**Game:** Supraland
**Overall Rating:** 7.5-8/10
**Gameplay Rating:** 8.5-9/10
**World/Level Design Rating:** 8-8.5/10
**Writing Rating:** 5/10
**Technical Rating:** 7/10
**Graphical Rating:** 7.5/10
**What is the game?** Supraland is a first-person metroidvania-style puzzle platformer. The best quick-comparison I have is that it's Metroid Prime + Portal. The game focuses mainly on exploration + platforming and puzzle-solving, with combat primarily serving to break up the puzzles.

**Core Gameplay (+ Puzzles)**
At its core, Supraland is a puzzle game. You will spend the majority of your time trying to solve puzzles. These puzzles are sometimes clearly marked, other times navigating a specific environment is the puzzle. Puzzles consist primarily of attempting to either reach difficult-to-access areas to press buttons (which will permanently open the way, you almost never have to re-solve puzzles), or finding a way to activate various special switches that require more than a press to use.

Puzzles are solved primarily using your tools that you receive throughout the game (most of which double as weapons). Puzzles are generally quite well designed and feel satisfying to solve. There were very few areas I legitimately felt confused or stuck, and several of them ended up being me massively overcomplicating a simple solution. Puzzles become quite challenging by the end of the game, requiring usage of most or all of your tools.

Supraland goes by a philosophy that the difficulty of a puzzle should be mentally solving it and understanding the idea behind it, not executing the solution. Most puzzles only take 20-30 seconds to solve once you figure them out and have minimal execution challenge, which I think really helps prevent them from getting overbearing. There is one specific exception in Carrot Town, a late part of the game, that has rather obnoxious execution that frustrated me.

Metroidvanias often struggle with getting upgrades that rapidly become meaningless once you clear the area you get them, occasionally using them to get a small upgrade and that’s it. Supraland does not struggle with this. You will use everything you get from the time you get it until the end of the game.

**Combat**

Combat is the lesser element of the game, and primarily serves to break up monotony and give upgrades a purpose. I hope future installments expand on the combat further, to give upgrades more meaning and to encourage use of different weapons instead of just shooting everything. Combat is fast paced but simple, consisting of running and jumping around simple enemies. It is described as “quake-like” by the game, and while that isn’t inaccurate it lacks the technical depth of Quake combat and lacks challenge and variety. The two bosses are neat, acting as puzzles more than fights, though the final boss has non-gameplay issues.

**Exploration, The World, and Platforming**

This is the other main element of the game, and is generally very solid all around. Exploration consists of navigating the literal magical sandbox world (complete with “giant” actually normal sized kid!). There are a handful of main areas.

Fast Travel is present (and very welcome) but consists entirely of physical travel. No teleporting across the map here. You will be able to activate various jump pads during the game that when used, will fling you across massive chunks of the map at once, allowing you to quickly travel between areas. This is technically impressive since extremely little slowdown is noticed during it, and is enjoyable as well as it allows you to get a sense of scale of the world and can also be useful for remembering things you need to go back and do later. You will also occasionally find pipes you can unlock, which will allow you to quickly travel between two physically nearby areas.

Platforming is responsive and enjoyable, if a bit simplistic. Most platforming sections don’t make use of your tools much, as the platforming is built into the world itself for the most part. Controls feel good and are floaty enough to have weight but I almost never found myself overshooting or undershooting jumps.

The main flaw that Exploration has is the “out of bounds” secret hunting. Since the entire world is a physical location, you can reach almost literally every part of it with the right movement and tools. This includes the tops of areas, random nooks and crannies on walls, and the connectors between areas, which you normally can’t access. You almost never hit an invisible wall. This would be neat, except for one problem.

The game hides numerous secrets in these awkward to reach random areas. Many of which require such awkward movements and wall-hugging you feel like there’s absolutely no way you’re supposed to be doing this, only to randomly stumble upon a chest or a bunch of coins. The developer seemed to be aware this wouldn’t be supremely popular, as the stuff found in these secrets is ALL extremely minor. +1 damage, +5 Max HP, a bundle of coins, etc. This element of the game is poor. I sincerely hope in future titles this “mechanic” is either properly expanded on to be less annoying and feel less like you’re breaking the game, or removed entirely. The only thing that makes this tolerable is the fact you get a Chest Detector at the end of the game, and there’s several upgrades you can get for it after beating the game.

**Writing**

It’s incredibly average. There’s nothing to really write home about here.

The basic story is that you’re a Red who lives in Red Town, the son of the King and Queen. Your water suddenly runs dry. You go down to investigate and spot some Blues destroying your Water Pipe. The rest of the game consists of trying to reach Blueville and figure out why the Blues destroyed your water pipe, and then solving the actual issue after you figure that out. The story is incredibly basic and primarily serves as a reason for the gameplay to happen, which is fine. The worldbuilding is pretty minimal, though the actual world is pretty interesting since it’s a giant magical sandbox.

The actual moment-to-moment dialog is the reason I rate this low. The majority of it is nothing with meta jokes and references thrown in. Good lord this game has so many random references. From helping Minecraft Steve get a diamond pickaxe to stealing meth from Walter White to taking hair off of “Him-man”. They don’t help the game at all and get a little tiring, though they at least don’t affect gameplay. At the end of the game, the humor becomes rather scatological, which drives my opinion of the writing even lower.

**Technical and Graphics**

The game is technically competent though nothing special, and the graphics are much the same. The game runs acceptably most of the time though certain areas can chug a little. I’m fairly certain I had at least one puzzle solution break on me, though the game’s mobility systems are robust enough I was able to bypass it. I got softlocked one time while doing the aforementioned secret hunting. At one point a story sequence broke, but reloading a save fixed it.

The graphics are a bit “Stock UE4”, but are passable. I do wish things were more stylized overall. I enjoy the fact that most of the environment is everyday objects that seem gigantic because you’re a tiny stickman. The enemies are definitely the most glaring artistic outlier, being so much of one a friend of mine who watched me stream the early areas thought they were a stock asset from the UE4 store. Bloom is vastly overdone and contributes to that “Stock UE4” look.

Overall, these aspects of the game are pretty impressive given the vast majority of the game was made by one person. Props to ya’.

**Conclusion**

Overall, I greatly enjoyed Supraland. While it definitely has its flaws and shortcomings, I would not hesitate to recommend this game to a friend who is interested or has shown interest in similar games before. Though, I might warn them to not waste time looking for obscure secrets.

**Game:** Supraland **Overall Rating:** 7.5-8/10 **Gameplay Rating:** 8.5-9/10 **World/Level Design Rating:** 8-8.5/10 **Writing Rating:** 5/10 **Technical Rating:** 7/10 **Graphical Rating:** 7.5/10 **What is the game?** Supraland is a first-person metroidvania-style puzzle platformer. The best quick-comparison I have is that it's Metroid Prime + Portal. The game focuses mainly on exploration + platforming and puzzle-solving, with combat primarily serving to break up the puzzles. **Core Gameplay (+ Puzzles)** At its core, Supraland is a puzzle game. You will spend the majority of your time trying to solve puzzles. These puzzles are sometimes clearly marked, other times navigating a specific environment is the puzzle. Puzzles consist primarily of attempting to either reach difficult-to-access areas to press buttons (which will permanently open the way, you almost never have to re-solve puzzles), or finding a way to activate various special switches that require more than a press to use. Puzzles are solved primarily using your tools that you receive throughout the game (most of which double as weapons). Puzzles are generally quite well designed and feel satisfying to solve. There were very few areas I legitimately felt confused or stuck, and several of them ended up being me massively overcomplicating a simple solution. Puzzles become quite challenging by the end of the game, requiring usage of most or all of your tools. Supraland goes by a philosophy that the difficulty of a puzzle should be mentally solving it and understanding the idea behind it, not executing the solution. Most puzzles only take 20-30 seconds to solve once you figure them out and have minimal execution challenge, which I think really helps prevent them from getting overbearing. There is one specific exception in Carrot Town, a late part of the game, that has rather obnoxious execution that frustrated me. Metroidvanias often struggle with getting upgrades that rapidly become meaningless once you clear the area you get them, occasionally using them to get a small upgrade and that’s it. Supraland does not struggle with this. You will use everything you get from the time you get it until the end of the game. **Combat** Combat is the lesser element of the game, and primarily serves to break up monotony and give upgrades a purpose. I hope future installments expand on the combat further, to give upgrades more meaning and to encourage use of different weapons instead of just shooting everything. Combat is fast paced but simple, consisting of running and jumping around simple enemies. It is described as “quake-like” by the game, and while that isn’t inaccurate it lacks the technical depth of Quake combat and lacks challenge and variety. The two bosses are neat, acting as puzzles more than fights, though the final boss has non-gameplay issues. **Exploration, The World, and Platforming** This is the other main element of the game, and is generally very solid all around. Exploration consists of navigating the literal magical sandbox world (complete with “giant” actually normal sized kid!). There are a handful of main areas. Fast Travel is present (and very welcome) but consists entirely of physical travel. No teleporting across the map here. You will be able to activate various jump pads during the game that when used, will fling you across massive chunks of the map at once, allowing you to quickly travel between areas. This is technically impressive since extremely little slowdown is noticed during it, and is enjoyable as well as it allows you to get a sense of scale of the world and can also be useful for remembering things you need to go back and do later. You will also occasionally find pipes you can unlock, which will allow you to quickly travel between two physically nearby areas. Platforming is responsive and enjoyable, if a bit simplistic. Most platforming sections don’t make use of your tools much, as the platforming is built into the world itself for the most part. Controls feel good and are floaty enough to have weight but I almost never found myself overshooting or undershooting jumps. The main flaw that Exploration has is the “out of bounds” secret hunting. Since the entire world is a physical location, you can reach almost literally every part of it with the right movement and tools. This includes the tops of areas, random nooks and crannies on walls, and the connectors between areas, which you normally can’t access. You almost never hit an invisible wall. This would be neat, except for one problem. The game hides numerous secrets in these awkward to reach random areas. Many of which require such awkward movements and wall-hugging you feel like there’s absolutely no way you’re supposed to be doing this, only to randomly stumble upon a chest or a bunch of coins. The developer seemed to be aware this wouldn’t be supremely popular, as the stuff found in these secrets is ALL extremely minor. +1 damage, +5 Max HP, a bundle of coins, etc. This element of the game is poor. I sincerely hope in future titles this “mechanic” is either properly expanded on to be less annoying and feel less like you’re breaking the game, or removed entirely. The only thing that makes this tolerable is the fact you get a Chest Detector at the end of the game, and there’s several upgrades you can get for it after beating the game. **Writing** It’s incredibly average. There’s nothing to really write home about here. The basic story is that you’re a Red who lives in Red Town, the son of the King and Queen. Your water suddenly runs dry. You go down to investigate and spot some Blues destroying your Water Pipe. The rest of the game consists of trying to reach Blueville and figure out why the Blues destroyed your water pipe, and then solving the actual issue after you figure that out. The story is incredibly basic and primarily serves as a reason for the gameplay to happen, which is fine. The worldbuilding is pretty minimal, though the actual world is pretty interesting since it’s a giant magical sandbox. The actual moment-to-moment dialog is the reason I rate this low. The majority of it is nothing with meta jokes and references thrown in. Good lord this game has so many random references. From helping Minecraft Steve get a diamond pickaxe to stealing meth from Walter White to taking hair off of “Him-man”. They don’t help the game at all and get a little tiring, though they at least don’t affect gameplay. At the end of the game, the humor becomes rather scatological, which drives my opinion of the writing even lower. **Technical and Graphics** The game is technically competent though nothing special, and the graphics are much the same. The game runs acceptably most of the time though certain areas can chug a little. I’m fairly certain I had at least one puzzle solution break on me, though the game’s mobility systems are robust enough I was able to bypass it. I got softlocked one time while doing the aforementioned secret hunting. At one point a story sequence broke, but reloading a save fixed it. The graphics are a bit “Stock UE4”, but are passable. I do wish things were more stylized overall. I enjoy the fact that most of the environment is everyday objects that seem gigantic because you’re a tiny stickman. The enemies are definitely the most glaring artistic outlier, being so much of one a friend of mine who watched me stream the early areas thought they were a stock asset from the UE4 store. Bloom is vastly overdone and contributes to that “Stock UE4” look. Overall, these aspects of the game are pretty impressive given the vast majority of the game was made by one person. Props to ya’. **Conclusion** Overall, I greatly enjoyed Supraland. While it definitely has its flaws and shortcomings, I would not hesitate to recommend this game to a friend who is interested or has shown interest in similar games before. Though, I might warn them to not waste time looking for obscure secrets.