Game: Warp

Platform: XBLA

Publisher: EA

Developer: Trap Door

ESRB: M

Genre: Stealth/Puzzle Adventure

Players: 1

What's Hot: Fun, light puzzle gameplay with good stealth mechanics; multiple solutions for diverse situations

What's Not: Trial-and-error frustration; unnecessary M-rated content; possibilities are sometimes unclear; no replay outside of the challenge levels

by: Michael Barnes

If Solid Snake were a toddler-sized alien that looks like cross between a jellyfish and a teddy bear and had both teleporting and possession powers his game would be something like Warp. It’s a slight but not unappealing top-down sneaker with puzzle elements that draws on other diverse influences such as Portal and ‘Splosion Man. It’s not the most original game you’ll play in 2012, but the five hours it takes for Zero the alien to escape the underwater research facility those nasty human scientists have him locked up in are fun and fairly pleasant. There are plenty of mildly brain-burning puzzles and a nice development curve that finds Zero taking on the powers of other imprisoned aliens.

The core mechanic is the short-hop teleport that Zero can make through doors and barriers. He can also teleport into barrels or even the scientists and soldiers. Wiggling the stick while inside a human causes the host to swell up like a balloon. Hop out, and they’re stunned. Keep wiggling, and they explode. The real pros at this kind of game will want to go for the nonlethal playthrough while the sadists will leave a trail of entrails, blood, and limbs, giving the humans a good reason to run in terror from the diminutive critter. The gore is a bit extreme and coupled with some bad language, unnecessary. The M-rated content feels terribly forced in a game that could easily have been E-rated.

Getting around the facility involves evading patrols, automated gun turrets, and other defenses. Zero has to find his way around water barriers that disable his powers, industrial areas, and other hazards. There are usually a couple of solutions for every situation, and it’s fun to work with the powers and discover what works. You might jump into a guard, attract attention by making him swell up, and then jump into the guy that comes to look for him. Or you can send out “ghost echo” decoys to distract turrets or cause sentries to shoot each other. There are often a surprising number of options given the small tool set.

That said, it is the kind of game where frustration can set in due to one-hit kills, trial-and-error gameplay, and often unclear possibilities. Checkpoints are plentiful, however, and I didn’t encounter any area that was particularly taxing. It’s the kind of puzzler that isn’t particularly difficult, so it doesn’t have those sweeping “aha!” moments that some folks look for. It’s more of an “oh, OK, that’s it”.

The game doesn’t outstay its welcome and it ends about the time most players will be starting to tire of it. Replay is limited in the campaign, although there are numerous hidden areas, grubs to collect and spend on a very small catalog of upgrades, and other optional features. I didn’t find any of this stuff to be particularly interesting or useful, and I actually missed almost every one of the upgrade stations until late in the game. At least by then I had a lot of grubs to spend.

There’s no multiplayer (nor should there be). There are challenge levels that test your skill in each of Zero’s abilities along with leaderboards, each unlocked over the course of the campaign game and they are challenging with the gold medals surprisingly difficult to achieve. The problem is that they’re just not really worth pursuing. Like Metal Gear Solid’s VR missions, they’re definitely a sideshow and probably only appealing to the die-hard fans.

But Warp is so light, ephemeral, and transient that I can’t imagine there’ll be many die hard fans. It’s the definition of a “cute” game. You play through it, smile at it, and put it away forever. It’s a $10 download with a decent amount of content so that’s hardly a liability, but it’s impossible to shake the feeling that it’s a very minor title with a short shelf life. It’s perfect for a rainy day but most players will likely warp out shortly after the credits roll.

Michael Barnes is a regular contributor to GameShark , as a reviewer and with a weekly boardgame column, Cracked LCD , and is one of the co-founders of FortressAT.com and No High Scores.

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