Buddrick, the creator of Pixel Killer, is back with another challenging platformer and this one’s sure to drive you up a wall with its willy-nilly gravitational manipulation. Experiment 13 packs fifty brutal levels, all of which are hell bent on putting you through your platforming paces.
Gameplay
Expirement 13 utilizes the typical platforming mechanics in tandem with an on-the-fly gravity manipulation system. The combination of these systems, produces a frighteningly difficult platformer that mercilessly kills you repeatedly through fifty levels.
The gravity mechanic in Experiment 13 really takes the center stage of the game. It is the differentiating quality that sets it apart from traditional platformers and is the main source of the game’s considerable challenge. Put simply, the gravity of the world will shift to whatever direction is marked on a tile you come in contact with.
The primary implementation of this gravity system messes with the player’s spacial acuity by forcing them to platform in unusual orientations. Experiment 13 accomplishes this by simply altering the orientation of the worlds gravity, forcing the player to platform on the walls or even the ceiling. During this time of gravitational inflection, the controls remain static, meaning that if, for example, gravity was rotated ninety degrees clockwise you would use “Up” and “Down” to move the character in what is now the forward and backward directions.
Another way the game will use these gravity tiles is to create free fall situations that can traverse entire maps. In a free fall style scenario, the player will need to fall through tiles, one after another, to make their way around the map to the objective. These parts, as well as some of the trickier platforming parts, are mostly dependent on the player learning from failed attempts in order to clear the stage.
Finally, one of the more infrequently used tricks of the gravity mechanic is slingshotting. This tricky little maneuver only shows up a handful of times, but the concept is fairly simple. In certain situations the player must bounce through a gravity pad with enough momentum to pass through it completely and then have the now reversed gravity whip them around and on to the top of a safe platform. As I said, this maneuver can be a pain in the ass, but when you nail it you tend to feel as though you’ve accomplished something pretty bad ass.
The Experiment 13 gameplay experience was mostly a positive one. However, in terms of accessibility, the game doesn’t seem intended for anyone seeking a casual friendly platformer. Even experienced players will die over and over again in this game. But, for whatever reason, when you finally nail that hard ass jump and beat the level you’ve been stuck on, you really do feel a sense of accomplishment that almost makes it worth it.
Audio Visual
Here lies most of the negatives of Experiment 13, because it looks and sounds like a proof of concept rather than a fully developed game. The graphics could only have been more spartan if the character sprite had been a dot bouncing on line segments, which oddly enough is nearly what Buddrick’s last game, Pixel Killer, was. But for some strange reason Pixel Killer’s level of simplicity worked quite well, while Experiment 13′s is overly harsh to look at.
On a more amusing note, there are messages sprinkled through out the game on the walls, that appear to be painted in blood. Probably my blood, I certainly left enough of it laying around. Some of the messages just straight up lie to you, in a Portal like sort of way.
The audio is completely generic sound effects and there’s no music to speak of. So, I wont speak of it.
Summary
Experiment 13 is available on XBLIG for 80 Microsoft points and, for hardcore fans of platformers, it’s worth it. It has fifty challenging levels, of which I only managed to beat forty seven because forty eight made me cry like a little girl. The average play through of Experiment 13 is going to vary based on skill, for instance I had logged over four hours on my way to forty-eight. However, to anyone seeking a casual platforming experience, you will not find one here and should look in the direction of games like Kaleidoscope, Arkedo’s Pixel, Alien Pyramid Challenge, or Pixel Killer.
