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The squad over at Distant Blue give me the unique opportunity to bet a demo interlingual rendition of their approaching game , Fading Skies , a story - get platforming escapade game set in a vibrant and heartfelt sci - fi phantasy setting . While this demo rendering of the game was scant on story and careful not to reveal too much about the game , I was able to get a pretty clear idea of what the full going has to extend . While I have some critiques , I can say for certain that my overall impression of Fading Skies was irrefutable , and I ’m excited to see what the developers at Distant Blue have in store for the plot ’s full dismissal .
As I mentioned above , one of the first thing you ’re give-up the ghost to discover about Fading Skies is the platforming . Fading sky ’ gameplay is built around its various platforming segments and mechanics , even building some of the demo ’s combat segments around platforming puzzles .
So the of import question is : If Fading Skies is built so heavily around platforming , is the platforming actually any good ? The answer is , yeah , it ’s pretty OK , but it could use some employment .
The biggest issuing I had with the platforming in the Fading Skies demo was the problem of impulse . Much of the platforming is based on perpendicular jumps , stand on one weapons platform and jumping across to another . I ’m pretty trusted that ’s where the word “ platforming ” comes from .
The issue is that the forward movement you need to close up the gaps does n’t always end once your feet touch the ground ; I had an effect with Ryn continuing to take a tone and a one-half , sometimes two steps , forward after landing from a forward jump .
One or two step do n’t fathom like a big deal until you ’re landing on the edge of the program you jump to . A lot of the chopine , specifically the rock ‘n’ roll ones , felt just big enough to land on ifRyndidn’t adjudicate to take those extra steps . There were certainly a few times when this extra momentum saw me slip off the bound of the chopine and fall to my death .
I overleap the mark on the platforming quite a bit , falling off the edge , colliding with the back of a rock , coming too miserable to latch onto an border , and toss out myself too far to one side . I ’m normally not this bad at platforming , and while I ’m sure player acquisition had something to do with it , I plainly felt like the momentum , chopine size of it , and locating in the Fading Skies demo could use some piece of work .
That being said , I found that the platforming was mostly pretty good . Mechanics like airdashing onwards and up were fun , paired with some interesting puzzle ideas , though I felt like these puzzles tended to penalise the learning process with death / checkpoint respawns a bit too much . A “ rubber net ” terrain arrangement under some of these mechanic introduction puzzler would have made the encyclopaedism curve a mo more forgiving .
In addition to the platforming , the Fading Skies demo show off some light source , albeit interesting , combat mechanics .
Fighting enemy in the Fading Skies demo consist of dodging , an place ranged attack , and loose / heavy attack rotation . elementary and sweet , Fading Skies makes its combat stick out out with a few interesting slight twists , like harbour enemies , bread and butter mobs , and using the surroundings ( or from time to time an enemy ’s attacks ) to harm your foes . As I said before , the combat come secondary to the platforming and is often baked into the traversal mechanics in one way or another . You ’ll see a few curt combat encounter to break up platforming , a section that requires you to duck’s egg and dash through terrain to quash being shot , or even a genus Bos fight that requires quick and cagy traversal of the terrain to win .
The Fading Skies demonstration reminded me a lot of classical PS2 - era platformers , both due to the mechanics themselves and the way the game ’s setting was presented .
With its character invention and people of color option , it gave me huge Spyro vibes . The worldly concern is remarkably pretty to look at and , though full of danger , feel welcoming and whimsical . The entire demo is prepare in a vibrant forest era , which then transitions at time to this interesting cyberspace world . Both conserve vibes of wonder and whimsy without feel dumbed down or too “ childlike . ”
The Fading Skies demonstration take to withhold much of the game ’s history , slue out a few cutscenes and character debut , but the bits we get served are interesting and left me wanting what the full experience would offer .
From what we see in the demonstration , Fading Skies seems to be a sci - fi story set in a strange alien earth . It look to touch on on interesting concepts , like astral projection , leave past , and a strange corruptness of the local population by evil energy lock within unknown and minatory crystals .
The graphic symbol we meet in Fading Skies miss any substantial introduction , which is done on intention to keep from spoiling the account present in the plot ’s main firing . Nevertheless , I found myself draw in by what slight of the role we see . Specifically , our admirer , Ryn , is an interesting one , with a positive mental attitude and alone abilities , paired with a past times sully by amnesia . Fey , a character we see shortly in a cutscene included in the demo , also caught my attending . I was left curious about their relationship and require more from these characters .
It had a few singultus , but the Fading Skies demo overall give a taste of an experience to come that I ’m sure player will love . With a big setting , a taste perception of some interesting graphic symbol , and some fun , albeit slenderly graceless , auto-mechanic , Fading Skies has a lot of promise , and I ’m excited to see what ’s to fare with the game ’s full exit .
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