By Sam Coles:
There are times were I like to switch gears and review games
where I’m not killing someone or something, where I’m not sending someone’s jaw
bone in eight directions. Pode is a beautiful puzzle platformer and I feel it
deserves more recognition, with its somewhat brain taxing puzzles, great
soundtrack and beautiful visual art style.
Pode’s story is minimalistic with exposition, as there is no
dialogue at all and that is the strength of a great video game narrative where
you have to piece the story together for yourself. Of what I can tell two
entities meet, one made of stone and the other made of some sort of star
matter, the entity made of star matter falls out of the sky and they journey together
to send it back to the depths of space. Right off the bat the game is truly adorable
with how they communicate cat with low and high pitch noises.
Gameplay is simple but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing,
it is a puzzle platformer where you can either play solo or in co-op I would
recommend playing the latter as it makes for a smoother experience but solo
play is not necessarily bad. You take control of each character to solve
precarious platforming puzzles; these can range from simple to somewhat obtuse
as it can be somewhat unclear of what you are supposed to do. However most of
the time it is rather straight forward and can be a bit tricky, this can range
from raising platforms, jumping on each other’s head to get to higher ground, weighing
down switches or just memorising basic patterns.
Each character has a special power trait that is thematically
appropriate to them, one is a star so they can emit light to make plants and
wildlife flourishes, whereas the other is made of stone which can make rocks
sprout out of the walls… look don’t question the logic just go with it. These
abilities are used to solve certain puzzles, such as being able to create
ledges to climb or holding down specific buttons. It keeps things varied and
does present some unique and intriguing scenarios, but after a few hours it can
start to feel a bit samey.
The visual presentation is beautiful; especially the opening
scene when the two characters first meet and they walk into the distance with
the warm glow of dusk setting upon them. When you start off the game may look
bland, but as you traverse these dark caverns it starts to open up with rich
flora, with plants escaping the cracks of the caves. Character design of the
main protagonists is wonderful, they juxtapose from each other where one is
bright and the other dark, and it is the perfect yin and yang.
The soundtrack is something that stuck with me throughout the
adventure; it is relaxing which goes with the tone of this slow paced journey.
It has nice violin pieces that almost echo throughout the caves, which
accompany you on the journey, I hope there is somewhere I can get this
soundtrack officially.
Overall Pode was a pleasant surprise, it was nice to take a
break from the over the top and violent games that I have been covering
recently. It was truly anadorable adventure, and something that I can recommend
to anyone. You can get it on Switch but it recently came to the PS4 recently if
that is more your cup of tea.
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