Felix The Reaper is a grasp of distraction. Instead of creating him rush to maneuver shadows about so he can arrange elaborately deadly traps, all I need to do is watch this chubby lil’ reaper bust limitless strikes to the beat of his Walkman. and I imply strikes: it will be ridiculous to name these “idle animations”, as a result of this groovin’ seller of demise merely by no means quits. He’s a continuous boogie machine, and watching him strut his stuff throughout the game’s tiled puzzlescapes is well probably the most charming a part of all of it.
But as I stated, it’s all a distraction: a cute however crafty smokescreen to cover what’s in any other case a reasonably mundane, and sometimes irritating, puzzle game. There are some nice concepts right here to make certain. Even so, readability points, an over-reliance on harsh speedrun necessities to unlock later ranges. and a normal failure to construct on the game’s key puzzle parts in satisfying methods finally makes Felix really feel extra damned than divine.
I actually needed to love Felix. I actually did, if solely as a result of its central premise is totally killer. You’re a employee for the supernatural Ministry of Death, and in every of the game’s 5 chapters, you’re progressively constructing as much as the demise of an unsuspecting sufferer, ensuring every part and everyone seems to be in the appropriate place on the proper time to make the tragic occur.
The Ministry is a delicate operation, nevertheless, and its discipline brokers can’t simply go in scythes blazing. Instead, you’ve acquired to do your soiled work from the literal shadows, altering the route of the solar – and the issues in the best way of its rays – to create floor you’ll be able to stroll on. Once you’ve carved out these darkish areas, you employ them to scamper round and manipulate the surroundings in the direction of your grim desired consequence.
It’s Hitman by the use of The Witness, with every situation in a chapter progressively constructing on the one earlier than it till your goal meets their doom on the climax. And sure, I’m positive there are extra environment friendly strategies of killing a blind monk than tying him to a canine, roasting a ham after which shoving stated ham down a properly to ship each canine and monk to satisfy their maker… however the place can be the enjoyable in that?
It feels like Felix needs to be an absolute hoot, then. Sadly, nevertheless, the fact is so much much less entertaining. Part of the issue is that the central shadow-building conceit by no means actually progresses a lot past shifting, and infrequently stacking, a few choose objects per stage to create new pathways as you alternate the route of the solar. Sometimes there will likely be additional wrinkles within the type of levers and strain switches that transfer different bits of surroundings into new positions, thereby casting much more new shadows, however that’s kind of it.
This can be effective if every method was progressively layered up over the course of the chapters, however you’ve completed just about every part you’re ever going to do in Felix The Reaper by the center of chapter two. This finally ends up leaving later ranges feeling like bigger, baggier variations of what’s gone earlier than versus something new and thrilling. Indeed, some later ranges boil all the way down to inching barrels throughout the map tile by tile as you flip forwards and backwards between completely different solar positions.
The format of these later ranges will be troublesome to learn, too. You can swivel the digicam at any time utilizing the appropriate mouse button, or zoom in (painfully slowly) with the scroll wheel. Even then, although, it may be exhausting to inform whether or not a barely crumbled little bit of floor is definitely a gap or a navigable path. Similarly, coping with a number of objects (significantly throughout these inch-by-inch moments) will be an absolute nightmare, particularly when the angle of the digicam doesn’t fairly match as much as the tile it is advisable drop one thing on. For me, this resulted in loads of unintended or incorrect merchandise placements that had been tedious and irritating to appropriate, particularly when the one ‘undo’ perform rewinds you all the best way again to the final ‘milestone’ or puzzle checkpoint. Even utilizing undo, I bumped into points the place the game recognised I’d positioned objects appropriately, regardless of me having come at them from the flawed angle, leading to but extra awkward barrel shuffling as I tried to place issues proper.
Again, I wouldn’t have an issue with this if a lot of Felix’s replay worth didn’t depend upon performing tremendous environment friendly pace runs inside tremendous strict deadlines. Most irritatingly, you by no means learn about these deadlines prematurely of making an attempt a stage. Oh no. It’s solely on the finish of a job, if you get your discipline report rating card, that you simply’re advised what the necessities are for incomes bonus-level-unlocking reaper stamps. Not earlier than. Not throughout. AFTER.
That’s insanity so far as I’m involved, because it’s one more factor you’ve merely acquired to memorise (on prime of the variety of solar turns you’ll be able to carry out, the variety of instances you’re allowed to get caught within the solar if you make a mistake, the variety of tiles you’re allowed to journey over, and the variety of actions you’ll be able to carry out) in an effort to see every part the game has to supply. It’s not enjoyable being penalised for stuff you aren’t conscious of, neither is it significantly satisfying doing something towards the clock on this game, particularly when it includes such fiddly merchandise manoeuvring.
Indeed, it was usually faster to restart a whole stage than attempt to appropriate my errors, which simply made me really feel like much more of an imbecile than earlier than. Ultimately, all of it left me feeling cross – which is a disgrace, given how lovable and endearing Felix is as a personality. I’d bounce on the probability to play one other game with him within the lead function, particularly if it truly made use of his love of music (perhaps in a rhythm motion capability?) as a substitute of utilizing it as a neat factor to take a look at when you rage and froth at obtuse gentle puzzles.
Alas, his present outing simply doesn’t do it for me. Some of you’ll little doubt get a kick out of his speedrunning, memory-testing antics. For me, although, even Felix’s candy, candy dance strikes can’t throw the game’s obvious design flaws into shadow.
