Bionic Bay Review (Shiki)
Honestly pretty disappointed in this one. Sure it's pretty, but that's almost all there is to it.
pros:
- overall visuals
- sound
- gameplay is solid (thought the insta grab on everything can be annoying)
cons:
- Environments: almost the entirety of the game so far feels like one level. 90% of them looked and felt the same to the point where outside one particular gimmick here and there, I couldn't differentiate one from the other. The lack of environmental variety makes the game feel tedious, there's no surprises around the corner, it's always the same pipe/root things. I'm starting to see a little difference in act 3 but it's too little too late.
- Challenge: Very little of it, some sections in part 3 are a little more challenging but they're very few and far between. The checkpoint system plays a part into that, it's like there's a checkpoint every 5 feet. So much that sometimes the checkpoint system makes me skip obstacles because my corpse flew over one or something. Many times I died and just spawned after the obstacle I died to.
- Level design: Pretty poor. Levels just have this aimless, weird structure that almost feels randomly generated at times. They're not interesting to explore or navigate and all feel the same. There's also strictly nothing to find in those levels, it's point A to point B. That's it.
- Powers: For most of the game, you have one power; swap. The other powers you see in the trailer are relegated to a single level at the end of each act (1 and 2 at least). I don't know if i'm crazy, but these levels were almost the same? massive déjà vu going through them). 4 hours into the game it seems I've now been given the time stop in regular levels. That took WAY too long.
Seeing the trailer, I was expecting this to be my jam, I love atmospheric platformers. Unfortunately, I am forcing myself to finish it. 4h in and it already has overstaying it's welcome. No variety in the levels and environments, barely any challenge, ridiculously generous checkpoint system to a fault, etc.
4/10 at best for me. If my feelings changes once I finish the game, I will update my review. Though it would take some incredible turn for me to switch it to positive. At the moment, I'm just ready for it to end.