Like An Abstract Painting...

Review by superluigi77 on Saturday, June 18th 2011

Introduction

The game I am reviewing is Iridescent by omega. I became interested in this game by all the hype omega gave it. What really caught my attention was simply the name. It has a nice ring to it. I first played the game as a sort of favor to omega. He needed testers for the soft launch and I was happy to oblige. I really had no idea what I was getting into, but now I'm glad that I got into it.

Gameplay

Let me just start off by saying that if you are color blind you will have a terrible time with this game. The first thing those of us who can see color will notice about this game is that this game is very reminiscent of a kaleidoscope. There are colors as far as the eye can see and several miles beyond that. Even the player is quite unique. The color of the player is always the same as the background. This doesn't really add anything to the gameplay, but it is something for the player to enjoy.

As for the actual playing of the game, it a simple platform style game with a few added twists. I just want to point out that if you don't read the instructions you will get stuck quickly. The first puzzle comes up quickly. It's main purpose seems to be to separate the men from the noobs. I won't go into too much detail about the puzzle as I don't want to play spoiler but I will say it involves a moving platform or two, a fatal drop, and an electromagnet. If you aren't well versed in the game's controls you won't get past it.

The object of the game is to get the three coins or whatever you want to call them. They are small colorful polygons. Just navigate omega's colorful obstacle course. Sounds simple, but the plethora of colors provide and interesting complication: It's almost impossible to tell what is a wall/floor and what's not. You may think there is solid ground ahead but then you wind up falling to an untimely death. (It's worth noting hear that you only get one life. Use it wisely.) You can't tell what is solid until you try to move into it or over it.

There aren't really any enemies in this game. In place of enemies are numerous hazards that kill by crushing you or making you fall to your death. I never died via crushing. I found that the crushing hazards were somewhat easy to evade, but I've always been good at avoiding things that can kill me. The only items are the coins and a few switches. They were all very strategically placed. You can always rely on omega to not make things easy.

Conclusion

I was very pleased by Iridescent. It is a treat for the eyes and the mind. The only real flaw is that when you get right down it and strip away all the aesthetics it is still mostly just a simple platform game, albeit a pretty difficult one. Most people will forget that, though, when they are dazzled by all the pretty colors.

Report Card

*Final Score*: 21/25