A Game for Squares — Alteric Review
The Switch has proved itself to be a nice little console for indie games to make their home, both new and established. However, where there’s a large number of indie games, there’s also shovelware, and half a step back from shovelware is Alteric.
Alteric is a side scrolling 2D platformer where players control a square. Just an unremarkable square, who must make it from here to there, there being the other side of an obstacle filled level. Players must navigate these trials of traps and dangers to make it to the end of the level and… do it again.
My first impression of the game was that it looks and plays like the kind of game you’d find on Newgrounds or Addicting Games 10 years ago. It seems like a flash game that was made with the intention to kill time rather than create something enjoyable to play.
So what sets this apart from literally any other generic 2D platformer? Well there’s a mechanic where you can “switch worlds” at the press of a button, revealing an alternate level with different platforms or different positioning of certain elements and obstacles. The idea is that you must switch between the two worlds on the fly to make it past obstacles and get to the end of each level, which I guess you could say adds another level of challenge to the game in the same way that swatting at a fly that keeps landing on your screen adds a new level of challenge to any other game.
Over the game new mechanics are introduced, such as gravity switching and the ability to make a clone block that acts as a platform, the latter of which was the only interesting mechanic when it came to gameplay, if only it didn’t suffer from the same fiddly controls as the rest of the platforming.
The precision platforming, which is something the game focuses on pretty heavily, I found to be more of an annoyance than a challenge. This is mostly due to the inconsistent physics of the game, where landing at just the wrong angle in a tight spot is enough to end up dead thanks to inertia.
What really shits me about the game though, is the trial and error. There are sections that require precision reflexes or momentum that can only be mastered through trying and retrying and retrying. This only gets worse when you’re being “chased” through a level, where there’s little margin for hesitation, yet timing is important to make it past obstacles. Trial and error isn’t necessarily a bad thing in games — two games that come to mind in the same vein are Super Meat Boy and Hotline Miami, but those games have fluid controls that feel nice to play and flow well, and story elements to add context and motivation, all things that Alteric is lacking.
The only part of the game that I enjoyed remotely were the bosses, even if they were as basic as the rest of the game. It’s essentially the same mechanic for all of them, hit all of their weak points in both dimensions and they die, but it was the only part of the game with an objective that felt rewarding to complete.
All things considered, we’re talking about a five dollar game here, but everything about the mechanics are just frustrating to play more than anything. It’s something best left for speedrunners and streamers, and that five dollars can be spent on a happy meal with a toy that will be more entertaining than Alteric.
Originally published at The Insatiable Gamer.
