Gravitron 2

By: Derek Yu

On: September 18th, 2008

Gravitron 2

X-Out’s Gravitron 2 is this close to being one heck of a classy game. But unfortunately, a slew of little (and not-so-little) annoyances are keeping it from quite “lifting off” (heh) into the rarified air of the classy gaming cosmos.

Okay, what am I even saying anymore?

But seriously, the offspring of Thrust have always aggravated me as much as they’ve intrigued me. There’s no worse feeling than being the bitch of the two harsh masters of this genre of games – namely, gravity and inertia. At the same time, I love exploring alien worlds in a tiny spaceship! The very best of these games (my favorites, at least) – Solar Jetman, Sub-Terrania, Oids, etc. – are all incredibly fun and also incredibly punishing.

The biggest problem with Gravitron 2, in my opinion, is that its various gameplay imbalances exacerbate an already inherently challenging movement scheme. For one thing, it’s hard to hit your enemies, which often appear in tight corridors, often with fragile (and much-needed) fuel dispensers nearby. Especially since you can’t fire or use your shield while you’re landed. This, I feel, greatly reduces the importance of one of the coolest mechanics in the game – the ability to land and stick to any flat surface. It also makes it face-punchingly tough to take out the reactors in each level, which have a large amount of health and regenerate quickly.

There are also some fairly serious technical “anomalies” in the game, as well. It’s hard to tell, but there were at least a few instances where I feel like the wall got some kind of critical strike on me when I least expected it. Also, the checkpoints have got to be bugged – restarting at one seems to keep track of which reactors I destroyed (even the ones I destroyed after I hit the checkpoint), but will, for whatever reason, reset the mission counter, forcing me to abort.

Last, but not least (while we’re whining!), I’d really like to see keyboard controls for the menus so I don’t have to switch to a mouse when I’m not playing. A readme or help screen would also be very useful, as well as some kind of version identification, either in the readme or on the title screen (preferably both).

So yeah… good game, with lots of potential (and definitely very pretty), but my opinion is that it needs some more work. Still, for $5 it’s hard to pass up. And you should also keep in mind that Bill Swaney and Oddbob both gave Gravitron 2 strong recommendations. I could be wrong!

(Note: I should mention that I haven’t yet played the original game, and can’t compare the two.)

TIGdb: Entry for Gravitron 2

  • Cas

    Bought this game – impossible to resist at just $5 – and pretty much agree with the review. It just needs a few little things doing to make it shine. Being able to shoot when landed is pretty important I think. And being able to whack the ESC key to get through intermission screens and get to the title screen would also be important.

    Most importantly of all, it needs a Mac OS X version.

  • DrDerekDoctors

    I loves Gravitron 2, me. :)

    Also, my good chums John & Ste Pickford designed Solar Jetman. :)

  • X-0ut

    Expect a new patch very soon.
    I’ll try and get as many issue’s sorted out as fast as possible.

    Thanks for playing :)

  • Stargoat

    Solar Jetman is an awesome, awesome game.

    This looks awesome, too.

  • Cas

    You going to get a Mac OS port done? If you are I’d love to put it on Puppygames, it’s right up our street.

  • X-0ut

    Cas:

    I’d love to, unfortunately I dont own a mac.

    I might know someone willing to compile for me though.

    Update:
    There will be a patch either tonight or tommorow sorting some of the issues…
    Anyway back to work! :)

  • http://www.glennbroadway.com Glenn

    I’ve only played through the demo (will be buying when I get my card number!) but I have to disagree with the reviewer.

    There’s no way this is too hard (implied when he says it’s hard to hit the enemies). ‘Thrust’, and its offspring, HAVE to be hard. Flywrench is the ultimate example! I thought the demo levels were pitched perfectly. They say, “Okay, so you DO know how to fly a gravity ship. You know it’s going to get harder now don’t you – but you still can’t resist the full game!”.

    Great music, beautiful presentation, absurdly cheap. Top marks from me X-0ut!

  • Krux

    if you like this game, you could also like thrust Extreme http://www.gamingonthecheap.com/?tag=thrust-extreme

  • anon

    I always thought thrust would’ve been much easier if they keep the mechanics, but ditched the controls. Something like the controls in sinistar would make for reduced difficulty but maintain the mechanics.

  • anon

    ps. Yeah flywrench is awesome.

  • Nick

    I loved this game – all I would wish for is the option to redefine the keys. I don’t like having the thrust and rotate keys all under the one hand. But besides this little niggle, thoroughly enjoyable! :)

  • X-0ut

    Ok I’ve thrown out a patch that fixes some of the issue’s mentioned above (the ones that I deem most important)
    Will try and fix as many others as soon as possible. (got a lot of work on atm)
    You can get the patch here:
    http://xout.blackened-interactive.com/Gravitron2.html

    Nick: you can redefine your keys ingame by pressing escape then selecting the controls menu :)

    The game is best played with the mouse because of the precision required.

  • X-0ut

    Oh, and if any more bugs are found, or something is just straight annoying, let me know – I’m doing whatever I can to give the end user the best experience from it.

    Thanks.

  • Crackerblocks

    8 hours after the post, there’s a patch. Indie games rock.

  • Mischief Maker

    Awesome! The health bar on the reactors and the ability to fire off walls, (Not the mention the fact that the scientists NO LONGER STOP TO WAVE when running toward my ship).

    Unfortunately I also got a crash running 1.5 Here’s the signature:

    AppName: gravitron2.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: gravitron2.exe
    ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000136e7

    My machine’s a dual core laptop with an Nvidia Quadro NVS graphics card and an integraded sound card.

  • X-0ut

    Hi Mischief Maker, could you tell me roughly when the game crashed, ingame/menu etc and if possible send me the log file (if you have restarted the game since then its lost) to [email protected]

    Thanks for the feedback.. I’ll keep trying to improve the game so check back on the webpage from time to time.

  • Cas

    Still can’t whack ESC at *any time* to get to a menu!! But 1,000,000 points for allowing shooting while landed – nice one.

  • cuntface

    Oooh have health bars really been added to the reactors?? Was the only thing that really annoyed me playing the demo. Other than that it’s a wonderful game.

    *digs $5 out of pocket*

  • Mischief Maker

    By the way, X-Out is convinced no one is interested in his 3D version of Gravitron (Gravitron X, there’s a video on Youtube). Can I just get a show of hands to demonstrate to him that this is not the case?

  • trav

    just tried the demo, really fun, not getting the face punch hardness there though, seems fairly easy

  • Derek

    The demo is easy, yes.

  • Krux

    it would be cool, if rescued people help you in some way. e.g. they update your weapon, repair your ship or give you a minimap of the Level.

  • oddbob

    They do repair your ship don’t they?