140

eddhorse

From IGN :

Limbo's lead gameplay designer made a weird 2D platformer that's well worth your attention.
140 review: http://t.co/LXMgtdbWbX

Gameplay :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ymLKF9Ppps

I have never, my mother will be relieved to hear, partaken in the use of hallucinogens or hard drugs. As far as I can tell, video games like 140, a blissful one-hour trip, seem to do a decent enough job of emulating the enjoyment of psychedelia. I’m happy to settle for strange experiences like this 2D platformer, which is so surreal that it calls into question the purity of its creator’s mind.
140’s abstraction makes it sound convoluted, but its platforming mechanics are easy to understand in practice. Your avatar for exploration is a morphing shape; using nothing more than the arrow keys, you move left, you move right, you jump, and you fall. You circumvent obstacles using logic and timing, hunting floating orbs that serve as keys to unlock doors. The monochromatic minimalism initially bears resemblance to Limbo, the marvelous, mystifying platformer which designer Jeppe Carlsen worked on at developer Playdead, but color of the world, the music within it, the undulating backgrounds, and the structure of a space all change when keys unlock a new remix.

This impressive simplicity, like Limbo’s, is a ruse. To progress in 140 is to improvise and adapt to its unpredictability and puzzles of escalating complexity. Blocks of black-and-white noise rhythmically blink in and out of existence, slam against the ground, and destroy your heroic rolling ball upon contact. Navigating around dangerous barriers requires reflexive precision and acute spacial awareness. More importantly, it demands an understanding of the music pounding a pulse into the world around your geometric explorer.
It feels oddly empowering to recover keys and bring these worlds to life. Each unlock gives 140 a more active, kinetic pace. Consequently, levels become more challenging and satisfying to power through. Puzzles have a holistic relationship with music, and the rhythmically challenged (see: me) will likely fall into deliberately placed traps.
Yet 140 is rarely frustrating. I frequently found myself stopping at a ledge, refusing to move until I found the groove of the music. Like playing an instrument, you can lose your rhythm and hop back into it with a quick mental recovery. 140 often baits you into making blind leaps of faith that, upon further consideration, require more thoughtful problem-solving. Where will the danger move after these three beats? Should I jump to the high or low note to cross this gap safely? What’s the correlation between that disappearing platform and the sound progression?

What?
140 examines your understanding of its throbbing, memorable synth soundtrack with unique boss battles at the end of its three chapters. They blend elements of bullet hell and arcade shooters while completely changing the way you interact with 140. The addition of weapons – which auto-fire to the tunes, of course – forces you to move, attack, and avoid all at once. These finales are an exhilarating, tense highlight of 140 – particularly the last, which requires a bit of high-speed mental math to survive.
When the hour with 140 is over, you’ll unlock hardcore mode – which kicks you to the main menu after just one death. This should give completionists the extra run for their money. Here, indeed, 140 becomes an aggravating nightmare. Carlsen is plain cruel to the most obsessive and skilled of his players.
You could do worse things to your mind with $5, though.
THE VERDICT
140 is a masterful, mentally stimulating platformer with a distinct visual and aural style. Its reflexive navigation is intrinsically tied to its awesome synth soundtrack, and its challenging levels are simple yet satisfying. At just one hour long, it’s about the length of an album rather than a game. Like a good record, though, 140 is worth throwing on repeat.

8.0/10

So essentially it's Thomas Was Alone on LSD?

eddhorse

[Deleted User] wrote: »

So essentially it's Thomas Was Alone on LSD?

That's what I thought, and the characters will literally be talking to you !!

The characters themselves or the narration? What made Thomas Was Alone so amazing was Danny Wallace's narration, for which he won a Video Games BAFTA.

eddhorse

Yep played through it , got all the hidden gems or whatever they are, 100% cleared.
The narration was brilliant alright, deserved award, I think I heard a podcast on how he got the job or maybe that was a different game.

Sarky

Oh, that looks maddening. It must be mine.