Game:

Forma.8 (2017)

Category:

Preview

Duration: 9:54

98 views

3

Well, after all the unbridled colorful action of Extreme Exorcism and Freedom Planet, let's step back to the much more subdued forma.8 for a change, shall we? ...er, at least I think it's "forma.8"... and not "FORMA.8" or "FORMA 8" or even just "forma 8"... ... ... it seems rather deliberate on the part of the developers wherever I look, although the game logo seems to be slightly at odds with this interpretation.

Er, regardless, I will go with "forma.8" as it seems to most properly encapsulate the chill vibe and technology-oriented flavorings of our little buddy and the stark environment in which we find our er... "story"(?) taking place.

I put that in rather uncertain terms, because I have NO idea what's going on here, but I also feel that this is at least in part the point of the experience. Like Typoman, this seems to be a more "art-y" and atmosphere-oriented game, plunging you into a subdued environment, giving you some basics and resorting to showing you things rather than telling you about them... although whether or not these things mean anything in particular will obviously be open to interpretation and/or confusion on the part of the player.

This is, however, where the similarities to Typoman end, because that was a platformer and this is a... er... what is it, exactly? I suppose it's a ... planetary space probe simulator? Whereas Typoman had a strong emphasis on linear progression and interactive-object-oriented puzzle solving, but forma.8 is more about nonlinear exploration... even if the actual progression-based elements are by necessity themselves fairly linear sequences of actions, causes, and effects. Typoman was (at least as far as the demo showed us) about avoiding conflict at all costs, whereas forma.8 is about avoiding and eliminating risk while moving forward.

Things are pretty simple, actually... if it's solid black, it's (probably) a wall. If it's glowing red, it's unfriendly. If it's glowing blue, it's helpful! (Usually this means life meter-refilling goodies.) The little probe we control has pretty smooth handling and is just all around fun to drive, even if it's a little on the slow side... probably because it's so small, so the sense of scale makes it seem slower. Personally, given the narrowness of the passageways, I find the speed to hit that sweet spot right before you feel like you're totally out of control, and fortunately there is no wall-based collision damage.

In case you can't already tell, I have a far more positive impression of forma.8 already than I had of Typoman, even if I really did appreciate what Typoman was trying to do... and I have no idea, even after the fact, what forma.8 is actually trying to be. All I can really say is that it's apparently taking some pages out of the old Metroid school of design and simply letting your players loose in a barren and uninviting environment with a couple of basic tools and letting them figure out what to make of and how to tackle it all. In (at least this much of) forma.8, that means a short-range burst repulsor shield and later some bombs you can place at your present location.

I know all too well that this very minimalistic and fascinating premise can quite easily confound and frustrate gamers, and if it did that in 1986, it'll do that even more so with modern gamers' much more streamlined, mainstreamed, and overall much needier sensibilities... so I have no idea how well this idea will really go over outside a very particular subset of the population.

For instance, the game never really tells you that your bombs and your repulsor shield can be used in tandem to create a projectile attack, but this will very quickly become your best weapon against enemies that basically always have the advantage against you otherwise. However, because of the finicky nature of trying to aim your movement to be precisely opposite the direction you want to fire, expect to miss quite a lot just because of how small you and your bombs are compared to your enemies and how small your enemies are compared to the environment. Still, there are very few things quite so satisfying as overcoming a powerful enemy or stemming the flow of endless reinforcements

Overall, I guess I'm trying to say that the game FEELS good... but it also feels like the kind of game a lot of gamers I know (and still countless more the sort of which I know OF) would easily be put off by. It's slow, atmospheric, and contemplative... and really doesn't give you any guidance, which almost puts YOU in the non-shoes of a little space probe on an unfamiliar planet with hostile environments and life forms all around.

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You might also have noticed the "Part 1" here, and indeed... this is a multi-part upload sequence, because the demo is pretty meaty compared to what I expected (especially on the heels of Freedom Planet's record-breaking demo brevity), and I chose to break it up a bit to keep things from getting overly monotonous. (Good luck with that!)