If its one thing to experience to be on the side of humans fighting against aliens like in "Crysis" or "Borderlands" etc or any other sci-fi games..its another thing to be as a alien. This experience provided by Trapdoor( their debut game ) is well...i should say is a homogeneous mix of cuteness and dark humour evolving into puzzle based stealth game. So here it is, let me introduce WARP.
Warp is a puzzle-based stealth action game where you play as ZERO, a lovable-yet-lethal orange alien with a big score to settle! Captured by the villainous commander and imprisoned in his underwater facility, Zero must plan his ultimate escape using his arsenal of abilities--Warp,Frag, Echo,Swap and Launch.The goal of the game (and of zero) is to get out of the facility where the experiments take place. The story starts off with a couple of humans taking zero into a research facility( i guess :P). After a while zero is tested by those callous scientists by conducting various experiments. As you progress through your way, you find a energy source and zero shows his true power and its where the fun part begins.
The game progresses with the character zero warping into various labs and rooms trying to escape the facility. Warping or teleportation is a basic power of zero and its pretty much very useful. But Teleportation isn't the only trick these aliens are capable of. You'll gradually gain the ability to create decoys of yourself that will distract the guards, launch projectiles in order to push far away buttons, and more. This is not a repetitive game -- each small victory brings new enemy types and new powers to play with, even late in the adventure.
Enemies are usually humans and robots (and of course a scientist who buzzes the alarm :P). The humans initially start with a gun and trying to shoot if seen on sight. As they find out that water is major weakness (where all powers are rendered useless), they try to shield themselves with water for protection increasing the difficulty. Robots unlike humans are agile and fire everything that moves.
The game is very well planned out. Obstacles can often be overcome in multiple ways, giving players the chance to assess the situation and proceed as they see fit. well it is fun to get into human body and explode them like a bomb, believe me its thoroughly enjoyable and cold-hearted. :P :D. But the game encourages exploration where you need find these pink coloured meat or something (which zero consumes). Finding these unlocks the upgrades making you a better alien. Though sometimes it becomes a arduous task to find and consume them. grubs are limited in number so it becomes mandatory to find almost all of them to upgrade your powers. Well taking about powers there are of three types-warp,echo,swap and launch.Warp is a basic teleportation power. Echo creates a ghost image of 'you' and can become thoroughly enjoyable if known how to use it. Swap basically allows you to swap into objects and humans after creating a echo. Launch basically allows you to launch yourself into objects at high speeds. Combination of swap and launch technique or upgrade is very deadly and allows gruesome kills.
The game has challenge mode with time trial kinda--start from one point and finish at other point, frag kills etc. Completing these challenges awards you with grubs. After you play the challenges you can send the stats into leaderboards.
Warp tracks all kinds of data to feed its leaderboards, everything from distance travelled to enemies killed to the number of times you've warped. When you reach a milestone your progress will appear onscreen, measured against those of your friends. It's a really cool way of making a single-player game feel like a communal experience.
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| It becomes frustrating to pass this level. |
Closing Comments
After portal 2, I would vote this game as a one fun game to play. Brainy and amusing, Warp is highly recommended stealth/puzzle fare, despite some hiccups right at the end. From a humble, enticing premise -- an alien that can teleport needs to escape a laboratory -- layers of gameplay variation are neatly introduced until you've warped your way through a rich, satisfying adventure. It does just the right amount of hand-holding so that you always know what needs to be done and where to go but often leaves the "how" up to you. Perhaps most importantly, it lets us do something we haven't done before -- bring our enemies' insides to the outside. And that's something I'll remember.
My rating would be 8.5
