One Small Step For Autumnwinter
Gravity Gridlock is a game created by autumnwinter
Introduction
Hey guys, this is Demonxz95 here bringing you a review. My last review was a little over a month ago. This is a review of a game called Gravity Gridlock by autumnwinter. Autumnwinter is a member that we haven't really seen much of, but we do recognize his username when we hear it. He was the maker of Repetition which was a game about solving puzzles and picking the right answer. Although some of us have played that, if we look at his profile, we see mostly announcement games and art games, so this and Repetition looks like his first foray into the real "game making" part of Sploder, which was what Sploder was made for in the first place so it's nice that he's at least trying to make real games.
Review
Now the first thing we see in a game is the thumbnail. Sometimes it's worth mentioning in the review, and other times it isn't. Here, what we see is the astronaut, a series of white glass blocks, a red glass block, an American flag, a fireball and a green box with an arrow on it. Seems simple enough. As expected, this is an actual screenshot of the level.
So basically the gameplay revolves around finding the right moment to release the astronaut and guide him through a series of obstacles and not get hit by fireballs. Turning thankfully happens automatically, I can't imagine what would happen if that weren't the case. The game in the description notes that the game is about memory, more specifically, a game about trial and error, finding the right moment of when to let the astronaut go and move without getting hit by the fireballs. Unfortunately, the trial and error process can get annoying, both in the gaming world and the real world because it might end up taking many attempts just to find the right thing to do, which is a problem that is unavoidable in trial and error games. There's always the possibility it will happen. Whether or not that will happen to you is based on how much you pay attention to when the start your character in relation to the location of a fireball when you clicked the green box.
Speaking of fireballs, a problem I did notice with the game is that the hitboxes for the fireballs are wider than they should be and you will occasionally find yourself getting hit by one even if it looks like you're far enough away from it. While not much of a problem if you know this and the area to play around it, finding out requires the process of, you guessed it, trial and error.
Of course, the game is in space, the astronaut and the stars give that away, but throughout a big portion of the game, the background is just stars, that's it. On level 5 (not counting the intro), the game even acknowledges this. I know that there's not a whole lot you can do in terms of scenery in space, but you appeared to be able to do fine from level 5 onwards with asteroids and the sun. In the earlier levels of the game, there are no planets, asteroids or anything like that. Just stars and that's it. I think autumnwinter could've tried to put more effort into the scenery in the earlier levels. By the way, this isn't a problem. But what am I walking on? Why are there just random glass blocks in space? How are they staying in the place? I don't really get it.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Concept
Atmospheric
Cons
Inherent flaw of trial and error
Poorly made hitboxes for the fireballs
Conclusion
Despite how negative this review might sound, this is by no means a bad game. It looks great, it has a nice concept, it just suffers from the inherent flaw of trial and error which is unavoidable, as well as poor hit detection on the fireballs and the lack of scenery in some parts of the game. If you're reading this review, go ahead and try the game out. You probably have a better computer than I do so the trial and error might not be as bad for you as it was for me. Is it feature worthy? Well, that's a bit of a tough call but I think it can stay on the page. I mean, someone liked it enough to feature it, and whoever did probably also has a better computer than I do.