Avoid - Sensory Overload

 
Developer: 48h Studio
Released: Apr 2014
Hours Played: 4.3
Similar To: Boson X / Cosmophony / Neon Drive / Stereo Aereo / TEC 3001
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

ASO is one of those in a long line of minimal runners done on a relatively tight budget that have found themselves hitting the Steam store. Fortunately unlike patchy efforts such as Data Jammers, Linea the Game or Void 21, this title joins Boson X, Race The Sun and Unpossible towards the top of the tree. You control a small triangular spaceship at the bottom of the screen and set off through a tunnel along a track with a maximum of nine squares wide but which can sometimes narrow down to just one. You can only move left or right and your ship occupies the space of one square but you don't click-into-place, a la Audiosurf or Boson X but steer smoothly while avoiding obstacles. You can do levels with three lives or try the endless mode. A run will begin relatively gently as the track up ahead comes into view on the horizon.

BALANCE & PACE

There is time to anticipate manouevres but to demand progressively quicker thinking you will regularly pass Speed Up signs that do just that. You'll get cuboids blocking your path and obstacles that vary slightly according to the four different chapters. There are also power-ups to make life easier for a short time and multipliers to boost your score. It all requires swift lane-changing and plenty of swerving. Four infectious soundtracks go with the four worlds with their own colour-scheme and vibe, and the game's difficulty-curve rises at the right pace to keep the challenge firmly in the sweet-spot for abilities across all ranges. Picking up the maximum of three silver stars while doing levels requires you to hit all multipliers and suffer no loss of lives. Missing just one will mean three green stars instead. 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 

The game features a neon-lit style of presentation with a fairly basic tile-set being used for the tracks. Likewise, menus are simply designed and stripped down to the basics. Dull fonts dominate the home page and the level-select screens are clearly going for the blandsville and plainvillage awards. However once you dive onto the tracks things certainly pick up and its the distinctive soundtrack for the four different chapters, named after pop music genres, that helps put you in the flow. The user-interface is also minimal and unobtrusive while picking up a power-up activates the voice of the sexy narrator who announces its name. Those who enjoy a snazzy and loud nightclub atmosphere will certainly feel at home with the vibe.  
    

PROGRESS SYSTEM

Pressing Play first gives you the names of the four worlds: Electronic, Minimal, Laserdance and Synthrock. With this comes the choice of playing Levels or Endless mode. Endless will take you to a further screen where you'll select one of four difficulties: Easy, Medium, Hard and Extreme. For each, you have a leaderboard for your score and rank and it's a case of getting as far as you can. If you go for the Level option, you'll also be given the choice of doing one of four difficulties but on top of this you do one of eight unlockable levels. Here, you'll be given up to three stars based on score. To get the maximum of three silver stars you'll need to pick up all multipliers on the track. Missing one will get you three green stars. A level generally takes just a minute or two. 

CONCLUSION

ASO is a solid title that does a great job in offering a runner that is both endless and level-based. It is has a great range of difficulties with the curve running steadily and smoothly. Endless mode is randomly generated to keep things fresh and the leaderboards are fast, stable and clear. I have only two mild complaints: (1) I did experience a little slowdown and a drop in frame-rate occasionally at the start of a run which was slightly annoying but certainly not a deal-breaker and (2) the power-ups seemed to last for too short of a time and made very little difference. They sometimes even caused a little hindrance when activated because you felt you had to go out of your way to reap their benefits. Anyway, as whole, ASO has plenty enough to be a no-brainer for all runner fans.