Felix The Reaper

The two issues I have with this game are firstly that it feels like I'm fighting an interface in order to enjoy the dancing Felix that obscure him when not having to be so zoomed out (to work out the puzzle) that he's barely large enough to convey massive movements (all the subtely of the dancing is franking lost and he looks lumpen). The second issue is the clashing art style that simultanously was much-of-muchness-realness and also made me want to reach for my sunglasses. Colourwise it falls between those too stools and stylistically can't seem to decide if it wants to highlight it's obvious grid-based setting or if it's it's ashamed of it. One star for Patrick Stewart and the other is for the love that went into this game (it's evident from the start). Shame about the rest.

Execution, get it? Anyway... The game has a pretty unique premise, both in terms of story and puzzle mechanic, and an equally unique (and rather nice) art style. There's also Patrick Stewart narrating the whole thing, always a treat. However, the game, fun though it is, is rather less than the sum of its parts. Instead of making better use of the interesting story/protagonist premise, and a wonderful actor delivering the narration, the story actually barely exists. Not much, if anything, would really change if you removed it. Same with the dancing the game's creators seem really proud of - it's a nice touch, but after playing the game for a while I pretty much stopped noticing it. If Felix simply walked it wouldn't change the game in the long run. And finally - the levels, the puzzles themselves, are mostly just... ok. Like I said, the mechanic is interesting, but it lacks some spark, some... je ne sais quoi that made the likes of Portal or Braid shine. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed Felix, it's a nice little puzzler. But it could have been something great.

At it's core it's a unique and fun puzzler. Early in the game i would become frustrated because I was trying to work the solution backward and it was too easy, which made it harder, if that makes sense. But as the game progressed and the puzzles became more complicated (and i stopped trying to work the puzzles backward) it became easier and more fun. As some have mentioned the interface isn't perfect (you 'want' to look around but can't) however it's not an issue in pregressing, just doesn't allow the freedom many are used to in puzzle-like games. The game takes a little getting used to, but is quite rewarding once that happens. The only frustration i felt past the early game was when I realized i made one step out-of-order and i need to work my way all of the back to where I was to fix it. Can be a little frustrating, but a bit of frustration is to be expected in a puzzle game. The aesthetics and story were both unique and I found the dancing character fun and not distractingin any way. Unfortunately this comes to my one very major gripe...the music REALLY sucks. I'm not saying that as a 'i don't like this type of music' but as a 'i'm watching this fun character rock-out while listening to repetitve (often 5-10 second loops) elevator music'. They could have gone with bebop, big-band jazz, techno, rock, etc. - but what we get is a bit of smooth jazz with some electronic beats mixed along the way. compared to other games i would rate the music as below average, but in terms of the game being so centered around the music/dancing character and the type of music unable to match the mood (it would have been acceptable as normal background music) it's hard to forgive this miscalculation/oversite. I hope this studio makes more games as they clearly have a lot of unique ideas, but I hope they find someone new to manage the music (or simply make a game that doesn't rely on the music).

I quite liked the idea behind this game, but the execution is very frustrating. Maybe I could have stuck with it for longer if I could at least rebind the keys, but no, I can only view the hard-coded control scheme. I can't even pan the camera around the level. The irregular movement of the player character when I tell him to move somewhere makes it just about impossible to find a rhythm, which is ironic for a game that has the player character dancing to repetitive background music. The dancing feels like a fairly pointless gimmick, and just adds visual noise to the game, because it is in no way tied to the gameplay. This made sense for Crypt Of The Necrodancer, because you *have* to move in time with the music.