Post by Bytor on Dec 15, 2010 12:13:23 GMT -5
-Visuals- 9.4/10
The quirky style is wonderful. The various creatures you meet are all crisp and rendered wonderfully. The backgrounds while not quite to the same standard are still wonderful to look at as well. I love the various obstacles as well, they all look original somehow even though many are repeated several times in each stage. Each stage is also wonderfully designed and original, you'll go through urban scenes, oriental scenes, underground scenes and simply maze types, each of which is rendered wonderfully and looks great. The graphics fit the ambiance of the game perfectly. You, sackboy, is also wonderful to look at. The amount of customization possible is mind boggling (mine wore a top hat with a red wig, Johnny Depp style goatee, thick glasses and a pirate suit, lol). You can also collect literally hundreds and hundreds of stickers to place everywhere and anywhere to further customize the game even further. My only big issue with the graphics will actually be addressed more in gameplay, while the game is basically 2D there are "levels" (typically behind you) which are often difficult to navigate due to the lack of 3D, these will often result in your demise. The style might not be for everyone but I feel regardless of how much or little you like the game you will find it wonderful to look at, especially with the various levels all being so very different looking.
-Sound- 9.3/10
The background music fits the game in a wonderful way, Typical quirky, wacky Japanese music (reminds me of the Katamari games). Now, if you are looking for a sweeping 100 piece orchestra with many movements look elsewhere, this music is simply fun.
-Gameplay- 8.5/10
And the love fest ends...now don't get me wrong, it's unique and can be fun, unfortunately I found many, many areas to simply be annoying. The biggest issue was in the physics of the game. The designers have said they wanted to use "real physics" and in this aspect they succeeded, but, this is not what I want in a platformer. For example, if you are running and try to suddenly stop your sackboy will slide a couple of steps (often into a crevice and your death), if you jump and you are flush against a wall the vast majority of time you will not jump, gotta have a small space between you. This might not be an issue except for the aforementioned physics, imagine running for your life, seeing a wall ahead you must jump over and being unable to stop precisely until you hit the wall, then being unable to jump w/o backing up a step. Now I realize in real life this would also happen, but, this is not real life, I am used to platformers (at least the really good ones) having concise movements, and while you will eventually get used to it I finished the game and still felt there were times I simply couldn't believe I fell or missed a jump. My next complaint is the controls, IN my opinion they are balky at best. I simply cannot tell you how many times I died and complain that "he wouldn't jump" or "seriously I did not just slide off that platform". I just feel the actions did NOT match what I was attempting to do, and I am certainly not a novice player complaining because I couldn't accomplish what needed to be done. Now for my next complaint, most platformers reward quick relexes and full steam ahead type gameplay. Here the pace is much more methodical and paced. Now, sometimes this is fine, but sometimes you are timed and/or being chased and you need to be able to run fast and jump fast, and more often than not you will not be rewarded, instead you will be dead, partially because of the "physics' and partially simply because (seriously, I don't have a better reason, sometimes you will run like a madman and jump simply to find yourself in a fire pit). Way, way too often I had to die in order to see how I should have done something. I only messed with the editor briefly and it did look somewhat interesting, but also unreal time consuming. I know some people who play this together and they love it, I've watched them and I admit it did appear they were having fun, and maybe that's the gist of the game. Have fun but don't expect a great single player platformer.
-Story- N/A
For all intensive purposes non-existent, basically the Collector has imprisoned the denizens of LBP and you have to rescue them, seriously the whole story could have been shown in 15 minutes instead of the six hours it spent me to finish this game.
-Overall- 9.0/10
I don't know, maybe it's me but I didn't feel a sense of accomplishment finishing this game, I didn't get that warm and fuzzy feeling, lol, instead I simply felt I'd finished eight different unique levels which were at times fun, at times annoying and at times I had to ask myself what the whole point was.