If Tron made love to a puzzle game like Puzzle Quest, the love child would probably be something like Sp.A.I. Sp.A.I is a puzzle game with some platforming that takes place in a Tron like cyber world theme. It's a another game developed using the Unreal Dev Kit(I wrote about White recently) by a student group calling themselves //No Comment from Queensland University, Australia.
In Sp.A.I, you take control of Aiva, a hacking software that is design to get into the internet, and get past the security measures and save humanity. Apparently, in the future, he who controls the internet controls everyone, a plotline inspired by The Matrix. It’s a 3rd person game, which is something I don’t quite like since the camera can be a pain to control when you need to get through tight places(which you need to sometimes).
The puzzles work like this, you come across a firewall that needs to be hacked, it consists of lasers which you don’t want to trip(which will activate the alarm and security bots). There are blocks surrounding the firewall, which basically stops you from moving forward and there are many block types.
The transparent clear blocks are blocks you can shoot at and destroy. The blocks above fall one level down. These transparent blocks don’t stop lasers though which becomes the job of this other type of laser blocking yellow block. So you’ll want to shoot at the right block so these laser blocking block drops down to block the laser(phew I used way to many ‘blocks’ describing this).
And then there’s the damn platforming. God the platforming! There are gateways in the world of Sp.A.I that require a password. You can retrieve these from a file which you’ll physically have to go get and enter in the decryption area(all files are encrypted). This is where the game becomes a platforming game where you’ll need to get to the highest point to enter into the core of the file.
All neat ideas but the problem with the platforming is that it forces you to be extremely precise when the controls for this game in 3rd person is dodgy. A lot of the platforming is the type that requires you to jump right at the edge of your platform or fall down for the 100th time.
This is exacerbated with the fact that there is no save system(other than a check point system which puts you back in a recent check point location when you die). You wont die falling off a high platform, but the sheer frustration of doing so for the hundredth time might do you in.
There are also these floaty areas, where there is no gravity. You are floating around in what looks like liquid(on the internet) and you’ll have to dodge lasers that move around. Have I already said that the camera work is wonky? Well to be frank, there is no camera work, you control the camera position by using the mouse(it’s quite disorienting) and in these floaty areas you can move up and down by using spacebar and ctrl.
Sp.A.I is a nice little free indie game with some really intelligent use of the Tron/cyberspace theme. I really loved how they used computing or internet metaphors in the gameplay. It excites the inner nerd in me. Many things don’t translate as well though like the platforming and lack of good controls. But since this is a student project after all, I’m willing to look past its flaws. It’s a great concept game. If only the platforming was less frustrating.
Download Sp.A.I here
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