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OK, I've decided as I'm more of a PC gamer, and I tend towards indie games, last gen game and relative unknowns, that I would review games I've been playing recently for you good people at NGU. The first is Capsized.

- Capsized Review -

Capsized is a puzzle platformer exclusive to Steam on PC. Now, when most people think puzzle platformer they think "slow, methodical, ponderous". Not this game. This game shares a lot in common with a twin stick shooter in that you'll spend a lot of your time gunning down the hordes of alien creatures trying to kill you. Still what makes this game interesting is that you can develop actual skill at this game.

Story - This game is in many ways remeniscent of an old 16-bit game, as such the story is bare bones, but that's a good thing. You're some kind of spaceman in a capsule that crash-lands on an alien planet. As one of the only survivors in your capsual you need to find other survivors, and other intack escape capsules in the hope that you'll find one with a working transmission becon so you can contact home. However the planet is hostile... a simple story but worthwhile.

Graphics - The 2D graphics are nicely drawn and well animated, you can make out where everything is and the setting naturally allows for hidden passages and hidden enemies without it seeming cheap. All in all this is a rather beautiful game and it plays very smoothy. If you've played Terraria you'll find the graphics similar but much more detailed.

Gameplay - The gameplay is really where this game is at. Set on a low gravity planet you can jump high, wall jump, stick to walls, and have a lot of control over where you go and how you move. With the gravity gun that allows you to shoot an energy grapple the options are endless, you can use this grapple to basically swing like spiderman though the level, move large objects to make passageways and even pick up the smaller objects and throw them around like the gravity gun in Half-Life 2. The second mode for the gravity gun creates a blast. This can be used to attack enemies, but it's not the idea. With this blast you can destroy some items, force others to go flying in a direction or use it to propel yourself. Aim it at the floor and you go shooting upwards, aim it at the wall and you go flying backwards. Master this gun and the maneuvering in zero gravity becomes a true game of skill. This combined with a large variety of guns, from machineguns, flamethrowers, blasters, lasers etc for attacking the aliens and you have a great variety to work with.

Controls - This game is designed to work with the Wired Xbox 360 controller, which is how I played it. The left analogue stick controls movement, with up as jump. It take a little getting used to but after a while you can see just how natural it feels. Still if you'd prefer, you can set jump to a button. I did this and ended up changing it back because having up as jump means you can react faster when being attacked by the aliens. You aim with the right analogue stick, just as in Geometry Wars or other twin-stick shooters, which makes this very natural as a shooter. The right trigger and bumper is your gun and it's secondary fire mode, with the left trigger and bumper being for the gravity gun. With the controls like this, you never need to take your thumbs off the analogue sticks so you're always able to move and aim with split second timing.

Conclusion - This is a genuinely fun game. I've spent 3 hours playing it so far, which for an indie game, and a puzzle platformer is quite a decent amount of gameplay considering I've not actually completed it yet. I'd estimate about 4 hours long for this game, and at a price of only £6 on Steam it's certainly worth the price.

Actual work is a delicacy on this site. Thanks for the great review.

Glad you liked it, I'm planning on doing regular reviews as I'm using Steam a lot now and I like to get the names of the lesser known titles out there.