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drewbert

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Community Games Spotlight: Being

By drewbert 4 Comments


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I like to think of Being as the poor man's Braid.  Sure, there's no time-reversal mechanic, and the level designs are hardly mind-bending, but it is a very capable platformer, one without the air of pretension ever-present in Jonathon Blow's offering.  Sometimes the level designs are so straightforward they border on throwaway, but this is part of the reason I like the game.  It means that, like Super Mario Bros., you can just zone out and fly through the levels, thanks in part to the game's solid controls.  Enemies are indestructible, which I found to be annoying, but you can decide for yourself whether avoiding them adds to the challenge or detracts from the potential fun of stomping on dudes.

Colored-keys-and-doors puzzles help bring your mind back into it, but while their presence does keep the pacing fresh they occasionally bring with them moments of frustration.  Tension also mounts when you have to restart the level you just spent five minutes on because you missed the last jump to a moving platform.  It wouldn't be so agrivating if the fault was all your own, but often the level design contributes to your failure.  For example, sometimes it's impossible to tell where a moving platform will reverse direction, leaving you to guess at what time to jump.

The game looks nice, although those with small TVs beware: your character is about the size of a pea.  In any event, Being is what I want from a platformer: a good-looking game that controls so well I can forget about it and just play with as little brain activity as possible.  I think there's a lot of potential for platformers to do well on Community Games, so here's hoping we start seeing more as good as Being.
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drewbert

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Edited By drewbert

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I like to think of Being as the poor man's Braid.  Sure, there's no time-reversal mechanic, and the level designs are hardly mind-bending, but it is a very capable platformer, one without the air of pretension ever-present in Jonathon Blow's offering.  Sometimes the level designs are so straightforward they border on throwaway, but this is part of the reason I like the game.  It means that, like Super Mario Bros., you can just zone out and fly through the levels, thanks in part to the game's solid controls.  Enemies are indestructible, which I found to be annoying, but you can decide for yourself whether avoiding them adds to the challenge or detracts from the potential fun of stomping on dudes.

Colored-keys-and-doors puzzles help bring your mind back into it, but while their presence does keep the pacing fresh they occasionally bring with them moments of frustration.  Tension also mounts when you have to restart the level you just spent five minutes on because you missed the last jump to a moving platform.  It wouldn't be so agrivating if the fault was all your own, but often the level design contributes to your failure.  For example, sometimes it's impossible to tell where a moving platform will reverse direction, leaving you to guess at what time to jump.

The game looks nice, although those with small TVs beware: your character is about the size of a pea.  In any event, Being is what I want from a platformer: a good-looking game that controls so well I can forget about it and just play with as little brain activity as possible.  I think there's a lot of potential for platformers to do well on Community Games, so here's hoping we start seeing more as good as Being.
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sweep

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Edited By sweep  Moderator

downloading the trial now, thanks for the heads-up.

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kush

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Edited By kush

I downloaded this a while ago...it's a pretty neat little game. It really reminded me of Braid in a way. It's definitely one of the more interesting XNA games.

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gunswordfist

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Edited By gunswordfist

That's good to hear Kush. I'm all for supporting Community games.