Line Hopper

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Line Hopper is one of those games that immediately caught my attention because the idea is so strange. I play as Linus, a character living in a two dimensional world where everything appears as a single vertical line from his perspective. That sounds confusing at first, and it definitely took me some time to understand, but I really liked how the game turns that unusual visual idea into the central part of the platforming. The gameplay is built around moving along these colorful lines while figuring out what is actually happening in the world around me. Because I only see the environment from Linus's very limited perspective, simple platforming can become surprisingly difficult. I enjoyed having to think differently about distance and positioning rather than relying on the usual side view or three dimensional perspective I expect from platformers. The puzzle elements work nicely with the unusual presentation. I have to observe the lines carefully and work out how to move through each section without simply being able to see everything at once. I liked that the game rewards patience and experimentation rather than just fast reactions. Once the strange perspective starts making sen…

"Line Hopper" is, well, a frankly fascinating and novel concept that's only been done a couple of times before on Steam. The idea is that you're playing a platformer (old, dead genre, I know), but from a literal 2D perspective. Which means for gameplay, you're only presented with a line, and that's how you have to negotiate each level. I said it was a novel concept, not a good one. This was a dismal failure on Steam Direct. It's great when developers try new(ish) things, but I think it helps to stop and first ask, not "Has this been done before?", but instead "Is this a good idea that will result in a fun game?" The answer to that second, important, unasked question is "nope." This is tedious and frustrating to play, the visuals are terrible (on purpose), and the inclusion of a level editor, while welcome, is pointless when nobody is interested in playing the game. Because it's a minimalist line simulator. This game features very lacklustre minimalist "art" for graphics instead of anything remotely contemporary. I'm sure the "developer" thought this would come across as "artistic", but it doesn't, it comes across as "really lazy". Yes, contemporary 3D graphics take a lot …

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