E3 2018: Hands on with Semblance
Semblance is a puzzle platformer, each level contains
multiple tokens to collect, which in return nets you the best score, it is a
simple little mechanic to keep you replaying levels where you missed one or
two, but it is the reason for playing that makes the game cooler. You play as
Squish, who, as his name implies is squishy, in face the entire world is
squishy and as it is made that way things can be modified. When you jump as
Squish, if you hit a wall, he flattens out for a bit, something that made me
chuckle each and every time that I did it, but it is when you power jump that
things can get really crazy.
Power jumping takes a moment to charge up, but when you do
it, rather than you being squished, you actually deform the terrain, meaning
that your actions literally shape the world. If something you are trying to
get, is a little to high, then just force the ledge below it, up higher and
then you can get it. But it is not just a matter of raising a platform to get
something, you will also need to do it, in order to create a safe space to
land, in order to avoid deadly spikes and other hazards. But up is not the only
direct you can go, if something is a little to high to reach, you can pound the
ground and go lower, letting you go under hazards as well.
But simply going up or down is not all you can do, whilst
you can raise the ground to make things safer for you, if enemies, or hazards,
like the high powered lasers, are on the ground you are moving around, then you
will change the direction, based on how you hit it. If you push the ground up,
more to the left of the laser, it will start pointing more towards the right
and so on, understanding where you need to point things, whilst deforming the
world, is crucial to succeeding.
One aspect that I really enjoyed about the game, was that
when I died, trying to complete some puzzles in the wrong way, lead to that
result, the game did not waste time on screens or such, it just placed me right
back into the action. Moving Squish is simple as well, he runs and jumps, but
he can also do a small dash move in the air, letting you gain precious
distance, which in turn helps keep you away from death a moment or two longer.
The visuals are also pretty great, they as quite minimalist,
with a subdued colour palet, I did ask why those colours and the response was
something I did not expect. When the game was being made, the team, of which
there are only a few guys, spent the time building everything in code, as in
all the art you see, is done via coding and they selected the colours then.
When they got an artist on board, they decided to leave the colours as they
were, because changing them would require a huge amount of work and the team
could just not afford to do it.
The game offered a lot of charm, more so given the size of
the main character and there were hints at what the game was going to present
players upon release. I love seeing what smaller teams are able to achieve and
thankfully BLAH seem up to the task, not bad for a couple of students from
South Africa hey.
Luke Henderson
