Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

I hope whoever programmed the missiles to steer that way was banned from programming video games for the next five years

I really wanted to like this game but really can't. It's depressing, isolated and lonely. There can be artistic value in this and some games do this really well, but this game made me not want to play it. I don't wanna spend my gaming time playing games that suck the joy out of me - unless there is something irresistibly enticing about it. Which this game has nothing like that. It's just miserable and the gameplay is pretty bland to boot. If you like hostile, lonely environments with nothing to make up for it, this game is artistically doing a good job on this. But there was literally nothing here for me to make me want to play more. I kind of just wanted it to be over so I dipped out.

A fun little metroidvania with a lot of cool ideas that could have been fleshed out a lot more. Review might sound negative, but that's mostly because the game made me want more of it. I enjoyed my time, but couldn't help feeling like a lot of mechanics end up being used only once or that various side paths appear blocked by some future ability when it turns out you already have what you need. It's not very obvious what you can and can't do with certain abilities, which is why this game can be frustrating if you are trying to collect everything or are going after the achievements. There is also a problem with many things requiring a level of precision that the game isn't equipped to handle, especially with bosses or hidden areas, so I couldn't help feeling that the game would benefit from tighter controls and a longer runtime. Easily could have been a much bigger game, though it's pretty nice if you want a shorter experience. Longer playtime is mostly due to trying to collect everything.

The ITSP experience is alien - language-less, isolating, disorienting, while inducing paranoia for each new entity you encounter. The communication via glyphs is simple and elegant, knowing the general area to which to proceed is helpful without being hand-holdy, and the boss fights are challenging and distinct from one another. Ideally, you'd be able to map more than 4 items to buttons at a time. Apart from that, this is a flawless game.

I found some of the mechanics to be nauseating. Regardless of that, I didn't think it was fun. Gave up in the rotating gear zone, which is where the nausea was worst.

Ok totally hooked; runs great, check it out :)