FLATLAND Vol.1 Reviews

Flatland is a very nice minimalist platform game. The game is very challenging so get used to dying a lot. The minimalist style is very beautiful and the possibility for changing the music any time you want is nice too.

nice game, lots of levels and content and for very cheap aswell only con that i really noticed while playing is that esc wasnt mapped to back and i had to manually select "back" not that big of a deal, but does get a little weird after a while

It's an amazing, well-designed game with great looks, well-crafted and challenging levels. Hours of fun guaranteed!

Very good game! It has good gameplay and a good challenge! Special attention to music in the style "Synthwave". Perfect!

Flatland is an incredibly well-designed platformer that focuses on player skill and reflexes. The retrowave aesthetic is vivid, simple and engrossing. I love the use of simple geometric shapes and how they all somehow have a unique character and personality. The bonus levels look particularly stunning when you find them! The music is also sublime with a handful of catchy electronic/synthwave tracks that are both distinct and match the mood of the game perfectly. The gameplay is super fast with level design that goads the player into finding creative solutions. It has a free-form platforming design that lets you wall-jump indefinitely, dash One thing I particularly love is the final boss, which, rather than messing with the flow or mechanics of the game, forces you to apply the normal gameplay into an ultra high-pressure, high-speed explosive set of levels that will really push your skills to the maximum. There is plenty of replayability here with hidden areas, collectables and several modes available. Speedrunners are going to love challenging the dev's times while completionists will love collecting items and unlocking plenty of achievements. Overall, Flatland is an amazing reflex platformer whose quality and design is up there with the greats like VVVVVV and Super Meat Boy. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone and everyone and urge you to pick it up as soon as possible. When will the soundtrack be available for download?!

The normal mode of the game can be completed in just a little over an hour. Most early levels are way too easy. In the end there are a couple of levels that are quite disorienting with lots of flashes and shiny projectiles zipping around the screen. In order to “run” you need to keep the X button pressed at all times and with the other part of your thumb you have to press the A button to jump – OSA concerns intensify and now my thumb hurts! I could also not turn off controller vibration, which was very annoying in levels with lots of wall jumps. I also did not like that you are extremely zoomed in on the level, so you can’t see ahead very far and because you are always in a hurry avoiding homing missiles you need to memorize each level by trial and error. There are other game modes than the plain vanilla normal mode, like having the end boss chase you in every level, racing against a timer, and also a mode where you can bash and shoot back at the enemies. I give it a 6/10.

This game is a pretty fun, fast-paced platformer! Not too difficult, though there were a handful of levels that kicked my butt for a teeny bit. The music is pretty banging! Got 100% achievements in just under 7 hours in one sitting. The extra game modes you unlock, "Faster Than Light" (race against the clock) and "Not Him Again" (Boss Chase), were pretty fun and challenging additions to the game! I didn't really care much for the "Square Fights Back" (arena) mode but others may enjoy it! I can't believe I missed that first C-C-C-C-Cube though! I went through each level like 3 or 4 times before I found it. >_< And there's literally NO Achievements Guides anywhere on the Internet nor Steam. But I did find 48/50 of them on the first play-through so they were pretty easy to find! :) Funny story: I guess because of my setup, when I was first streaming this game in full screen mode my square was moving in like a "Low Gravity" pace while the rest of the game was going normal speed so originally I was incredibly frustrated with the game because I got to level 52 [spoiler](out of 67)[/spoiler] and this level seemed impossible! I went to the Steam Store page and watched the trailer to see how fast the square was supposed to move and was so confused. So I went back into the game and just for kicks and giggles put it in windowed mode and sure enough my square started RACING! I was also experiencing some odd enemy glitches in the game but that also corrected itself in windowed mode. And then furthermore when I ended the stream the game ran SEAMLESS, which is crazy because I was literally a second away from writing a SCATHING review, but turns out it was my fault LOL! Nothing wrong with the game! Overall worth a playthrough! Can't wait to try the Prologue and Vol. 2! I got the 3 game bundle on sale for $5.83 and so far definitely seems worth it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4kEkCKqdTY

Genre: -Neon 2d precision platformer Fit for me: -Perfect fit, favorite genre! Pros: -Very slick, futuristic neon style and aesthetic -Very dynamic and fast platformer -Good difficulty curve that slowly builds up your confidence and skill -Kept it simple w/ a run option and jumping off walls being the only mechanics -Smart, challenging AI around every corner lurking for you -It's dirt cheap starting at $5, and on sale for under 3$ all the time. -Upbeat soundtrack matches the environment well Cons: -Camera angle is way too close making it easy to fall right into death traps, enemies, etc -Combining the zoomed in camera w/ a need to always be moving as fast as possible amplifies this problem of falling into objects b/c you didn't see them until the last second -Environment is all very similar looking and it becomes hard to differentiate from levels -Gets pretty chaotic late game w/ enemies and projectiles flying all over the map. Again, I think a more zoomed out camera angle would give you a greater sense of control when avoiding the many projectiles on screen -It sometimes feels like luck is the deciding factor when avoiding all enemies and jumping rapidly forward. -It gave me a bit of a headache w/ the firework-like colors flashing on screen all the time. -Not as responsive as I'd like from a precision platformer Thoughts: -It's tough to recommend this one being that there are so many incredible platformers on the market. I played it for under 2 hrs and achieved over 44 of the 63 achievements so I think I've given this game a fair shot before moving on. Consensus: -Bottom Shelf Game (Tier 5 and makes up 10% of my reviews). There are a bunch of great platformers w/ a similar aesthetic such as Octehdron, Q: A Neon Platformer, and Super Lumi Live but are all significantly better games across the board. Try those before giving this one a try.

Flatland is undiluted synthwave in game form, Kaizo platforming goodness. Expect to die many times until you learn to think and act as the game expects you to for that map, and thrive whenever you position and time everything correctly. By managing expectations and not giving up, you'll keep advancing throughout the game, which is all meat, no filler. Bring the mentality from Dark Souls with you, you'll need it.

Update: I ended up giving the second game in the series a shot because based on the trailer it looked much better. And it ended up being SIGNIFICANTLY better than this game in almost every possible way. Would strongly suggest you buy/play that game instead, "Flatland Vol 2". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Not even remotely "hardcore". The game is in fact pretty easy, and only really starts to get challenging near the VERY end because of limited visibility due to the extremely zoomed in camera and cheap deaths. I finished the main game with 35/50 secrets collected in only 30 minutes. There are additional modes you can unlock that add some more possible playtime, but they aren't interesting enough to fix the many flaws with the base game. Major negatives -If you use a controller, it will be constantly "rumbling" and there is no way to turn it off, it rumbles every time you jump and land or get shot etc. AKA it will be rumbling nearly 80% of the time you play. -There are secrets and a level select screen, but no way to see where the secrets are or what levels they are on? Levels aren't nearly interesting enough to actually motivate someone to "explore" the entire game looking for what they missed. -For a minimalist platformer, they needed to nail the movement. And they didn't. There is almost no reason not to always hold the run button, so you are simply obligated to hold the run button down manually the whole game for no apparent reason, running should be the default mode. When you stick to a wall there is no way to pull away from the wall without jumping off. -For some reason when you are running it removes your ability to "short hop" and always makes you do the biggest possible hop. Might be a intentional mechanic, but feels like an unintended bug and is annoying either way. -The level design is very repetitive visually/mechanically and the few mechanics introduced don't really change much. -As mentioned at the top, the game is incredibly short and aside from the very end, is very easy. Especially for a game describing itself as "hardcore". -It IS possible for a 30 minute game to be worth 5$, but this isn't the game.....not even close. Here is a short list of other "level based platformers" that are SIGNIFICANTLY more worth your time and money. (Some more than others) All of which have, and will eventually, go on sale for 5$ or less. So add them to your wishlist and buy them instead. 10 second Ninja X Blitz Breaker Celeste Duck Souls Electronic Super joy 1&2 The End is Nigh LOVE 1&2 Octahedron Pinkman Plug Me Prompt Rayman Legends Splasher Super Dangerous Dungeons Super Life of Pixel Super Meat Boy To be fair, "Flatland Vol.2" (the sequel to this game) looks like an improvement in many ways over this game, so that one may be worth giving a shot. I would 100% skip out on this 1st one though, you won't be missing anything, trust me lmao.