Supraland: Six Inches Under Review (Meat Clown)
I did like Supraland, but Supraland: Six Inches Under is somewhat disappointing compared to the original. It retains some of the good things I liked about Supraland, but amplifies almost everything I didn't like while not adding that much content to begin with. Sure, even the developers call it Supraland 1.5, but I feel like that doesn't make the game all that more fun.
If you played Supraland, then everything about Six Inches Under will feel familiar. And that's fine, in my opinion. The story takes place under the original game's "garden" in a network of caverns. As you're trying to find your way out, you find a lot of the familiar abilities like the Force Cube but also new weapons like the Tesla Gun. You solve puzzles, find secrets and eventually find your way out.
That's a gameplay loop that worked fine in Supraland, but for some reason feels a lot less engaging in Six Inches Under. Maybe it's because it feels that I've already played much of the game, as many of the devices and abilities are the same. Maybe it's because the story, which was funny satire in the first game, is much less engaging in the second game with it's on-the-nose critique of trickle-down economies and capitalism. Maybe it's because the puzzles never seem to find that sweet spot and are either really easy or require very far out-of-the-box thinking, with no inbetween.
It's probably a mix of all those reasons why I found Six Inches Under a lot less fun than Supraland. But the ultimate reason is probably the progression. Finding all the secrets and upgrading your character to the max was fun in Supraland, even with some of the issues (many upgrades being very miniscule so there can be more of them to pad out the number of secrets), but it loses some of its charm when about 40 % of the game is locked until you actually beat it.
There are post-game-areas where you can find a large part of that ~40 % of remaining secrets, but that is an additional 7+ hours after beating the game in around 6-7 hours. Sure, a large appeal of the game is to collect everything, and I am fine with that to scoop up the remaining few missed collectibles or secrets after a final boss to round out the game. But 40 % of the game is a whole different pacing issue, not to mention that many of the puzzles that follow "beating" the game are unnecessarily clunky and the physics often do not agree with what you're trying to do with them. It's like the developers felt that the main game was too short, so they tacked on that same amount with post-game areas that feel uninspired and shallow, both in visuals and gameplay.
All in all, I decided to stop playing soon after "beating" the game and it just leaves a hollow taste in my mouth. It feels like a less engaging, less complete and less fun Supraland - and, well, that's because it is just a Version 1.5. In my opinion, this didn't need to exist when Supraland does the job just fine, and I would have rather waited for a bigger, better and more fresh feeling Supraland 2. If you really, really loved Supraland and can withstand some tedium, I would still encourage you to check out Six Inches Under, but personally I was disappointed.