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.

This SHOULD be fun but trying to play with a controller is a nightmare in some places where you need accuracy a stick just doesn't offer, and if you miss your progress gets reset until you die. Edit: Also minor annoyances that get less minor as the game goes on, like the map button taking you to the map, but a second press takes you to the.. pause menu? Not back to the game? Poor design. And the in-game tutorial messages are cryptic and often doesn't explain anything.

This game will never age

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.