I remember seeing the trailer before. It looks awesomely stylish.

It reminds me of another trailer I saw a year or two ago. I forget what it was called, though. It had the same sort of 2D black silhouette look, but I think it was entirely B&W. It was a platformer, and there was a boy running around and I think the world was rotating or something. I wish I could remember the name of it.

Limbo

I just played through the demo, and I'm really impressed. It has the attitude of a 1950s sci-fi B-movie. Everything about it is perfectly over the top. Easy buy decision.

From the trailer it reminds me of the art style of World of Goo more than Limbo. Dunno.

For Irongut!

There's a bit of a mean-spirited review up at Eurogamer. The reviewer said it lacked character and compared it to lots of games that I didn't think had much character either. I tried the demo last night, and I thought it was cool.

DudleySmith wrote:

There's a bit of a mean-spirited review up at Eurogamer. The reviewer said it lacked character and compared it to lots of games that I didn't think had much character either. I tried the demo last night, and I thought it was cool.

That actually does a good job of selling me on the game. I wasn't quite sure about it after I played the demo, but a lot of what this reviewer mentioned are big selling points for me. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of the stories in games and so have no problem with one that strips that away in favor of pure, unadulterated mechanics.

I do find it odd that that reviewer made a point of saying that Lantern Mode added a much-needed feeling of companionship to the game. Isolation is one of the hallmarks of the Metroidvania genre.

I played the first 3 levels, and I'm enjoying it so far.

That review is pretty bad, imo. Everything he complains about is a deliberate design decision that he just doesn't like.

the review wrote:

There’s even that scourge of Zelda games, a water temple area, in which you must raise and lower the level of the liquid to fill lakes and trigger switches.

You have to raise the water level maybe four times throughout the entire level, and each time there's a different puzzle you need to solve. But apparently anything that involves moving water around is bad?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I do find it odd that that reviewer made a point of saying that Lantern Mode added a much-needed feeling of companionship to the game. Isolation is one of the hallmarks of the Metroidvania genre.

Lantern mode is weird. I played with these two guys yesterday (obv. in a clan together, CoD or Halo or whatever). They lost their lanterns and spent the rest of the game trying to steal mine while chanting "INSANE. TWISTED. SHADOW. PLANET!" over and over on the mic. Needless to say, we didn't break any high scores. I could do without that kind of "companionship".

Clemenstation wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I do find it odd that that reviewer made a point of saying that Lantern Mode added a much-needed feeling of companionship to the game. Isolation is one of the hallmarks of the Metroidvania genre.

Lantern mode is weird. I played with these two guys yesterday (obv. in a clan together, CoD or Halo or whatever). They lost their lanterns and spent the rest of the game trying to steal mine while chanting "INSANE. TWISTED. SHADOW. PLANET!" over and over on the mic. Needless to say, we didn't break any high scores. I could do without that kind of "companionship".

Rule #1: Don't play with pubbies.

For real. I'll probably wait on you guys to finish the game before trying again.

I just read that Eurogamer review and agree that it's unnecessarily fierce. He's right about a few things, though: the game's atmosphere feels strangely sterile, given the amazing art. And that crystal/laser puzzle is the f*cking worst. Still, I would say a 7 or 8 is closer to the mark than a 6 (out of 10).

I played for a short time the other night. I was not too keen, to be honest. It looks great, but that's about it really. I was also a bit disturbed to see that I was 14% through after less than an hour.

Clemenstation wrote:

For real. I'll probably wait on you guys to finish the game before trying again.

I just read that Eurogamer review and agree that it's unnecessarily fierce. He's right about a few things, though: the game's atmosphere feels strangely sterile, given the amazing art. And that crystal/laser puzzle is the f*cking worst. Still, I would say a 7 or 8 is closer to the mark than a 6 (out of 10).

The worst part about it is that you apparently can't complete it until after you do something else... but the game has NO WAY to tell you that, except by not letting one particular part work until after the prerequisite is completed.

That was really frustrating.

Annnnnd done.

Neat game. Seems to be missing an ending.

[edit]

Also, the Electrical area can go FSCK itself.

Seriously.

How long did it take you to complete the game? I have such a hard time spending $15 on a game I might complete in one sitting.

DeThroned wrote:

How long did it take you to complete the game? I have such a hard time spending $15 on a game I might complete in one sitting.

I wasn't really paying attention to total time, but it was 3 play periods... maybe 4-6 hrs total. I didn't find all the hidden concept art (missing 3 pieces), but did explore the entire map and get all the artifacts and ship upgrades.

I finished it yesterday morning. I explored the whole map, but still seemed to have missed a couple artifacts. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I think I missed what was so frustrating about that crystal/laser puzzle.

TheCounselor wrote:

I finished it yesterday morning. I explored the whole map, but still seemed to have missed a couple artifacts. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I think I missed what was so frustrating about that crystal/laser puzzle.

Spoiler:

There's evidently a bug with that particular area that only comes up sometimes. In my first visit to the cave, I was unable to get a crystal to lock into a socket in the upper left area. Didn't matter what color or what end I used, they'd just fall back out. I spent ~10-15 minutes trying different tactics before I gave up and went on. After defeating the boss, I came back and crystals locked in that area on the first attempt. I mistakenly attributed it to needing to beat the boss, but in retrospect it seems more likely that there's just something flaky about the area.

I'm stuck on the bit where you have to put the bomb anenomes in the pipes going to the fleshy sac, avoiding the missile sprouty things. Maybe I've finally become too old...

Tyrian wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

I finished it yesterday morning. I explored the whole map, but still seemed to have missed a couple artifacts. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I think I missed what was so frustrating about that crystal/laser puzzle.

Spoiler:

There's evidently a bug with that particular area that only comes up sometimes. In my first visit to the cave, I was unable to get a crystal to lock into a socket in the upper left area. Didn't matter what color or what end I used, they'd just fall back out. I spent ~10-15 minutes trying different tactics before I gave up and went on. After defeating the boss, I came back and crystals locked in that area on the first attempt. I mistakenly attributed it to needing to beat the boss, but in retrospect it seems more likely that there's just something flaky about the area.

I had the same problem! When I went back after the boss it seemed so easy, and I couldn't remember why I had struggled so much.

Clemenstation wrote:

I had the same problem! When I went back after the boss it seemed so easy, and I couldn't remember why I had struggled so much.

That was pretty much my experience exactly.

Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot. It's a simple take on a metroidvania style adventure game, though a bit light on the RPG elements. It also lacks any extensive narrative, though that isn't necessarily a huge flaw.

I admit I was left a bit unsatisfied with the ending. It seemed like the chapter was finished, but that there was a larger story that was left relatively unexplored. Maybe there will be DLC that adds new content?

Clemenstation wrote:
Tyrian wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

I finished it yesterday morning. I explored the whole map, but still seemed to have missed a couple artifacts. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I think I missed what was so frustrating about that crystal/laser puzzle.

Spoiler:

There's evidently a bug with that particular area that only comes up sometimes. In my first visit to the cave, I was unable to get a crystal to lock into a socket in the upper left area. Didn't matter what color or what end I used, they'd just fall back out. I spent ~10-15 minutes trying different tactics before I gave up and went on. After defeating the boss, I came back and crystals locked in that area on the first attempt. I mistakenly attributed it to needing to beat the boss, but in retrospect it seems more likely that there's just something flaky about the area.

I had the same problem! When I went back after the boss it seemed so easy, and I couldn't remember why I had struggled so much.

I had the same problem too, if you leave the immediate area the socket resets and can be used properly again.

Woot! PC version confirmed - to be released "soon", will include the DLC package.

Hey, PC version is out and on Steam now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/20...

So, who here is interested in taking on the Lantern Run with me?