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