Title: Feist
Developer: Bits and Beasts
Release Date: 27/July/2015
Official Site: http://bit.ly/1MrqJ0U
Hey what’s up, Serpentine here taking a
look at the 2D puzzle platformer, Feist, the first game developed by the
independent studio Bits and Beasts. You take on the role of small fur ball
creature that was imprisoned by larger rat like beasts of the forest now
escaping and attempting to rescue its companion being carted away by the rat
beasts. The wilderness is an unfriendly place though full of hostile creatures
and rough terrain so it’s not going to be easy.
Feist centres its gameplay around physics
based puzzles that you will have to solve to progress. Almost every level of
the game will introduce a new mechanic for you to work with and while the basic
controls are explained there are some elements that you will just have to find
out on your own for example these weird fluffy balls stick to surface but you
don’t get told that, you’re just given slight visual hints via them suddenly
appearing in the trees around the puzzle. There are some rather inventive
sections of the game as well were you have to think somewhat outside of the box
to progress but I won’t spoil that for those of you that end up picking up the
game.
You aren’t completely incapable of protecting
yourself from the wildlife as you can wield sticks as one use weapons, logs and
rocks as throwing devices and you can even wield some of the wildlife as
weapons like the fly, using its needle attack to your advantage. In many of the
levels you will come across a new boss fight against a new rat beast creature
that will have different mechanics both in their attacks and the way to defeat
them. These guys are faster and stronger then you but hitting them with sticks,
logs and stones will slow them down a bit however in doing so you also give
them something to throw at you so be prepared to dodge.
There is one enemy in the game that can be
a little annoying at first in the form of this burning yellow orb, it’s main
function is to speed up the game and make you feel under pressure. While this
enemy is something that looks somewhat broken on outside but once you grow
accustom to it you can actually use it to your advantage much like every other
enemy in the game. The orb tracks to your position and can easily ruin your
platforming run by hitting you off the platforms to fall all the way back down
to the bottom or just trapping you against the terrain inevitably killing you.
Some levels require an almost perfect run due to this plus the swarming of
enemies to your position making it very hard to recover from a mistake and it’s
actually this that made me think how great this game would be for speed running
although due to its physics based nature the game isn’t quite predictable
enough for precise runs so there would be some RnG to contest with.
Feists
atmosphere produced from its artstyle, base story and soundtrack is very easy
to lose yourself in as you become invested in trying to save your companion
from their imprisonment. The artstyle as you have probably already noticed has
a very similar graphical style to its fellow game in the genre Limbo, a
simplistic shadowy look with most of the foreground coloured black. Although
Limbo maintained the grayscale colour tone throughout, feist instead has opted
to throw some colours around here and there, the background taking on the most
colour with a forest colour palate and some enemies glowing red as they attack.
As for the soundtrack it completely matches the games feeling of being in the
wild alone with strange almost animal like sounds while also being quite
relaxing and atmospheric to play alongside.
Altogether Feist is a very atmospheric game
that provides difficult puzzles and plat forming elements together with
dangerous wildlife that will keep you on your toes. The game feels like a good
fit within the speed running community and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we
see it start popping up at events sooner rather than later. If you like platformers with a relaxing atmosphere but still requires you to think through
puzzles without holding your hand then Feist is definitely a game you should
look into.
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