Bob Came in Pieces is a physics based puzzler about an alien named Bob who just wants to go home. To do so, he must make modifications to his spaceship to navigate a strange environment on his way back to his booster rocket. Are the puzzles he encounters entertaining or a flop? Find out more after the jump!Bob Came in Pieces is a 2D physics based puzzle game from the indie development firm Ludosity Interactive. It presents the story of Bob, an alien phone receptionist who crashes on an alien planet on his way to work (technically he lost his booster rocket if we were to equate Bob's ship setup to a NASA Shuttle). Bob and his beloved rocket fly off in different directions, leaving Bob with no choice but to hunt down his rocket on a world covered in puzzles and machine shops that service Bob's ship. That is the extent of the story; if you wanted some great narration to accompany the adventure you are out of luck. I did not mind that there was no story because this is a puzzle game, not a build your own story book.
The game plays as you might expect a physics based puzzler: using Bob's ship, the player flies around manipulating objects such as crates and rocks by pushing, pulling, and grabbing them. The world that Bob lands on provides machine shops that allow him to add parts to his ship, including extra engines, connection pipes, and two force field generators that allow Bob to grab onto objects or push them away with significantly more force that just ramming into the object at full speed (Bob's ship is impervious to damage). Everything in the world that can be moved and all parts are given a weight and an amount of force if the object influences others, such as a fan that alters Bob's flight. For the ship parts these weight values are given, although they are not very important to understanding how to create a good ship design. It would be beneficial to include a thrust/weight ratio of the current ship design, although the game does not require very precise designs to accomplish any particular goal.
Once the ship is altered, its center of gravity and propulsion characteristics are prone to change. If you add too many thrusters to one side of the ship you will end up performing barrel rolls instead of flying in the direction desired. The modifications will also change the center of gravity of the ship, forcing the player to think of the best way to balance the ship and accomplish a task at the same time. A ship that is poorly configured is just as detrimental as one that does not have the parts on it necessary to complete a task. This mechanic is enjoyable since the ship has to be tweaked in the right way, requiring at some points creativity with the parts that are available. At the same time, certain ship designs that are dictated by the amount of parts collected can be difficult to fly and make the process of solving a puzzle tedious, although this event is relatively rare. I would enjoy a up update to the game that would place a dot on the ship to indicated its center of gravity during modifications, although the current method of trial and error works well.
There are 14 levels in the "adventure" mode, which range in difficulty only flying around with no puzzles to several mostly easy but several step tasks. There is hardly a time where a player will scratch their heads and wonder how to solve a puzzle. The difficult part is flying the ship while trying to complete the puzzle. There are times when a part will slip out of the ship's grips, or where flying in a straight line to avoid an obstacle becomes difficult because the ship was retrofitted for a completely different task a few seconds ago. There are a few configurations that are almost universally useful, and players will likely find themselves switching between the same configurations with few modifications to any particular design. Thankfully, the game provides a ship saving function that allows designs to be saved and loaded later, removing the time required to pull the ship apart and reassemble it into a new form.
The game includes two types of additional challenges/sidequests besides arriving to the end of a level. The first is that there is a designated time to reach the end of the level, and reaching the end before that time results in either a gold or silver metal. I ignored the time metals since I personally find time restraints added on top of self sustaining game mechanics to cause more frustration than entertainment, although in this case I was pleased that taking my time did not result in a penalty like some other games (see the Super Mario Galaxy 2 review). IThe time to get a gold metal usually required completing the level in one or two minutes, whereas my times would range from ten to twenty minutes on any given level.
The other challenge in the game is acquiring spare ship parts that are off the beaten path. Many of the extra parts used new and unique puzzle scenarios that were enjoyable to play through. However, there were occasions where an additional part would be hidden behind a penetrable wall that were more of an accident in finding than a purposeful attempt. For these parts I looked up their location online since taking the time to see which rock was fake was time consuming and a matter of tedious combing instead of skill. These events were rare but detracted from the game since the larger levels could take minutes to traverse at the fastest speeds.
The game has been updated since its initial release (version 1.5 as of this writing), which add ten additional levels plus a playground in block environment. These levels were far more challenging as they often removed the ability to use thrusters or added some additional constraint that focused more on the skill of the player to manipulate the ship's movements than puzzles. This addendum was entertaining after the adventure mode, as it appeared to be a time when the developers were exploring with what they could do with their physics engine and parts provided to the player.
As an entire package, I thought the game was excellent. While there were some parts of the game where the physics engine, puzzle and ship design destroy any sense of control over Bob, the game provided a nice paradigm that had some semblance of realism that is intuitive and entertaining. It is not the most challenging game, but for the five hours I was playing through the adventure, it was difficult to put down.
You can buy this game as part of the Northern Lights Indie Pack ($20) (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4597/) on Steam but decided to buy the game directly from the developer for one major reason: out of the entire pack of five games, only one of them was for Mac. I use a Mac both out of personal preference and for work. I very much appreciate a developer who realizes that Mac users want to more than just work on their computers. Although, as a Linux user it would be nice to have a Linux client (this is probably asking for too much).
The developers, Ludosity Interactive, are also very friendly. When I had version 1.4.1 of the game and had difficulty using their iPatcher file to update to 1.5, the CEO responded to my email plea for help with a download link to the 1.5 version. There is also no DRM on the product, which is one of the reasons why I bought the game as it allows me to play the game on the platform I want, when I want, and where I want (unlike Assassin's Creed 2). They are very friendly people, and I believe that they make a great product and an easy-to-impulse-buy price.
Website (Ludosity Interactive)
http://ludosity.com/games/bob-came-in-pieces/
Northern Lights Indie Pack ($20)
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4597/
The game plays as you might expect a physics based puzzler: using Bob's ship, the player flies around manipulating objects such as crates and rocks by pushing, pulling, and grabbing them. The world that Bob lands on provides machine shops that allow him to add parts to his ship, including extra engines, connection pipes, and two force field generators that allow Bob to grab onto objects or push them away with significantly more force that just ramming into the object at full speed (Bob's ship is impervious to damage). Everything in the world that can be moved and all parts are given a weight and an amount of force if the object influences others, such as a fan that alters Bob's flight. For the ship parts these weight values are given, although they are not very important to understanding how to create a good ship design. It would be beneficial to include a thrust/weight ratio of the current ship design, although the game does not require very precise designs to accomplish any particular goal.
The design on the left is fast and lean, whereas the one on the right is almost impossible to fly
Once the ship is altered, its center of gravity and propulsion characteristics are prone to change. If you add too many thrusters to one side of the ship you will end up performing barrel rolls instead of flying in the direction desired. The modifications will also change the center of gravity of the ship, forcing the player to think of the best way to balance the ship and accomplish a task at the same time. A ship that is poorly configured is just as detrimental as one that does not have the parts on it necessary to complete a task. This mechanic is enjoyable since the ship has to be tweaked in the right way, requiring at some points creativity with the parts that are available. At the same time, certain ship designs that are dictated by the amount of parts collected can be difficult to fly and make the process of solving a puzzle tedious, although this event is relatively rare. I would enjoy a up update to the game that would place a dot on the ship to indicated its center of gravity during modifications, although the current method of trial and error works well.
The ship modification screen.
There are 14 levels in the "adventure" mode, which range in difficulty only flying around with no puzzles to several mostly easy but several step tasks. There is hardly a time where a player will scratch their heads and wonder how to solve a puzzle. The difficult part is flying the ship while trying to complete the puzzle. There are times when a part will slip out of the ship's grips, or where flying in a straight line to avoid an obstacle becomes difficult because the ship was retrofitted for a completely different task a few seconds ago. There are a few configurations that are almost universally useful, and players will likely find themselves switching between the same configurations with few modifications to any particular design. Thankfully, the game provides a ship saving function that allows designs to be saved and loaded later, removing the time required to pull the ship apart and reassemble it into a new form.
Two different puzzles showing the range in complexity within the game
The game includes two types of additional challenges/sidequests besides arriving to the end of a level. The first is that there is a designated time to reach the end of the level, and reaching the end before that time results in either a gold or silver metal. I ignored the time metals since I personally find time restraints added on top of self sustaining game mechanics to cause more frustration than entertainment, although in this case I was pleased that taking my time did not result in a penalty like some other games (see the Super Mario Galaxy 2 review). IThe time to get a gold metal usually required completing the level in one or two minutes, whereas my times would range from ten to twenty minutes on any given level.
The other challenge in the game is acquiring spare ship parts that are off the beaten path. Many of the extra parts used new and unique puzzle scenarios that were enjoyable to play through. However, there were occasions where an additional part would be hidden behind a penetrable wall that were more of an accident in finding than a purposeful attempt. For these parts I looked up their location online since taking the time to see which rock was fake was time consuming and a matter of tedious combing instead of skill. These events were rare but detracted from the game since the larger levels could take minutes to traverse at the fastest speeds.
I dare you to find the secret pathway in this image
The game has been updated since its initial release (version 1.5 as of this writing), which add ten additional levels plus a playground in block environment. These levels were far more challenging as they often removed the ability to use thrusters or added some additional constraint that focused more on the skill of the player to manipulate the ship's movements than puzzles. This addendum was entertaining after the adventure mode, as it appeared to be a time when the developers were exploring with what they could do with their physics engine and parts provided to the player.
Barebones but challenging
As an entire package, I thought the game was excellent. While there were some parts of the game where the physics engine, puzzle and ship design destroy any sense of control over Bob, the game provided a nice paradigm that had some semblance of realism that is intuitive and entertaining. It is not the most challenging game, but for the five hours I was playing through the adventure, it was difficult to put down.
You can buy this game as part of the Northern Lights Indie Pack ($20) (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4597/) on Steam but decided to buy the game directly from the developer for one major reason: out of the entire pack of five games, only one of them was for Mac. I use a Mac both out of personal preference and for work. I very much appreciate a developer who realizes that Mac users want to more than just work on their computers. Although, as a Linux user it would be nice to have a Linux client (this is probably asking for too much).
The developers, Ludosity Interactive, are also very friendly. When I had version 1.4.1 of the game and had difficulty using their iPatcher file to update to 1.5, the CEO responded to my email plea for help with a download link to the 1.5 version. There is also no DRM on the product, which is one of the reasons why I bought the game as it allows me to play the game on the platform I want, when I want, and where I want (unlike Assassin's Creed 2). They are very friendly people, and I believe that they make a great product and an easy-to-impulse-buy price.
Website (Ludosity Interactive)
http://ludosity.com/games/bob-came-in-pieces/
Northern Lights Indie Pack ($20)
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4597/
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment