Now I’ve written about Perspective before, while it was still in development, and I have to say it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Very basic, but at the same time challenging, the moment I stepped out of the tutorial levels I realised I had to “get my Portal on”. Now these games don’t even compare, their mechanics are completely different, and they bastardise physics in completely different ways, however I think it’s a fair comparison to make since both give me the exact same emotions when playing them, that puzzling almost frustrating concentration of trying to unravel the level, the fact that you have no idea what they could possibly hit you with next, and that euphoric relief and kind of smug feeling you get when you finish a level, it’s essentially the same core experience, and the exact same thing that dragged people to Portal.
Sure Portal is a far more fleshed out game, but strip that away and Perspective can easily hold it’s own. This game has a lot of potential, and that’s possibly the thing that holds it back the most, because whilst you’re having fun now, you can’t help but think of ways in which it could be better, and have more depth. I don’t think that’s the fooling you want people to be left with when they play your game, that something's missing.
There isn’t really much of a story to Perspective, at least from what I’ve played. Starting out in a conventional 2D platforming game you play a couple to tutorials before the 2D protagonist leaps out of an arcade cabinet and you find yourself in the overworld. Much like the levels you need to navigate this world by working in both 2D and 3D, however it’s barely a challenge at this point, each individual level is represented by an arcade cabinet that you can jump into, and completing each level will unlock more cabinets and doors to further areas of the arcade. I’m not sure if the story gets any deeper than this further into the game, but in all honesty I doubt it. As far as I’m concerned though, the game carries itself well enough that while a narrative would have been nice, it’s forgiveable considering just how many great games started out as more of a proof of concept rather than a fully fledged game, but that brings us right back to the feeling that this isn’t a finished product, and that hangs over it in a way that many successful indie games, even more simplistic and shorter games, have managed to shrug off.
The core game mechanic is simple to grasp, navigate your 2D self through a side scrolling level whilst moving your 3D self to change the layout of the 2D level entirely. This is done in two different ways, firstly by viewing the level from a different angle distant platforms become closer and corners are suddenly easier to navigate, and secondly by moving closer or further away, you can change the size of your character relative to the level, allowing him to squeeze through gaps or make longer jumps. There are many eureka moments, many where you question how you’ll possibly solve a level, and then think “oh that’s really clever” when you figure it out. The game doesn’t penalise you for jumping in and getting stuff wrong. Much like in Portal death isn’t a big issue, and you spawn right back where you left off. There’s no way I’ve seen so far to kill off your 3D self, although making certain perspectives impossible or put under a time constraint by posing a threat to your 3D self might add a little extra excitement to the more challenging levels.
The great thing about this game is it’s almost bite-size nature. It’s like one of those books you read in brief periods of spare time, like a short story or a novella that you can use to fill your throwaway moments. Perspective is for times when you can’t commit to sit down and become deeply involved in a couple of levels of a game that requires much more of your attention. Sure you could probably complete the game in one of two sit down sessions much like I did with Portal, but restrain yourself. Savour it, and it will reward you. It’s casual gaming indeed, but casual gaming even a hardcore gamer can wrap their head around.
Features I would have liked to see, maybe a co-op mode, something along the lines of one guy controlling the perspective and another guy (or even two) controlling the 2d character(s). A bit more depth in terms of the obstacles, blue blocks vs orange blocks is great, but I’m thinking objects that need to be interacted with to forward the level, in both the 2nd and 3rd dimensions. Maybe some sort of rotating feature, so that walls became platforms and vice versa. A level editor would have also been cool. There’s a lot of ways to flesh this game out, and if they ever wanted to implement a sequel or DLC (early days) there’s a lot of different avenues they could explore. For the moment though it’s a really solid game, and the current features stand well enough on their own that you could get a lot of fun out of Perspective, especially as they ramp up the difficulty later in the game.
Perspective is free to play, it honestly doesn’t take up that much of your time, or hard drive space, and is actually really nifty. So you’ve got no excuse not to check it out. If you do check it out, let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Right, I’ve got to go find my missing 3rd dimension...
Jamie out xoxoxo
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