Environmental Station Alpha

extremely underrated metroidvania with a super solid core game and stellar postgame secrets so deep it basically constitutes a whole other game

It's clear from some parts that the devs have some knowledge of good game design but there is too much frustration for me to find the game enjoyable. There is lots of backtracking and it's pretty cryptic where to go next after finding an upgrade - in the end, I just started reading guides because I don't want to draw a map by hand marking what kind of obstacle is at every dead end I reached. The game isn't too difficult per se, but the controls aren't great and the combat/action doesn't feel good to me either. Most passages and bosses are easy enough that they don't really pose a challenge but when you reach a point that is difficult, it becomes obvious how annoying everything is. For pretty much all bosses, I didn't feel like there is much of a strategy going on. I'm learning all patterns and attacks but due to the fact that it's so hectic and the controls are so clunky, it doesn't really matter.

It's a great metroidvania.

The gameplay itself is nothing revolutionary but it's a pretty good classical metroidvania, the game is reasonably difficult, the controls, movement, map and boss design overal feels pretty retro, which has its ups and downs. The best part of the game are the secrets, for those who are interested in things such as secret languages to translate, messages on the walls and such, you will enjoy what this game has to offer. A charming experience overal, for a very reasonable price.

Absolutely fantastic game. The main game is great, the post game is challenging but still fun, and the post post game is a bit tedious but its still really fascinating.

This game left me quite speechless in a lot of ways. I've had this game sitting in my library for many years and always thought it's just a fun little metroidvania. Oh boy, how wrong I was. Now that I've nearly 100%'d all achievements, I feel like I am able to leave a proper review here now which I've been dying to do for a while now. First of all, I am quite a die-hard fan of metroidvania/metroidbrainias. I guess brainia wasn't a term back in 2015, but would definitely fit this category at this point. I'd say it's 50/50 both unlike for example Animal Well which is more 80/20 brainia/vania. Despite the game looking very very unassuming, partly due to it's graphics.. it is most definitely not a simple/small game by any means. The game is clearly incredibly strongly inspired by Super Metroid, the game I first played on a console as a kid and have the fondest memories of and still regard to be my #2 favourite Metroid(vania) game. So obviously this game hit me quite well considering the myriad of similarities and inspirations you see through-out the game. Like Animal Well, there's a main game and a post game that requires a lot of thinking and digging to get through. I did this t…