Skipper – Review
Skipper is someone who’s in command of a vessel or a warrant rank in the British Royal Naval Reserve. It can also refer to a semi automatic machine gun, a laser guided short ranged missile and a U.S. Navy Minesweeper. Nowhere in the list does it state that it’s a game. Not yet at least. Skipper was developed by 2xMilk and like how milk strengthens the bones, Skipper sets out to strengthen the mind.
Story
The life of a block isn’t easy, having to deal with blockages and blockades and writers block and only being able to watch blockbuster movies. So to relax, the main protagonist, grey block and his friends coloured blocks take a vacation to a tropical resort, but find themselves stuck with their only means of escape being going forward. That’s probably what the poetic version of the story is. There isn’t really one behind the game. Skipper is barebones on many aspects, and story is one of them. There’s no ulterior motive. Then again you can’t muck up what you don’t have.
Graphics
Skipper is a very bright and colourful game. The controls and the essence it are quite clear and once you’ve taken it in, for which you’ll need little help, you are on your merry way to finish the levels.
There are three annoyances when it comes to the pointers in this game. The tutorial, in which you see the controls are just visible for about a couple of seconds, and you can’t summon them again to reacquaint yourself with them save from booting the game up again. The second is that the controls are simple but it becomes confusing on where your cube is going to go and this game is very punishing. Just one wrong move could mean having to start the puzzle over again. In the beginning this isn’t much of a problem, but once the levels become more difficult that’s when the controls start to hamper the experience, as just one miss click can mess up the entire puzzle. The third is just a minor one, but changing between blocks should give more of a visual signal, there’s none whatsoever. So it’s unclear which one you are currently using, the only one being that you can move, but that might mess up your puzzle. Having your block vibrate for a second could clear up the confusion.
Sound
Skipper is pleasant to listen to. The tune playing in the background is really soothing and helps stave off frustration. It helps calm the annoyance that the later levels create. The jumping is funny to listen to and there are signals when you pick up the keys in the levels. Cubes or blocks don’t have mouths so there is no voice acting, which makes role playing that much more easy. You can give your cube/block your own voice and identity. It’s not like the game actually needs voice acting, so it’s neither here nor there.
Gameplay
Skipper is a puzzle game. It’s all about making it to a certain part of the map. All the while making it so you pick up keys to open up blockades. There is one rule, you can’t step on the same tile twice, as every tile you touch turns your colour. You can however run over it with a different one. So as the levels progress you’ll have to think up different paths for different colours so you can turn back and this opens up different routes. So what starts off as thinking ahead just a couple of steps, soon turns into thinking far ahead to make sure you don’t mess up the puzzle.
The controls are quite easy to learn, the arrow keys manage your movement and numbers 1-3 manage which cube you are in control of. The aforementioned problem with no visual or audio signal on which cube you are controlling is a minor annoyance when you get to the later levels.
There are currently 34 levels with more being added in the form of free dlc. There’s nothing as good as free content to a game you enjoy.
Conclusion
Skipper is a puzzle game that starts with a simple concept, but slowly builds up to becoming a very challenging experience. It might seem like a small game with only 34 levels, but the levels will gradually increase and even in the current state, the later levels are nothing short of mindbogglingly difficult as you plan every step in advance to get every cube to the end of the level. A fun game for fans of the puzzle game genre, but nothing that will entice players looking for something easy to pass the time with.
No Comments