Dark Water : Slime Invader Reviews

This is a puzzle platformer sprinkled with a little bit of combat. Combat is not the focus. The basis of the game is that you have to get grandma to the end the level, and collect enough stars to open the final door. Grandma cannot jump and move like your character which means some areas grandma will be stuck. You'll have to go forward to find a level or something similar to allow grandma to be able to progress. The graphics are simple, but look really good for this type of game. The controls are tight, movements are fluid, and there is some limited use of bullet time for the little bit of combat that there is. The sounds is not amazing, but is good enough for this type of game. The game does have some background music. Curiously, you can only turn it down so far. For this type of game, I usually keep the music going, but make it soft enough that it's still there but not dominating the game sounds. With this game, the softest background music level you can set is still louder than what I would expect. The main challenge with this game is that it will let you screw up. You can get to the end of the level, with all the needed stars but without grandma. You cannot get back to grandma and have to restart the whole level from scratch. While playing, there are mini saves within the levels but you can only restart from the last one ticked. If that was past the "mistake", you have to start the whole level over. For me, I dislike games that allow the player to get into a no win situation. These are supposed to be "fun". Outside of that, I do think it's a well done puzzle platformer. For those who play on handhelds, this works perfectly on the Steam Deck. The characters are not too small and you can see all the details needed. It does not require a lot of processing power so you can get really good battery life with a little TDP adjustments. There are some loading sequences that do not have screen animations which make you wonder if its loading. Just be patient.

The protagonist's village is invaded by slimes. The redhead archer girl and grandmother need to defeat the slimes, navigate loads of spike traps, and find the evil at its source to stop the slimes. The game is a puzzle platformer. In certain levels you play as a the grandmother, who can't attack, but can float. The game features boss levels, that are chase sequences, akin to the original Ori. There are a lot of extra skills to find in the hidden nooks of the map, as well as many, MANY, hidden “little stars” for the completionists. The platforming can get frustrating, and there's certainly some trial and error involved, but nothing was bad enough to make me want to quit. The story is delivered via comic panels cutscenes that make everything easy to follow. The game is essentially non-verbal, but this doesn't diminish anything. Overall, a pretty polished puzzle platformer with more than enough content. Well worth the asking price.