Size: 700MB
Players: 1
Forma.8 is a placid sci-fi exploration adventure that sees a bunch of spherical probe droids launched at a new planet. Our drone lands rather roughly inside some strange alien architecture. With a slight headache and glow in the dark eyes, it soon reveals a strange ecosystem that is a joy to explore.
Narrow caves give way to enormous landscapes with the smooth zoom in and out leaving you as a dot on the landscape. Life teems around the underground pools of water or lava, and tech-laden metallic passages hint that not all is as it seems.
With an ambient soundtrack, impressive and eerie soundscape, dramatic lighting, the droid floats around powered by a gas jet that leaves a neat ion trail that gets wonky as you pick up damage. Early obstacles are overcome with a little nudging and experimentation. Later on, it can pick up some skills that might be classed as weapons, but aren't as clumsy or random as a blaster. Collecting nuts hidden in dark corners is a must to get the extra items, like a disguise kit, that will open up all areas of the game.
Forma.8 plays with some back and forth, and pick-up upgrades an essential for completion. But, with its largely pacifist stance, you can enjoy the ride more, and worry less about much of the local wildlife, bar a few major obstacles. There are glowing orbs of energy to keep the drone powered up and healthy, and plenty of little secrets to find.
The major obstacles usually consist of a large alien or security system that has to be beaten or escaped. The first one is a large spider with a doom-laden red eye and a repulsor skill. Nearby flying bugs were dropping from a pod, so I guessed you needed to feed them to the creature to distract it. That didn't work, so I tried hiding in the grass to see if it would lose interest - no dice. Then, I tried blowing up its exposed legs, many, many times.
In the end you only needed to push your little demolition charges at the eye, but I wasted a fair while working that out. I solved it by accident in the end, having expected a more nuanced solution from such a beautiful game! And of course, the next monster along, I tried everything apart from the feeding it flying bugs, which was the correct solution, doh!
Fortunately, most of forma.8 is a glorious travelogue through an alien landscape, trying to find the secrets it holds and gleaning any meaning you can from them. A glorious ambient soundtrack adds to the air of mystery while its minimalist interface keeps clutter off the screen.
A basic map shows where to head next, but the route is often circuitous, or inaccessible without picking up a new skill, so this isn't really a game for arcade freaks. Learning forma.8's mysteries is all part of the fun and once you get to the end, you'll probably want to complete the game properly to see the range of endings and any elusive secrets left to find.
Score: 5/5
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