Environmental Station Alpha Reviews

I enjoyed the "A" game enough, but lacked the patience for the "B" game (see Animal Well). As purely a simple Metroidvania, it's alright; probably exciting at the time of its release but subsequently outshone but other titles IMO. There are a number of game design decisions (that I won't rehash because others have done it plenty) which will probably frustrate normies. The true YMMV part is that, if you love cryptic puzzles that require you to traverse the same maps hundreds of times, this will probably become one your favorite games of all time (if it isn't already). For the rest of us, assuming you can put up with some jank, it's worth getting on sale like I did.

I pushed through to finish it (at least the basic ending), but I get the feeling the devs don't understand metroidvanias or what players in the genre are looking for. First of all, exploration is highly discouraged in the early and mid-game. So many times I was excited to have found a powerup and nothing came of it. "Oh I can destroy blue blocks now, I know a spot with some around the starting area". Well immediately after those blue blocks, on a different screen, are red blocks and you can't destroy those yet. Repeat this a couple hundred times, but maybe they're gold blocks or something that needs a dash booster or whatever. There's not even that many health tanks and most upgrades are tied to bosses, so it's like they expected you to play a boss rush and then a metroidvania later. You might think, then, that by end game all problems would be gone, however the end game is also unfun because map traversal is unfun. The map is absolutely covered in one-way paths. Blocks and ledges that only let you in from one way, long pits, toggle blocks that lock your way back. Your map is almost useless because it marks which rooms are connected, but not which direction they let you travel. As you progress in the game you actually [i]close off[/i] more of the map, specifically when you [spoiler]trigger the plant overgrowths[/spoiler] and [spoiler]activate the main generator and the security doors it powers[/spoiler]. It's pretty baffling to mark an area you wanted to explore later and then get locked out of it as soon as you have the power you think you need. I didn't really feel much for the bosses either. Most of them are pretty simple, but then they keep getting more and more phases and expecting you to use i-frames for attacks instead of just maneuvering right. The final boss has [spoiler]four phases[/spoiler] and I could no hit all but the last, only to die rapidly to the final phase until I figured out it was trying to force a specific tempo out of me. It really feels like the devs' strengths lie in neat-looking environments and numerous bosses, however they don't have the genre sensibility to make a metroidvania. Maybe they would have been better off making a boss rush game like Alien Soldier.

Pretty fun Metroidvania, love the atmosphere and the exploration is great for the most part. I did manage to get lost at some points and the difficulty didn't feel quite right for my taste but it's definitely worth a playthrough! There's quite a lot of stuff to do postgame too, if you're willing to dig deep enough to figure out all the secrets which is also really cool.

An honest review here... I really wanted to enjoy this game... It is a really competent metroidvania but it is constantly trying to difficult your progress... My felling playing it was imagining the devs laughing at me at every rooms i passed and found an obstacle that cannot surpass... I am not judging its difficulty, a game can be difficult and be nice and challeging to play... I got really frustrated to trying for 10 minutes to reach a room, just to find it was not reachable, or a gate shut down in front of me or an immortal enemy is blocking it... It was not once or twice, it has been 13 hours of this... I played 80% of the game and had to drop it cause playing it made me frustated and angry... I cannot recommend it abd it is a pitty... It could be a really awesome metroidvania...

This is a hard one. The game shows some brilliant aspects, but also terrible ones. *Note that I did not play 100+h, I just left the game running/forgot to close it. The good: The gameplay is nice and responsive. Controls feel tight. The music is pretty nice. The sound effects will get on your nerves, such as the loud plinking when you hit something immune to your shots. The game is relatively vast, with a lot to explore, and multiple unique bosses. The bad: The difficulty: I rarely complain about games being too hard, but this one is built different. I made the mistake of playing on normal, because I like a challenge. It is not normal, it is hard/very hard. You are going to need to practice bosses. You will die, until you memorise patterns. When the speed runners play on easy only, you know you messed up your difficulty. As far as I know, you can't tap out and say fine downgrade me to easy. you have to restart from the beginning. Despite that, I finished the game (regular ending), but I was very frustrated in the end. A lot of bosses feel outright unfair, and I don't want to spend hours on boss fights on my first run. if I did, I would ask for a no hit/hard mode. The map: The game has a map that is rather rudimentary. It does not note secret passages you find. It notes collectables you see, but there is no distinction between something you collected or not, so enjoy revisiting a place only to see you already collected the item. The "exploration": The game is a metroidvania, so the formula is classic, explore, get a power-up that gives you access to new regions, and then do it again. The problem here is the map (mentioned above), and the fact that often you are not even told what has been unlocked by killing certain bosses (enjoying walking all over the map around to find out!). In all honesty, getting to the first ending is mildly annoying, not too bad. But anything past that... at some point I just opened up a guide to figure out what I was missing, after hours of just roaming around the map and testing every little nook. Basically I was nowhere near close, some of the stuff I would have to do I just would never have found. So I guess if you enjoy playing a game with a guide, this may work for you. Unfair bosses and areas: Some bosses are plain unfair, the attack patterns are often a bit too random, and unless you know how to manipulate the AI, you can't dodge all hits, and you don't have much health. Most hidden passages are entirely invisible, no hints, no crack in the wall, nothing. So you just have to shoot /bash your face at every, single, wall. That's definitely not an interesting aspect, it's just tedious. Some areas and enemies will even disable your hard earned power-ups, for extra frustration. If it was just one boss as a gimmick I'd say ok, but it gets pretty regular by the end. And finally, inconsistent design. For example, there are yellow bricks in the game. you wonder how to get past them. Then you see that they sometimes disappear under certain circumstances. So you think ok.. yellow bricks, I need to do something on the level. But nop, those are just some of the yellow bricks, you actually need something else to get past these bricks. Some enemies you shoot and do 0 damage... oh but wait, if you shoot them for a different angle now you damage them. and there is nothing showing that. Again, it's like the game is meant to be played with a guide, because it works too hard to obfuscate its mechanics. The game could have been great, but in the end, I just felt frustrated, and gave up on the game, so I have to give it a thumb down.

So far, this is a solid metroidvania with a focus on exploration and puzzles. It has a metroid-like atmosphere that I like quite a bit.

what an amazing game. visuals were gorgeous and have been inspiring me to work more on pixel art. the sfx are phenomenal, and i could not play this without headphones because of it. and, of course, the music just elevates this game further. i cleared this game on normal, and... honestly, i wish i did it on easy! i enjoy exploration a lot more than challenge, and i always felt relief more than satisfaction when bursting a boss. by the time i realised i should have done it, i was more than halfway through the game. i really do not enjoy feeling shaky playing a game! usually the intended difficulty isn't so intense! i've admired this game from afar for ages, but finally dipped into it and i'm happy i did!

A cool little Metroid-like in the pico 8 graphical style. It's basically Metroid (without the vania), so if you want that then you should like this. I'm enjoying it so far. Nice music too. The controls are a bit clunky, but not terrible. If you go into it with expectations of a small indie title then you shouldn't be disappointed. I picked it up on sale for $3.37 which was a great deal. Definitely worth the get if it's on sale again for under $5.

this game deserves more recognition. one of the most interesting mysteries ive had the pleasure of (partly) solving, with a ton of fun platforming with the viscerally satisfying hookshot accompanied by gorgeous low resolution pixel art and an incredible soundtrack. the only fault i can attribute to this game is the difficulty in some later sections (especially the post game area and the spike maze), but the easy mode makes these sections very tolerable. very excited for the sequel!!

I'm just writing a review because this game doesn't deserve the mixed rating it has. There's nothing wrong or terrible in this game that isn't a staple of the genre. Sure, it has an exception: its extremely tedious post-game, but none of the people who wrote negative reviews even came close to getting there. I think almost everything in this game was designed on the premise that you would sit and think before tackling a challenge, be it a boss, puzzle or just traversal in general. So in that sense, everything is pretty straightforward. You just need practice. But I admit that if you can't pull that off, then there is no accessibility options within the game that will help you. In that case maybe try again later once you beat a few more platformers. So how hard is the game? If you can beat halfway nes games like castlevania, ninja gaiden or ghoul's n goblins, you can beat this. And if you're a super metroid fan, this game is right up your alley.