Two Parsecs From Earth

This game does everything I hate in a mertoidvania. One hit death, clunky jumps, either/or choices that cut off half the game's abilities. Just terrible.

Little broken robot Metroidvania - find your parts and upgrades to go to new areas. Quite funny, fun and really cute. Can be challenging but shouldn't take too long to play through if you're a veteran https://youtu.be/U_6lPtRzFMU

Visually stunning and with good effects, but the gameplay is designed to be infuriating, frustrating and even annoying. There is no "play" when you have to count on pixel timing on some of the challenges. There is no "play" when you lose your achivements if you die (and you will die) and you have to begin all over again from the start of the same room (unless you get out intact from it). There is no "play" when you are forever stuck on some challenges, without the possibility of backtracking, and without any option but to repeat until the milliseconds are so accurate as to allow you to escape. There is no "play" when you can't see where you land if you jump and therefore is like doing archery while blind: you just depend on sheer luck, not calculation. It's a pity because it has al the visuals, the aesthetic and the right effects yet everything else is an awful experience, possible intended to replace a bigger map or more diverse challenges with simple walls of frustration.

Generic. Just feels like I'm walking around lost in a very dull maze.

Although I'm giving this a thumbs up, it is NOT recommended. I'm only giving a thumbs up to reward the developer for the effort made in making good graphics and smooth framerates (no unity lag) for the game, something that is extremely rare in obscure metroidvanias like this. Basically, this game is mediocre but the developers need to be encouraged to make more games because they have potential that I haven't seen with others at this level. So why is it not recommended? Well, while the framerate and the graphics are excellent, the same cannot be said about the story, music and the level design both of which are very boring/lame. The latter's boring design is necessitated by the experimental innovation of allowing for branched upgrades that lead to different playthrough and different endings depending on the decisions you made. While I applaud this innovation, I do think that the cost of making this possible may not have been worth it. Edit: the dev upped the price by 57% so now I can no longer give this a thumbs up

Two Parsecs From Earth is a compact yet thoughtfully constructed 2D exploration platformer that blends Metroidvania sensibilities with an uncompromising, old-school approach to challenge. Developed by ABX Games Studio and published on Steam by Ratalaika Games S.L., the game casts players as a small service robot stranded on the hostile alien planet Dimidium after a crash landing leaves its ship in ruins. With Earth tantalizingly close yet impossibly distant, the core motivation is simple and effective: recover lost components, gather energy, and navigate a dangerous world in order to repair the ship and make the journey home. This minimalist narrative framing works well, providing just enough context to support exploration without overwhelming the experience with exposition. From a gameplay standpoint, Two Parsecs From Earth places a heavy emphasis on precise movement and environmental mastery. Every screen is filled with hazards—spikes, enemies, and environmental traps—that often result in instant death, reinforcing a trial-and-error learning loop reminiscent of classic precision platformers. The controls are deliberately tight, demanding careful timing and deliberate input, and …