Semblance

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Semblance is a Puzzle-Platformer that has you playing as a little blob gathering balls of light to fight an encroaching crystalline threat infecting his world.

The game’s presentation is wordless and largely abstract, with simple visuals and very minimalist music. Actually, a bit too minimalist, for my tastes – the game’s music doesn’t really suit the visuals or gameplay and the visuals aren’t especially memorable. The audiovisual experience isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t really do much for this game.

The gameplay, however, is pretty damn good, with a unique approach to the genre. Your little blob can jump, can dash in one of four directions, and that’s about it. However, what this game that does that’s special is that when you dash into a wall or ceiling, you can deform it, either pushing it around or molding it into a different shape.

The game does a very good job building on this concept too, making you really think about how to warp the terrain and the effect it will have. Throughout the game, it finds new directions to take this. At one point, you’re introduced to a light beam that reverts back to normal any terrain that touches it. Later, you’re shown how to use those beams to propel yourself like a trampoline. Then you’re introduced to crystals that alter the blob itself when dashed into… each of these new additions brings a great element that evolves the gameplay and fits perfectly with the game’s puzzles.

However, as much as the gameplay here is good, there’s a real drawback, and that is that the game is terribly short. You can complete the entire thing in just a few hours. It’s a shame too, because I really would have liked to see the strong gameplay here stretched out (pardon he pun) into a more significant experience.

Also, it’s really curious that for a game that’s so very short, that has such a minimalist presentation, just how big this game is in terms of the amount of space it takes up in your memory, requiring 2.9GB. While I found this to be an enjoyable experience, suffice it to say that it did not stay on my MicroSD card for very long.

However, make no mistake, I did find Semblance to be an enjoyable experience, albeit one that fails to capitalize on its potential. It has decent simple visuals… that aren’t very memorable, aren’t complimented well by the soundtrack, and take up way too much space on your MicroSD card. The gameplay is fantastic… but over too soon. All in all, for what it’s worth, this is a game well worth playing, even if it’s not quite everything it could be.

tl;dr – Semblance is a Puzzle-Platformer that has you deforming the scenery to solve puzzles. The gameplay is fantastic, with some excellent puzzle design, but the presentation is far too simplistic for the 2.9GB, and the game is over far too quickly. It’s still worth playing for as long as it lasts, but this game is more of a brief distraction than a full experience.

Grade: B

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