Strange Attractors 2

Overview

Strange Attractors 2 was a selection for the PAX10 in 2008, and was released through Penny Arcade's Greenhouse website. It is a follow-up to Strange Attractors. Players navigate an orb through a field of obstacles by manipulating gravity or magnetic fields to draw the orb either towards or away from items in the environment.

Gameplay

Levels

Strange Attractors is primarily about navigating and moving about the levels by controlling the gravity in the environment. Releasing gravity while the orb is in motion causes the orb to bounce around the environment somewhat like a pinball. Some levels simply require players to traverse obstacles in order to reach a goal, and others require players to collect tokens around the levels before proceeding through the goals. Later levels require players to be concerned about their orb's health, which can decrease due to collisions with spiked obstacles or exploding orbs, though the focus remains on navigation. There are nine worlds to complete, most of which have three levels.

Controls

The precursor to this game, Strange Attractors, was created for a 'one-switch' competition, hence the only input available to the player was to apply gravity to pull the player's orb towards an object. This was expanded in Strange Attractors 2 to include a second input to apply a repelling gravity-like force. In keeping with the spirit of the original, however, players are able to choose a difficulty setting which allows only the one input from the original game.

Environment

The game takes place in a space/futuristic themed world. In following with this theme, the tokens that the player collects are stars, and the player's orb has been described by one of the designers as being the player's ship.

Releases

The game was originally released through Greenhouse for Windows as a commercial game with a free demo available. In the time since its release, however, the full game has been made available on the game's website.

External Links

Official Strange Attractors 2 and Strange Attractors website