Developer: Gamious
Publisher: KISS ltd
Platforms: PC,Mac, OUYA
iO – Review
With so many puzzle games on the market nowadays, it’s hard to come up with a game design that is unique and hasn’t been done before. iO tries to stand out of the crowd with this unique physics platformer, and it did a great job!
Story
Since iO is a puzzle game, it doesn’t have any kind of story attached to it. It’s probably a good thing because the game aims to be very minimalistic and a story would just make things more complicated.
Graphics
The first thing that grabs your attention when looking at iO is how simple it all looks. Everything is made out of basic shapes and there is no background whatsoever, it’s simply black. The level itself is built out of neon lines, the color corresponds to what they are. You’ll be seeing light blue the most, because this is the basic surface that you can move on.
Settings wise, the game is very light weight and almost every computer should be able to run it. There isn’t even an in-game option menu for the graphic settings, so this shows exactly how light weight it is.
Sound
The music and sound effects in this game are, you guessed it, very simple again. It fits together well with the rest of the game and the music is pretty good. It tries to make the game as relaxing as possible while you’re struggling to complete near impossible levels. Sound effects are also very simple but don’t really play a huge role, they’re just there.
Gameplay
Here is where things start to get interesting. iO isn’t just your normal puzzle game, it’s all about physics, momentum and shrinking and expanding yourself!
The goal is pretty simple, get the ball to the end of the level (a green portal), but some levels require a bit of ingenuity to reach it. The levels themselves are built out of numerous platforms: light blue, red, yellow, dark blue and even some portals here and there. As said before, the light blue platforms are your basic platforms that you can move across, the red ones can’t be touched or you die, the yellow ones are usually objects which you can interact with (move, push, etc) and the dark blue ones are much like the yellow ones. The portals simply teleport you to the other portal which it’s linked to, continuing your momentum.
While this all seems simple, another variable is introduced to the equation! You play as a ball, which can shrink and expand itself, and with a little bit of knowledge about physics, you can do a lot in this game! Almost all levels are about momentum, so you’ll have to cleverly use your shrink and expand ability together with the environment in order to get enough momentum to end the level. You’ll sometimes even have to get yourself stuck so you can wait on a platform that’s passing by.
Most levels are pretty easy and will point themselves out from the start, but as you get further, it all becomes a bit more unclear. You’ll have to do a lot of repeating because you didn’t know what to, your timing was off or you just want to get gold on each level.
There are currently 150 levels which can be played and at the end of everyone of them you get a medal. At this time, medals are only there for reference. However, there is an online leaderboard available on Steam, so you can see how you compete against the rest of the world.
Conclusion
iO is a very interesting and fun puzzle game, it combines simplicity with difficult levels and that’s what makes it so appealing. It might not look very interesting at first, but once you make your way to the last couple of levels, you couldn’t be more wrong! The game has about 150 levels, it also has an online leaderboard but maybe an in-game one or even a level editor would make the game more appealing in the long run.
iO - Review,
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