Escape from Tethys (2018)

This is a hard game to rate. On one level, it’s kinda everything I want out of a Metroidvania. Solid art and music. Nonlinear open world that lets you carve your own path. Really useful and fun upgrades. Totally fun to wander around, and has zero cons in any gameplay respect,

On the other hand, it’s totally unoriginal and I couldn’t really even tell you the story. There are a good number of rooms that feel under utilized. The boss battles are pretty underwhelming.

These things don’t actually bother me though… I felt hopelessly addicted to the game start to finish and it never let me down, like many other Metroidvanias do.

I guess I would describe it as an itch scratcher. It’s not genre defining, boundary pushing, or something that stands out from its peers in any meaningful way. But personally, I’m glad I found it and it was totally worth it for another 8 hour romp on a pixelated spaceship trying to find your way.

Intro

This is a metroidvania-style game. In other words, a platformer with relatively open levels in which your character earns abilities along the way.

The Good

• Nice music.
• Simple controls.
• You have a lot of HP.

The Bad

• No mouse aim, you can only fire horizontally or vertically.
• The range of your weapon is extremely short.
• Enemies respawn when you leave the screen.
• It's overly vague what areas you can and cannot reach at the start.
• No new abilities in the first 17 minutes.

Conclusion

Beause you have nowhere to go you have to go through the same areas over and over again, fighting the same respawning enemies over and over again with the incredibly annoying combat system. This type of game needs some sort of direction and some sense of accomplishment (e.g. a new ability) early on. I just stopped caring because seemingly every available path was blocked.