Spoilers beware.
It started off ok.
Then in the middle it was pretty good.
Then it just all collapsed.
You start off each level with no instructions. Naturally you're going to start pressing buttons. If after a while you don't press the correct stuff, a button prompt will show up to help you. Not needed early on.
To start you just walk left to right and jump. Each level is broken into distinct puzzles. These puzzles work based off your motion. So a pillar will rise every time you walk right for example. Through trial and error you discover jumping to the right circumvents this, thus allowing you to manage the pillar's height as needed.
These basic mechanics get some additional features through these early stages, such as a respawn system like little big planets. Unlimited lives, but you have to cleverly decide which portal to select as your spawn point. Pressing circle respawns you.
The game hit its high point upon introducing a shooting mechanic. Aim with the back touchpad, and shoot with the front one. I wasn't sure how I felt so far with the game, but with the introduction of this mechanic I started to really like it. Game was on track for a "meh," but this was changing that.
Too bad it was down hill from there. Tilt controls, puzzle reset, and light sensing are all introduced as the remaining mechanics. Tilt controls aren't bad in concept, but Metroco takes them too far. One level I was having to play while holding my Vita upside down. In theory something awkward like that could be really fun, but it doesn't mesh well with the game's high precision platforming and shooting. Tilt controls are just frustrating.
Puzzle reseting was nice. If lots of the other mechanics were removed, it'd be great in the game. For me personally though it just made an already complicated mess even worse.
Light sensing. Oh god. Remember the part in Uncharted GA where you had to point the vita at a light to progress? Most people hated it outside of the gimmick factor. Well Metrico takes it to a whole new level. Intermixed with all these other annoyingly complex mechanics, you have to press square to sample the lights. Brighter light is needed to make pillars taller. It gets even worse when you start needing colored light. Red, green, and blue. I had to use my cellphone and a color wheel to get past this part. It wasn't fun, it was frustrating and annoying and frustrating.
That said, some of the puzzles I really liked. The game does have its clever moments.
But it has some technical issues too. Loading is long and confusing. I've finished the game and I'm still not sure how the loading screen worked. There were also a fair amount of framerate issues I encountered.
Nothing gamebreaking...
Well there's stuff like this actually
The whole screen is freaking out and stuff. The strange thing is that this isn't a glitch, but actually the game itself.
After every level you can go through one of two doors. In the last couple levels, this selection area has some faux glitches before starting. In the last area though, it has the faux glitch for ever or something. I beat the game and reached this last area, and couldn't progress. I tried everything. I even tried not touching the vita. It just stayed in this glitchy state. I knew it was on purpose (real glitches wouldn't be that cool) but after ten minutes of failing to pass it I started to doubt that. Heck even if you press start, the pause menu is glitched out.
I accidentally quit the game because I pressed where the quit button was supposed to be. Restarted the level and this time the glitch stopped after like 30 seconds. No clue why, but it did allowing me to finish it.
TLDR/Conclusion: I highly recommend playing this game. It has some minor issues but it's fun. Just stop halfway though.
