Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve played a game so bad I’ve paused the game to immediate start writing the review, but I didn’t want to take the chance that some unsuspecting gamer might actually waste their money on Illusoria. If this were Early Access I might have been more forgiving, but this is a fully released product, and while it is only $10 that doesn’t forgive it for being one of the worst platform games I’ve played in years.
Problems start right from the main menu when the game opens in Spanish, so hopefully you can navigate to the options menu and find the word Idioma to switch to English – unless Spanish is your native language then no tendrás ningún problema. Illusoria supports a gamepad but there are no controller diagrams, only A, B and C control schemes, so you have no idea what buttons do what. The controls are integrated into the background art of the game, which is cute enough until you get ten minutes into the game and find out the default controls SUCK and you want to experiment with B and C options but have no idea what those are.
The two most glaring issues with the controls are you need to hold X to run and then tap A to jump and press UP on the stick to grab a ledge. There are many situations where after grabbing a ledge you need to crouch-roll but if you don’t take at least one step away from the ledge first you can lower down and fall to your death quite easily. Your character also has the nasty habit of sliding to a stop after releasing the stick – I’m talking a full body width slide that will send you to your untimely death dozens of times until you figure out the timing.
I’ll be totally honest; the review is based on limited content experienced in the game. We were somewhere in the first level when we got to this action Indiana Jones scene where we were getting chased by a rockslide, forced to run to the right past all sorts of obstacles. The problem here is that the screen scrolls at a fixed rate – much slower than you can run, so you would get to a point and have to wait for the screen to catch up. If you tried jumping across a spike pit before the opposite side scrolled into view you will hit an invisible wall and fall to your death. Meanwhile you are dodging acid-spitting plants and tapping your foot as giant rocks are tumbling toward you waiting for the screen to advance. I spent 20 minutes trying to get past this one section then handed the controls off to two other staff gamers. Nobody could get past this point and I’m talking three “experienced” gamers. As frustration grew I decided to stop the review process to avoid a broken controller or even worse, the TV.
I can’t recall a game that was instantly classified as unplayable by multiple reviewers within the first 20 minutes of the game. And it’s just not the horrible controls that were responsible, but when combined with the ridiculously slow scrolling of the scenery, especially when part of an action sequence that should be designed around rhythmic timing and precision movement, Illusoria just fails as a platformer and a game – at least that is our opinion after 60 minutes of trying to play 20 minutes of the game.
Falling somewhere between contemporary art and pixel art, Illusoria has its own signature art style that ultimately becomes it’s only redeeming factor, and even that is restricted to the colorful backgrounds and charming designs of the characters. It might take a few minutes to get used to the jerky sprite-like animation not unlike old-school 16-bit Sonic, but the one thing that stood out for me was the sloppy texture mapping where the seams of the background panels didn’t line up properly. Rocks and other patterns had obvious lines and broken continuity, like somebody put up wallpaper but didn’t line the pattern up between sheets. Colors are bright and everything seems extra-large like this was “designed as junior’s first platformer”, but with these horrible controls no kid or adult will tolerate trying to play this game. There are also some grisly death sequences that may disturb really young gamers.
I really enjoyed the stunning full screen art panels for the story elements and the excellent score by Victor Riera, although for most of the game the music drops away leaving you with only environmental sounds and any specific effects for the on-screen hazards. The music will kick in for specific events like that brutal rock slide sequence my guy is STILL trying to get past as I type this. The entire sound design is quite nice, although there is no dialog or narration so prepare for a lot of reading if you care about the story.
Illusoria has only been out a couple days so maybe there is still hope for a patch that can fix the controls or at least allow us to custom-bind them. Other issues like fixed scroll rates during action scenes are more serious and simply unforgivable in a modern platformer. We’ll keep an eye on this and perhaps revisit and update our score if things change, but for now I recommend you avoid this game. There are so many better options for your $10.
