JAMBOREE OF DEATH AND SACRIFICE
Also for: Blacknut, Gloud, Linux, Macintosh, Nintendo Switch,
Playstation 3, PS Vita, Wii U, Windows, Xbox One
In an age of endless tutorials and button configuration options, how's this
for simplicity: You will learn the controls of
Badland: Game of the Year Edition (from Finnish developer Frogmind) in a couple of seconds. Your
task is simply to keep a swarm of furry, wing-flapping creatures alive and airborne through a 2D-sidescrolling maze from start to finish. The action, naturally, has an emphasis on physics and can best be described as something like
Flappy Bird
on steroids. The constant struggle is you versus gravity and gazillions of
deadly traps.
By holding one button you can make your creatures ascend, and by releasing it
they stop flapping and descend. They die if they touch the back edge of the
auto-sidescrolling screen, or if they get squeezed to death by the crumbling
environment or caught in some trap. By holding left or right you can
break or accelerate, but the screen will keep scrolling without mercy.
The badlands is a hazardous place, beautiful in all its toxicity, and most of
your creatures will die, but at least one has to be alive at all time to see
the finish line. Otherwise you must retry from the latest checkpoint - if one
exists. It is a deliriously simple and fun gameplay loop, with an expertly
crafted difficulty curve.
It brandishes the "learn from your mistakes"-design philosophy. When you die -
which starts to happen with alarming regularity from the get-go - you're
supposed to figure out why and what to do about it from the way you died.
Death is like an essential game mechanic, learn to love it and the game will return that love tenfold. Or keep hating that fact and spare yourself a few hours of torture by avoiding this game altogether.
The game lacks most semblence of a storyline. What is this world? Who are
these creatures, whom I've read online are called "Clonies"? Like
bumblebees, their wings look too tiny for their bodies - how can they fly?
What are they trying to accomplish? Where are they ultimately headed? All
questions are a waste of breath, because the answers are only blowing in the
wind created by the flapping of their wings. Badland: Game of the Year Edition is
gameplay over gameplay over story.
So the search for meaning is pointless. And yet it's funny, because I cannot resist, and in a
sense the Clonies make me think of a swarm of black furry sperm, with wings
instead of tails, racing to be born. A gradually increasing amount of huge eggs in the background kinda supports that reading. The race is brutal; they bounce off
of one another, gaining pace by stopping others dead in their tracks, or
staying alive by pushing others into traps.
The level design and aesthetics reveal undercurrents of environmentalism, but
it's hard to tell if we're even on planet Earth, and, if so, how far into the
future we have come. Badland instils a primal, animalistic determination in
me to stay alive by grinding failures and finally reach the goal to celebrate. It is addictive as
hell, which is all you need to know.
The levels are quite varied, with some general themes of challenges, like speed,
quick wit, balance and focus, just to name a few. If I remember correctly, I
believe one bonus level (it's been a good while since I played this game) even
had a fun shooting segment, although the game mechanics doesn't really support one.
The level designers have had some sadistic fun in inventing devious challenges
- all in the name of crushing our spirits.
Some of the tougher levels are pure agony, with no checkpoints, forcing you to
clear a speedscrolling course from start to finish with no margin for error. I
didn't love these, but clearing them after probably 50-60 attempts was pure
euphoria. Other stages require you to think quickly while the screen slowly
pushes you towards your death. If your path ahead splits into two, maybe you
need to divide your Clonies and send a few to certain death in a dead end,
where they need to press a button to open a door down the other path.
Certain pickups alter the playing conditions, like the power of shrinking
which makes you quicker and capable of slipping through small crevices. The
power of enlargement makes your creatures less bouncy and strong enough to
lift heavier objects that are blocking the way. Another couple of pickups
raise or lower the overall speed, and yet other ones make your creatures
multiply, potentially into a veritable swarm of Clonies.
Visually, the game has adopted that popular choice of indie-design, which is
to put as much stock as possible in the background art and let the gameplay
layer consist of silhouettes, like Limbo. The Clonies themselves are
as interchangeable as Lemmings. You don't feel any attachment to them
whatsoever. In fact, by trying to save them all you often lose them all. They are mere instruments for you to see the next level.
The obstacles in your path are also just black silhouettes - only their
geometrical shape betray their characteristics. We can clearly make out the
outlines of pipes, rocks, fans, plates, etc. Deeper level progression brings
more sinister threats like laser beams, buzzsaws and spiky plants that pop you
like a balloon. Sticky vines can be a nuiscance, since they make you so
unwieldy, but they can also protect you against lethal laser traps. The trick
lies in figuring out which features to utilize and which ones to avoid if
possible. The challenge remains the same throughout regardless - keep your
damn Clony moving.
Badland originated in the handheld sphere but is so good that it's worthy of a
focused playthrough on any platform. I stayed glued to the screen as I watched
the countdown of levels come close to full circle. The few times I had to put
it down, I could almost feel its gravity pull me in from across the room. I just wanted to keep going, see the evolution from one level to the next. Its
simple control scheme makes it age gracefully, and it ranks among the finest
indie action puzzlers I've played, easily belonging in the same tier as such
ingenious games as TorqueL, forma.8 and Hue.
Comments
Post a Comment