HEAVENLY BODIES GAME REVIEW MOVIE

Fair warning though – working as a team does not make it any less stressful! With a plural in the title – as opposed to Heavenly Body – it is perhaps no surprise that the local co-op is where the real potential of the game lies, with it finally getting the chance to shine through with another layer of interaction. Disappointingly, there’s also as much story as there is gravity in this game, with very little linking the chapters other than the tasks becoming more complex, which seems like a wasted opportunity for at least a few interactable characters on the space station or at least a few lines of dialogue with Houston. The rather unpleasant death is actually the only game-like challenge that prevents you from completing your task though, as you can otherwise spend hours on them without worrying about limited tools or retries due to the game’s sole focus on the completion of chapters.

HEAVENLY BODIES GAME REVIEW MOVIE

Losing your grip and ‘falling out’ of your space station and into the empty void will result in a countdown and an eventual George Clooney-like death (it’s not a spoiler if I don’t mention what movie it’s from!) which the soundtrack, that sounds like its been taken from a deep-sea diving documentary, does a decent job conveying the isolation throughout. It’s quite hard explaining how hard it is exactly, but with your body very rarely vertical, knowing which direction to push your analog sticks is a task in and of itself. This meant that I often ended up undoing what I spent an extended time attempting, whether it was re-folding some apparatus that I just unfolded or collapsing antennae I just extended. Unlike the aforementioned games, there are 3 different sets of controls that you can choose from here ( Assisted, Classic or Newtonian) but even though there has been a distinct effort to make it accessible, I still found it far too hard to adapt to. There is a certain level of satisfaction to be gained from completing the seemingly impossible tasks you are provided with especially when they require you to make adjustments outside of the space station, resulting in some highly dangerous and tension-filled leaps of faith. Other than flying a little space pod, this is mostly done by connecting cables to the relevant socket and cranking levers while holding onto something in the space station. Wrong movie – sorry.įloating from one section to another, you must set up research modules, communication satellites and even extract samples from rocks in the earth’s orbit. It's decently fun and well made.This isn’t your standard control-your-limbs game (like Human: Fall Flat, I Am Bread or Octodad) though, so if you thought that giving someone a wedding ring with tentacles was hard, try doing it without gravity where one wrong movement will send your body floating in the wrong direction! Those who enjoy a challenging simulation may get a kick out of it, but for most casual gamers the honeymoon period of the novelty-like controls and floating in space might be over sooner than you’d expect as the controls frustrate and become the main focus of the game while the remainder fails to excite. Overall, I'd recommend although it's not gonna blow anyone's mind. I don't think that needs more levels, although I believe people would appreciate some DLC or just replaying the game with newtonian physics instead of the 'classic' mode.

I think a more explicit storyline could have helped the game a lot. One of the levels in which you have to extract minerals from astreoids in particular is EXTREMELY frustrating with just one player. You're definitely gonna beat it faster than me.

I played this solo but I think it's best if you play it with a friend or loved one. And since the astronaut takes a fair amount of dedication to control, you're gonna be stuck for quite some time even if the level is 'easy' per se. I had my dose of fun playing this it's just 7 levels long, each completely different than the previous one. That is my biggest complain regarding the controls and UX of the game.ĭespite all of that, the game looks very good, the levels are original and the existential dread of being stranded in space is real.

I don't know if it's meant that way but I'd have drastically benefited of inverted X-Y arm controls. It's good 'cause it's meant to be that way but it's also bad because more often than not what I would think is the logical movement for my analog stick ended up doing the complete opposite on the arms. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. I swear that my fingers hurt every time I finished a level because of how hard it is to control the astronaut. This is one of those games that is frustrating yet fun to play.

Heavenly bodies game review