Platformines

Developer: Magiko Gaming
Steam Release: Mar 2014
Hours Played: 7
Similar To: Caveblazers / Steam World Dig
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Platformines is a randomly generated action platformer that has you exploring a vast and cavernous outer space world. Starting at your hub, right in the centre of the map with your shop and storage box for company, you gradually venture outward uncovering your environment by revealing the fog of war. The further away you travel the tougher the enemies and obstacles get. You mainly collect junk and various items that can then be sold for gold which in turn is used back at your hub to buy progressively more expensive (and hence, more powerful) weapons. Items and sacks of gold drop from the many enemies you'll encounter along the way. So it's jump, shoot, loot, sell - repeat; all in the good ol' fashioned Metroidvania way. Only it's not exactly, entirely in the "old-fashioned" way.

 

BALANCE & PACE

The game has innovations which make it stand-out but with this comes some flaws which hold it back (more of this in the conclusion). Gameplay itself is fairly standard fair; you zip around on various ledges and platforms shooting foes and timing jumps to avoid spikes and swinging hammers etc and there is nothing particularly good or bad in this respect although I did like the way you can swiftly equip the four different gun types. The main feature I liked was your energy meter which determined the radius of the fog of war circle around your character. This energy bar was able to be increased as you purchased its upgrade from the shop but it also doubles as a health bar so as you take damage you can see the circle shrinking and hence instantly know if you need to restore health.  
  

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

I hope you're a big fan of In The Hall of the Mountain King because a squidgy rendition of this number will come at you thick and fast. Thankfully this gets diluted somewhat by a handful or so of other well-known classics but the soundtrack doesn't really get old and is a strength of the game. The graphics themselves are not much to write home about. Deaths and explosions (what there is of them) are understated and uneventful with drops appearing in the form of bags of gold but I think the developers could have made a little more of the sound-effects overall. Inventory sounds work well though, like health restoration, and this makes up for the lame sounds used in the main part of the game. 
 

PROGRESS SYSTEM

Although it takes a while to work out exactly what it is, the progress system in Platformines is entirely unique and works very effectively. In short, it all centres around the acquisition of nine different coloured block cannons placed in the world. Each one is kept further and further away from the centre and obviously progressively harder to reach. They are marked on the map but when you do collect them and place them in your inventory, you then use them back at your hub in a type of mini game where they fire blocks of corresponding colour at a structure. With a total of 289 blocks to collect you're supposed to ultimately complete the construction of this building to end the game.
       

CONCLUSION  

I get the overall impression that Platformines is more about exploring and uncovering chunks of the map in a relaxing fashion rather than rushing to find the nine cannons. The reason being that by the time you get to cannon five or six, progress is more like running through treacle than a tick-box exercise. In other words you're soon going to find the map becoming more dense with annoying traps and seeing more enemies absorbing more of your shots, as well as them dishing out more damage. Frequent home visits via the quick-travel portals as well as regular deaths become routine and this can make the game a tad frustrating. Grinding more accessible areas for gold to buy meatier weapons then becomes the answer. Fine for those who like to take it slow but not for those who like quick rewards and swift completion.