“This seems like a really fun game. I say seems because an hour in I discovered a way to soft lock myself, glitch my way free, and soft lock myself again. I will play this game again, but it needs more Quality Testing"
Disclosure: I was given a copy of this game by the developer.
This in no way influences my opinion of the game.
I was enjoying it, genuinely. It's a little slower than what I was expecting from the previews on the steam page and other Metroid-like games I've played before, but it wasn't bad pacing by any means. It has a story I think, I wasn't really paying any attention to it. Not because it was boring, but because I get easily distracted. I've never been too much of a story person in the games I play. Maybe that's why I'm not a JRPG guy...?
The art style is a cute 32 bit pixel design, and I like it. It reminds me of old Game Boy Advanced games I used to play, mixed with more modern indie pixel art games. If you've played any high quality indie game in the past 10 years, you know what I'm talking about. Some areas start to feel very same-ey, but most games that Genopanic is clearly trying to emulate also suffer from the same problem, so I can't fault it too much.
Now... I was only able to play around an hour of the actual game, because this game has some serious quality testing left to do. There are a few bugs here and there, nothing really game breaking... But there is very clearly a path that the developers want you to take to progress. The problem is that you don't have to listen to the path they want you to take. Unlike most Metroid-type games that give you free reign to explore the map how you wish and block off different areas behind skills, Genopanic isn't designed like that. At least not right now. You CAN go anywhere you want, and that's the problem, at least in the early game. While they very clearly don't intend for it to be possible, you can cheese your way through a handful of areas and completely ruin save files.
There are 9 total power ups/equipment items for you to pick up in the game, and one of these is called "Dash". Dash is a very important mechanic in the game, I found out. Unfortunately for the developers, they gave me a jetpack before they gave me dash, and I had an idea that I could possibly cheese my way through a section I wasn't supposed to be able to get to just yet. There was a large "DASH" sign spray painted on the walls, so it was clear they wanted me to Dash to get past that section.
So of course I took a 15 minute detour, back tracking to get back to this section where you're supposed to use Dash after I obtained the Jet Pack, and behold! After a few tries, I was able to jetpack my way over and successfully ignore the developers wishes.
Problem: You actually do need Dash. I was soft locked almost immediately after, and due to not having OTHER abilities that I'm assuming you get before you get the Dash ability (which I think is dumb for completely different reasons) I was unable to back track due to mechanical problems causing certain lifts to be disabled, move forward due to lacking needed powerups, or die and reset to a previous checkpoint because I was stuck in a safe zone.
I was able to find a completely separate glitch/bug/exploit while fucking around, thinking all hope was lost. After spending 5 minutes spamming Animal Captures at a faster rate than you were ever supposed to be able to fire them, however, and finally getting past the obstacle, I just ended up going to yet another section that I was unable to get any farther in because I lacked at least 2 needed abilities.
Moral of the story? If you play the fucking game like you're supposed to, you'll have a good time. If your name is SectionVR? You're going to have a bad time.
Also, I want that big ghost mommy, or whatever she is, to step on me and treat me like shit.
Good job, me