Deleveled Reviews

Delightfully clever, challenging and surprisingly complex game built in a simple frame. Personally I find the no-death-star-system needed for 100% completion too stressful and time consuming but luckily I can just ignore it.

I like it! It's a fun but challenging platformer that has some fun and unique mechanics! It's not absolutely perfect, but it's got a nice charm to it. I like how there are multiple ways to solve levels, and there are challenging levels that can be unlocked with secret button matches. There's even a level of the title screen itself and they even included the primitive version of the game in a hidden place! I don't know how I feel about the flawless runs = stars, I'm not sure if they really add much to the game, but that's alright. Also the background effects and songs are sooooo good! Great job to the devs! <3

This game is deceptively simple, yet infuriatingly difficult. The controls are very intuitive. It's a bit like sudoku, where there's a lot of logic and puzzle solving, but in side scroller form. Well worth the $10 or however much this game was. Highly recommend.

I'm really enjoying this game so far. A very decent puzzle platformer with a very fresh mechanic. The controls are extremely simple - most of the time you just use 2 keys for moving left and right. There are some other keys used, but never in a situation that requires precise timing for using them. I am writing this review mainly on behalf of people who may be enticed by the puzzling aspect of the game but concerned that the game may be too tough requiring very fast reflexes. I would say as long as you have some reflexes and patience, so you should try out this game because I found the puzzling aspect worth it, Please bear in mind I only just reached world 3 (from about 10 or so if I recall from the world select screen), but I am enjoying this game so much this far and wanted to write a review now. Every world adds a new mechanic to keep the gameplay fresh. Every world so far as 12 levels total. Two of these are special: One is unlocked only after you find and turn on secret switches in one of the 10 normal levels, and the other is unlocked using stars that you collect from completing levels (nearly) perfectly. I managed to unlock both of these special levels in the first world. One of the special levels was just a slightly harder version of the rest of the levels in that world, but the other was ridiculously hard from a timing/reflexes point of view and it's unlikely that I have the coordination to complete it. This brings us the type of challenges this game presents. I would say it is divided roughly evenly between requiring dexterity and precision timing, and requiring brains to figure out the puzzle of what sequence to try and execute. Actually to be honest, at my age my reflexes are slowing down and I would say the bigger challenge is the dexterity part which is why I am increasingly shying away from games that require such precision. However, in this case I found the puzzling part satisfying and enjoyable enough that I don't mind retrying the same tricky timing section ten times. I think what is so appealing to me is that this momentum based mechanic is very fresh; after seeing and playing countless great, masterpiece-level puzzle games that fundamentally rely on a Sokoban mechanic but with very cool new twists and variations, it is so nice to see something so different with zero Sokoban basis. Maybe this is not a fair comparison across very different genres, since this game requires reflexes and most Sokoban-based puzzlers don't. I guess I wanted to point out that there is a very fresh "thinking" component to this game that is still simple enough to describe as the thinking component of Sokoban-likes, but also so very different. Again (if the rest of the game is similar to the levels I have played so far), 11 of the 12 levels in each world can be completed perfectly using my aging reflexes. Being perfect means not using the "partial reset" key to get you out of a dead end. I think some levels allow you 1 or 2 of these partial resets and you can still get the star. I call it a partial reset because using that option still preserves the state of the switches on the level to what you may have set them to earlier. You can also completely restart a level (resetting the state of all the switches in it), in which case you are given a new chance to complete it perfectly and get the star. It seems that the bonus unlockable-by-stars level on each world requires increasing multiples of 10 stars collected (I assume cumulatively). In other words: world 1's bonus levels requires 10 stars, world 2's bonus requires 20 stars, etc., so the bottom line is that I think you can still unlock all the bonus levels in the game even if you only perfect 10 of the 12 levels in each world on average. It also seems that the next world is unlocked after you complete a certain number of levels in a world - I am not sure how many. I do not believe there is any requirement to complete any of those perfectly to unlock the next world. This means that as long as you complete most levels (use the partial-reset key to get you out of dead ends as many times as you want) you should be able to unlock all the levels in the games except the (in my opinion) ridiculously hard one in each world.

Congratulations for making a game so difficult it's mostly devoid of fun. If you like drilling a single level hundreds of times until you're pixel perfect, this is the game for you. For everyone else, it's a tedious exercise in needless punishment.

Never knew my new favorite kind of game would be 1/2 puzzle 1/2 precision platforming. Now I know. I am only on world 4. So far the difficulty has been palatable. Even if it amps up hardcore in the later worlds, I will still probably keep it a positive review because I love the mix. The effort in figuring out solutions i.e. the puzzle part, makes the execution i.e. the platforming part sooooooooooo satisfying. With reg puzzle games, the reward for figuring out the puzzle is...figuring out the puzzle. Here, the reward is some cool platforming. every level I feel like a dog in a cage looking at the obstacle course, seeing how I will weave through all the puzzles, then the lid is lifted and off I run to execute. JUST PLEASE FIX THE CONTROLLER ISSUE!!! Edit Just 100%'ed the game. still 100% recommend it. The difficultly got progressively gnarly all the way through the end of world 9. Yet somehow tapered off in world 10 for a relatively chill endgame cooldown - another thing I didn't know I love in puzzle/platformers. Kind of like climbing, you warm up on easy to medium stuff, then dive into the hard stuff, then cooldown on kind of hard stuff (except the bonus challenge in level 10. Probably the hardest one in the entire game. But that dopamine hit was insane)

Simple but well-executed concept, very imaginative and creative, with a nice chiptune soundtrack. Difficulty ramps up quickly but controls are tight, responsive and never unfair, and levels are very satisfying to beat. Thought it would be a fun but fairly generic puzzle-platformer that I would breeze through in an evening, instead I can't play more than 12 levels at a time because they make my brain hurt.

Absolutely terrific physics/puzzle platformer, with just a dash of precision platforming (which ramps up quite steeply in the unlockable bonus levels). The game is careful about guiding the player through new gameplay concepts (without ever burdening them with text!) before rigorously challenging their understanding of what they've been taught, and the stages rather quickly turn mind-bending as a result. I've found that solving each level is uniformly rewarding; rather than being the exercise in frustration that I've experienced with other puzzle games, at least as far as I've played so far. There are no cheap tricks: what you see on screen is what you have to work with, but that commitment to simplicity belies a rather significant variety in level design, especially at the price point it's being sold out. The soundtrack isn't deserving of any awards, but there are some very solid tunes with enough variety to keep it from ever being stale. The visuals are simple, to be sure, but there's enough subtle flair that makes the game quite beautiful, especially with some of the more intricate background designs. Ultimately, I think the simplicity appropriately emphasizes what the focus of this game is: you against the levels, and the lack of visual distraction is actually quite welcome as the puzzles get more challenging, and more rewarding to solve.

[b]TLDR[/b] If you’re into “casual” physics-based puzzle games with a heavy dose of precision jumping, Deleveled provides over 100 of challenges. [15/20⭐, 22h🏅, 4/5💡] [b]Context[/b] Disclaimer: I’m pretty bad at precision platforms (I rather spend an hour staring at a puzzle figuring out how to solve it, than spend that hour trying to get a jump right). But since I’m often pleasantly surprised by these simple, abstract puzzle games (hi [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/macwh/recommended/469790/]Linelight[/url]), I ignored the precision elements of Deleveled that were clear in the description and reviews. Deleveled is a physics-based, precision platformer, whose main feature is that you cannot jump: you have to rely on the momentum of two controllable characters. [b]Writing[/b] There is no plotline or context whatsoever, just over 100 abstract puzzles selected from a menu. [b]Aesthetics[/b] The design is abstract and minimalistic. The retro music initially sounds good and dynamic, but as you spend a couple of hours in a world with the same track on repeat, becomes unbearable. (Also, if you lower the music volume, it doesn’t affect the volume of the opening, which is just evil.) [b]Gameplay[/b] Levels are the right size for a game of this nature: they are single-screened, each with 5 “tasks”, and usually only a couple of those are tricky. So even if you fail, you respawn but no longer get a perfect score. But even if you reset the level (there is no undo), you only have to repeat a couple of actions. The progress is not saved when after quiting a level. There is a single progress slot. But Deleveled starts off pretty challenging: by the first worlds I was already despairing with my lack of dexterity. However, I should say that once you get the hang of it, puzzles actually become rather straightforward: there’s not much of a difficulty curve (some levels from the 1st world were as hard as some in the last). Depending on you skill, I’d say the weight on problem solving and precision jumping is about 50/50 [spoiler](except for the hidden levels)[/spoiler]. In later levels, as you have to quickly manoeuvre and trigger abilities, the poor responsiveness of the controls becomes a frustrating hindrance, as well as some occasional bugs (e.g., sometimes when passing “ghost” pieces). It also doesn’t help that for a game that essentially renders squares, it somehow manages to have awful performance. (It's worst at level 10, is it the animated background?) [b]Value[/b] It took me 22h to complete the game and perfecting all levels. You can revisit previous levels from the menu. There are no user-designed levels. Achievements are related to perfecting the levels and finding hidden switch combinations, so don’t require multiple playthroughs. Replay value amounts to revisiting the same levels. [quote][i]For more puzzle-game reviews and curated lists check out the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43326007-The-Clueless-Adventurer-Puzzle-Trove/]Puzzle Trove[/url].[/i][/quote]

Normally I wait until I 100% games to write a review, but I'll make an exception here. Since this is a really small game and the devs ask anybody with significant playtime to write something (I'm about 40% done so far). I saw this game demoed at PAX 1.5 years ago and have been patiently waiting for the release date ever since. These guys are awesome and I'll gladly support them. Wow, this game is HARD. Like, seriously hard. You look at this, it doesn't look any different than any other minimalist puzzle-platformer indie game. You're wrong. This game not only requires insane creative thinking to solve its puzzles, but you need to have the platforming skill to execute. So many times I thought "HOW?? There's NO WAY to solve this level!" Only to stop and think for a few minutes, keep trying things, and find a breakthrough. That's quality puzzle challenge. Now, if you want to never get frustrated with a game.....maybe find something else? But if you think you're good at puzzles, get this and get humbled. You won't be disappointed.