Two Parasecs From Earth Review (PlayStation 4)
Robot Z3-L1’s ship has crash-landed on an inhospitable planet called Dimidium filled with alien landscapes and hostile surroundings. To escape and return home, Z3-L1 (/zeli/) must gather clues, gain powers and discover artifacts needed to fix a space ship. Explore the planet in this Metroidvania-style exploration game where the environment is your enemy.
Pros:
- Decent cartoon graphics.
- 163mb download size.
- Platinum trophy.
- Eight save slots.
- Cartoon stills cutscenes.
- In-game timer and death counter.
- Platformer gameplay.
- Upgrade your robot as you explore the world.
- Metroidvania aspects like having to backtrack to use new powers in old areas.
- Terminals-here you choose one of two upgrades or abilities.
- Map uncovers as you play.
- Cargo-you needs to collect 30 of these and 3 batteries in order to finish the game.
Cons:
- Unlikeable character is full of annoying wit and sharp humor that just isn’t funny.
- The constant stop-start game as it has text coming up all the time.
- No actual tutorial.
- Annoying little mechanics like the map unlocks by visiting a certain uneventful place rather than by progressing how I want.
- The game only saves/checkpoints at screen starts.
- Collected cargo only saves when you leave the current area.
- Stops and gives text at any point where you don’t have the necessary ability to pass through.
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Graphics - 7/107/10
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Sound - 5/105/10
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Accessibility - 5/105/10
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Length - 7/107/10
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Fun Factor - 5/105/10
Summary
This game is all about exploring an alien world, finding your lost cargo, and finding terminals to upgrade and get new upgrades. It all sounds fine and it even incorporates a bit of Metroidvania with backtracking and complex platforming. For all the positives and facts I just listed, I found out pretty quickly that I did not like this game. The main character is one of those people that thinks they are funny and drops very poor jokes and one-liners, usually, I would let that pass but when it happens as often as it does you can’t help but get annoyed. As you could imagine, every time you encounter a situation whereby you don’t have the ability needed you will get a short bit of dialogue and usually a joke veiled insult, it’s just not good. The gameplay is simple and once you have seen and played many times but adds in a spongey jump and a map you can hardly read. I tried and gave it longer than I normally would but the character and the gameplay combined to make a game I didn’t want to play even if it had easy enough trophies.
