‘God of War?' Maybe later, this indie game has captured my attention

You are probably about to shout at your screen, “What? How can you skip 'God of War'?!" Well, hear me out. Amid a busy schedule riddled with work, school, and who knows what else life wants to throw at me, I decided to play a game that I could play casually and with ease, hopping in and out of it when I had the time. Yet it was something that I could also enjoy, by myself, without needing to break out of my lone wolf bubble. I am looking at you, “Fortnite.”

Well, that was not the case. Not for the worse, but for the better.

Released only digitally for the current PlayStation Platforms, I was intrigued to give it a shot since I saw that not many people had given it a concrete rating in the PlayStation Store.

It did not take me even ten minutes, and I was already hooked. If I had known what the word “Iconoclasts” meant from the very beginning, I would have been confused as hell as to what religion has to do with this game. Boy, oh Boy, does this game have a deep story. I am getting ahead of myself. Let's start with what captivated me the most.

The soundtrack

Just listening to the game's opening level background soundtrack makes any gloomy day feel from the distant past. The game's opening track deceives you into thinking this will be the happiest and most harmless journey of the protagonist's life. “Robin (Block Rock)” (also the name of the protagonist) does a great job of letting us connect with her naive, but adventurous, spirit.

Yet, just as the story begins to take a rather mysterious and ominous path, so does the tracks sync to the story's clouded mystery.

The appearance of two Agents to Robin change the game's uplifting track to a more serious one. Every time I hear claps and a noir-like style track, I immediately know of the presence of the Agents.

One of my favorite tracks perfectly encapsulates the tragic situation in which a character was put in, but also is a clear example of how the story progressed from a cheery tone to moments of sorrow and terrible situations. There are instances when the game does not feature even a single track during pivotal moments, but you would not even notice the absence of the soundtrack, because of how good the story is, and it is especially this aspect, that the game does best to envelop your attention.

The story

"Well, what about the meat? The heart of the game, the story?" Yeah, I believe you already got my point that the soundtrack is amazing. So, I will go ahead and give you a sneak peek at the story, which is the shining star. So, as I previously said, this game leads you to believe this will be a lighthearted journey.

You take control of a girl with her trusty wrench and her wrench-like hairstyle named Robin. Her hobby as a mechanic is deemed a sin by the higher authorities of this world, who are called the Agents. To not spoil the game too much, you begin to traverse around the world, meeting an assortment of characters each with their own defining personality, but you soon find out that there are more layers of personality to peel from these characters.

For example, simply describing Robin's brother as overprotective, would be a simplification, or better yet, describing the Agents as mysterious. Just as the levels are full of secrets to decipher, so do the characters. The storytelling of this game benefits from touching simple themes such as friendship to more moralistic and dubious ones that relate to religion. As you could already foretell, the story is heavy on religious themes and does not shy away from telling a story of religion vs. the public, or rather those who use religion to their convenience. The heaviness of the religious theme is also displayed on the design of the levels and the enemies.

The gameplay

This is a game after all, so it would be a sin (get it?) of me not to talk about the gameplay.

For as complex as the story can be, the same cannot be said for the gameplay, but it is not a bad thing at all. While the call back to classic games with its 16-bit design and Metroidvania style levels could deviate modern players to give it a chance, I believe that it adds greatly to this innocent theme that the game plays with. The puzzles won't break your sanity, but they are rather fun and simple. Furthermore, with your trusty wrench, you turn screws to open doors, flip away enemies and as you progress through the story, your wrench is given new additions. The real challenge is not the puzzles or the level enemies but rather the bosses. This game adds great emphasis to the bosses and each one of them you must solve how to defeat them.

If there is anything that I would complain about the gameplay would be the puzzles. As I mentioned earlier, the puzzles are simple and if anything, I would have liked if they were a bit more challenging to decipher.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to have so much fun with an indie game. From a soundtrack that makes your foot tap along to a story that is complex beyond what the eyes see, I would say I can find myself replaying it over again. If you are either short on money or want something as equally as captivating as a "Metroid” game, then I simply would say: But it.

If anything, show your support for indie games. This is an example of how the best games are not necessarily always AAA games.