Developer: Faris Mohammed
Publisher: Faris Mohammed
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Gravity Error – Review
Physics have always been a complicated element in games and can cause a lot of confusion and challenge. Gravity Error tries to add to this challenge with constant gravity shifting which will (hopefully) allow you to finish a level without being killed. Solve puzzles in multiple, creative ways and try to restore peace to gravity.
Story
You play as Force, a small black cube who has somehow become unstable together with the gravity around it. Your quest is to seek stableness by solving puzzles and of course avoid being crushed in the process.
That’s pretty much all of the story Gravity Error has. It’s hard to find all of this out by playing the game because there’s no dialogue or explanation at all. In the beginning you’re simply a black cube surrounded by orbiting white balls when they suddenly glitch and start floating everywhere. A little bit of extra information is given in the game description on Steam but that’s all there is to it. It would have been nice if the information about the game could also be found in the game so you’d know the context of the story, however small it may be.
Graphics
Gravity Errors consists of simple looking single-screen levels. Everything looks very minimalistic and has basic shapes, making it rather pleasant to look at. There are also different “worlds” filled with levels and each one has its own color scheme, which is a nice change. The background looks very simple as well, it’s usually a single color or a gradient that goes from light to dark accompanied by a white grid.
The game itself isn’t demanding at all performance wise and should have no problem running on most computers. It has a simple resolution selection (before you launch the game in a config window) and a quality slider with three levels in game.
Sound
The music and sound effects in Gravity Error all sound very calm and soothing. It’s a relaxing game to play which isn’t all that difficult and the music emphasizes this which makes it a nice experience to play and relax for a while. When it comes to sound effects, it’s a bit the same as with the music. There aren’t a whole lot of them and they aren’t disturbing at all, sometimes you even forget they’re there when not paying close attention to the sound.
Gameplay
Gravity Error is very simple to pick up and play. Your goal is to get to the end of the level and collect some white balls in the process, which isn’t even a requirement to move on. In order to complete the levels, you’ll have to play with gravity, avoid being crushed and watch out for the scary spikes. In total, the game features 50 levels for you to speed through, can you finish them and collect all of the white balls?
Control wise, Gravity Error is one of the simplest games out there. It has simple WASD controls (which can be edited) and partial controller support but it’s better to play with the keyboard. Then there’s space to start or stop the level and your mouse to help you complete levels. However, even basic games have bugs apparently! Later in the levels, you’ll meet platforms which move horizontally and vertically. So, when you jump at the side of a horizontally moving platform, you’ll get stuck on it and have to restart the level. Additionally if you’re fast enough at the start you can perform a jump while in the air, which is easy to exploit in some levels.
Before you start a level, you can get some arrows to your disposal which will shift gravity to the way they’re pointing once you touch them. Most levels require you to place these arrows yourself, so you can be as creative as you want with them. This also requires some experimentation of course as you’ll have to figure out how to place them in order to get all balls and get to the end of the level in one piece.
The first couple of levels serve as introduction and get you used to the game and the gravity switching, which can be very confusing. For example, if the gravity is normal you’d move with left and right and jump with up. However, when the gravity changes to the right wall for instance, you’ll move with up and down and jump with left. It might not seem like a big deal, but if you’re trying to chain gravity switches together and have to be fast it can be extremely confusing.
One thing the game does miss is some kind of score tracking. Most of the levels are pretty easy to finish even when taking all of the balls, and even then you might not need all the gravity arrows that were supplied. Some kind of mechanism that gave you score according to how many arrows you used and how many balls you got would be nice, even nicer if it was linked with time and some kind of leaderboard was implemented. Maybe it’s coming in the next Gravity Error? While we’re on it, the levels themselves are basically a grid system with elements placed inside them so a level editor linked with Steam Workshop would also be a very nice feature, but that’s asking a bit much.
Conclusion
Gravity Error brings a very basic yet interesting game to the platformer genre. It’s fun to play, has great physics and isn’t an eye sore, which some games can be. For its price it’s a very solid yet short game with a bug here and there, but it’s nothing too big if you don’t pay too much attention to it. There are also some things that could be improved, but maybe that’s for a next project?
Gravity Error - Review,
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