(3.5 / 4)
Also on: Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, Windows
DON'T LOSE YOUR BALANCE
Playing a round of FullPowerSideAttack.com's self-published TorqueL feels like a long, hard practice run along a muddy road, where the upward slopes are so slippery you'll slide down to the bottom if you don't make them in one go. Beforehand, you decide on yielding to nothing, ignoring the pain and just pushing on through no matter what.
As the fatigue starts to build you're having deep regrets. The slopes are getting longer and steeper. You slide more and more. Sure, you're making progress with every single try. But the further you go, the frustrations make you start doubting yourself. And you keep asking if it's worth it. But you stick it out.
Close to the end, you can practically see the finishing line. Of course, this is where the hills turn into veritable mountains. But a few more twists and turns and you're there. That's all that keeps you going, knowing it'll be over soon. And as you climb that final hill for the 47th time and somehow stumble into goal, you can hardly believe what you've accomplished. You start to wonder why and how on earth you managed to ride it out. You must be out of your mind.
Close to the end, you can practically see the finishing line. Of course, this is where the hills turn into veritable mountains. But a few more twists and turns and you're there. That's all that keeps you going, knowing it'll be over soon. And as you climb that final hill for the 47th time and somehow stumble into goal, you can hardly believe what you've accomplished. You start to wonder why and how on earth you managed to ride it out. You must be out of your mind.
That's TorqueL in a nutshell - a game for masochists and people who don't care down what roads their frustrations might lead them, as long as the satisfaction of beating the bloody thing is worthwhile. Hardcore gamers behold, this might be a game for you, a game you might not enjoy playing as much as finally beating. Is the trade-off worth it? Hell, yes it is. I've not played a more captivating game in a Fortnite.
THE PHYSICS OF TORQUES
Is there a story behind it? Well, if there is, it's not in the game proper. The basics are these: You control a man (resembling Miner Willy after he turned Jet Set Willy II) stuck inside a box, in a standard, very primitive 2D-platforming environment reminiscent of the early 1980:s ZX Spectrum aesthetics. All the man can do is run left or right, making the box rotate around him in either direction, making him slowly move in the desired direction.
This alone won't get him far. In order to beat each level you have to make the box touch a small goal area, and there are plenty of obstacles in the way. Luckily, the box has the ability to extend itself in either and all of its four directions, creating a lengthy torque. With such a tool, you'll be able to reach across ledges, shoot yourself into the air, pole vault over lava pits and gain a whole lot more momentum than just spinning that stupid box could.
To win you need to utilize the physics of torques. Early gameplay consists of the simplest of obstacles. You'll get past them without too much hassle. As soon as you do though, the next stage will introduce something new - e.g. higher ledges, lethal obstacles, rotating platforms, carefully balanced platforms or areas that alter gravity - that forces you to completely rethink the possibilites of said mechanics. Do I make it sound hard? Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it soon enough.
Adjusting your mind, as well as honing your reflexes and spatial awareness is key in beating a course of TorqueL. Add to that an unhealthy dose of trial and error.
A SPEEDRUNNER'S GAME
It is essentially designed to be a speedrunner's game. There's even a timer ticking in the top right corner of the screen, tracking how long you've spent on your current route. Every level is short, which is key in making TorqeL so captivating. You should be able to beat even the longest ones in under a minute in your winning attempt. Of course, the winning attempt might be hours away. There are only 50 levels all in all. To win the game, you don't have to finish all of them. I'm not even sure there's a route that takes you through every single one, meaning there are mandatory level skips. There are eight different routes of varying difficulty through the game, one of them hidden. For the sake of this review, I have finished three of them.
Problem is, in TorqueL nothing goes smoothly. Certainly not on your first attempt. Initially, just getting around is a bitch. Since the box around your guy constantly rotates, trying to figure out which side to extend in any given moment takes a split second extra. Once you finally decide, that moment's gone, and off you go in the complete opposite direction, which very likely results in your death. One emergency measure that often helps is extending all four sides. This will keep you fixed in place and give you time to ponder your next move.
Maybe you should keep the right side extended and remove the others? If you do, what will come next? You might plunge into the lava below, but not if you're quick and quickly extend the roof. That'll leave you in an 'L'-shape dangling over a chasm. If you then release the right torque, which is now bottom left, and slightly apply some force to the right, and then apply the left hand torque, which will protrude from the right side, you might just be able to reach that platf...
FUCK!
Never mind. Let's try again. You know what to do now.
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