Taking players to a strange hand-drawn world, Nerd Monkeys and Hatinh Interactive is looking to challenge puzzle and platforming fans with some intense situations. During the demo, I definitely felt the intensity that is in Out of Line, but quickly realized that the way to proceed past the scary moments is almost always pretty simple. Don’t get me wrong, they do have some moments in the demo alone that took a little bit of thinking to overcome, but there is a general simplicity to the overall puzzle style.
Gameplay
Like any other 2D platforming title, your movement consists of moving left or right with the option to jump. It doesn’t take long before you are also given access to a sort of light-based spear that can return to your character as easily as it is thrown by them. This spear will play a role in both the puzzle-solving and platforming sections of the game.
They do a good job with a playthrough tutorial as you are given small obstacles along the way to figure out the controls and functions. After you get the spear, you are presented with cliffs too high to jump and so you throw the spear at the wall to find out you can make platforms to jump on in order to get over high cliffs. Later you come across doors that function by gears that your spear can jam to keep them open. Then there is the lever that your spear can turn into by jamming into power points on the ground which end up moving platforms. A mixture of uses for your spear is what makes it both a powerful tool and your main source to solve your way through the challenges in the game.
I did enjoy the times when the game started throwing new aspects into the mix. First, they had the second character start working with you in a way where sometimes you had to help them proceed, and in return, they helped you proceed at times. Then they introduced timed spears into the mix where you got to work with a second, or more, spears to solve a more complicated section. But those spears are timed so you need to know when to use one that will break and when to use your light spear so it will remain in place longer.
Expectations
I definitely hope that they end up with some really convoluted puzzles in the game. From the bit that I played, they never really get too complicated and I found that finding the solution to the puzzles was always rather simple. They should have a mixture of spear types that do different things and interact with the world in different ways. Maybe even have a moment where we have to fight off the claws with a special spear to save either ourselves or one of the other characters. There are plenty of options they could go with and I hope to see some more options utilized.
Conclusion
Out of Line is looking to be a puzzle game for players that aren’t really used to the puzzle-platform genre. Nothing really too hard, but with enough intensity going on in the environment that you feel a need to press forward sooner rather than later. The art style is pretty intriguing and I do like the overall concept they are using as well. Even if they don’t make it a complicated game, it is pretty fun to play through it as it is.
