A Lacklustre Platformer with an Interesting Mechanic
And Yet It Moves was a game I picked up from “Steam’s Indie Bundle” upon the release of Steam on Mac. At first it was not a game I was particularly interested in playing; the other games in the pack such as Machinarium and World of Goo had attracted me to it far more than this. However, upon reading its Steam Page the game’s mechanics appeared to be interesting, and I thought it might be a fun game to play.
I could not have been more wrong. The game handles terribly, and the idea of rotating the level to traverse the confusing landscapes works no way near as well as it should.
For example, early on the game requires you to rotate the screen to make large jumps across blocks, and then rotate it back again to land on said block. In theory this would work, however you have to remember that momentum is carried forwards when you fall.
Thus, upon falling too far and then rotating the screen to fall a small distance, you still die. In honesty the jumps are not impossible, just oftentimes deceptive.
Now, the game has an audio cue to tell you that the distance you have fallen is too far, and you are going to die, but this is one of the most annoying features of the game.
When you have fallen over a certain distance, (the distance that will kill you), a voice over rather creepily whispers the word, “Touch.” However, instead of this being a handy warning system, it is only ever played a millisecond before you hit the ground, therefore making it seem like you almost made the jump. This in turn leads to you make the same mistake repeatedly, and leaves you feeling frustrated that you almost completed the task.
Admittedly the game does not punish you harshly for deaths – you merely are reset to the previous checkpoint – but nonetheless it still does not make for a fun experience.
Furthermore, the first few levels of the game do not do enough to introduce you to its concepts, and with literally no introduction of any sort you are left feeling a bit “thrown into the mix.”
Lastly, the art style of the game – although original – does become very boring. By making the entirety of the levels out of torn paper, it does create an interesting visual style, yet the boring hues of brown and grey makes them appear the same. Graphically it is not terrible, just lacking vibrance.
Overall, I would say And Yet It Moves should probably be avoided, unless you want to play a lacklustre platformer with a somewhat interesting gameplay mechanic, frustrating level design and audio cues (plus an apparent lack of any sort of background music.)
