I was pleasantly surprised by this game in a number of ways, but also confused in others. Weaverse by Yellow Cat-Rabbit starts as this mysterious sci-fi, puzzle-platforming, shooter, adventure game. The game looks really great at first glance, but after playing for a bit, it is easy to see a number of issues that may cause the game from having depth or consistently good gameplay.
As I mentioned, the game looks really great. The details in textures, smooth frame rate and overall style are surprisingly pleasant. Especially the environment, even though each room or area uses the same walls, tiles or environmental pieces, the way light reacts with the world and sharp details makes this game look incredible for its development size.
The actual gameplay has a lot of potential, but it does seem more like a beta test for something bigger and better. The puzzle mechanics are more exploration based than actual puzzle, it is mostly pulling a switch and then finding the next switch, pulling that one and repeating until the level is over. It is nice to explore a number of places, but there aren’t any real deep, puzzle mechanics (as for now).
Your character is also given a gun and there are enemies that wander through the various areas. The enemies basically know of your existence at all times and will run directly at you or shoot you as soon as you are in there respective programmed area. The shooting mechanic is basic, but functional only, but the enemies do a lot of damage and it can be a little absurd/pointless to deal with them because it only adds a surprise factor of being chased or dying very quickly, not any true, meaty gameplay. I honestly feel that this game would be better without the gun or if there was a more real way to interact with the enemies, like stealth mechanics, distractions or a more formidable A.I.
Overall this game has some interesting potential, but could use a lot of refinement or improvements. However, being a smaller game and smaller development team, there is some good potential and groundwork. Check back here soon for our full review of Weaverse.
