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dkirschner's Neon White (PC)
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| [July 17, 2024 12:55:29 PM]
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This was fantastic! It's a speedrunning game with perfect movement, smooth as butter to play. I'm not a speedrunner or someone who tends to chase high scores, but everything about the design of Neon White motivated me to do it here, at least through chapter 7 or so until I just wanted to finish the game because I have so many others to get to on Game Pass before the month is out.
The gameplay is based around using cards, which you pick up during each level. You can hold up to two types of cards and three of each type at any given time. Left mouse uses the active card's primary ability (a gun of some sort) and right mouse uses its discard ability (a movement ability). For example, the green "stomp" card fires a machine gun with the left mouse and with the right mouse you fall quickly and stomp the ground (useful for killing enemies from above, smashing doors in the floor, or, well, falling quickly). The game almost always gives you the cards you need to use in order, such that you don't have to switch cards manually. I thought at the beginning I was going to be switching cards, but very rarely will you need to do this. Adding that pressure on top of an already lightning speed game might have broken my nerves. As it was, I couldn't play too long without taking a break!
Levels are short (I'd say they average 40 seconds or so, shorter in the beginning of the game and longer toward the end) and are worth playing again and again. If you finish, you get a bronze medal, and then there are silver, gold, and "ace" medals for getting better times. As you get better medals in each level, you'll be able to see the ghost of your best time, see a hint for shortcuts, see leaderboards, and see a collectible gift. The hints were neat. It doesn't just tell you or show you what to do; rather, there is a golden hand icon around where the shortcut is, and you still have to figure out what exactly to do there. The collectible gifts are in hard-to-reach places and involve deviating from the path or using your cards in ways unintended by the main path of the level (e.g., figuring out how to use the cards at your disposal to reach a gift that is on top of a spire).
I was feeling really good. Through chapter 7, I'd gotten nearly all ace medals and gifts. And once you get the hang of the game, you'll start to see shortcuts without being shown where they are. After chapter 7, when I stopped replaying levels, I still routinely got ace and gold on my first try, and then that faded to silver and bronze as the levels got more complicated closer to the end.
The gifts unlock special dialogue scenes and challenge levels for the other characters. The challenge levels were really neat. With one character, you can't use discard abilities in their challenge level. Another character's challenge levels were like deathtrap obstacle courses.
I enjoyed the story and characters too. You're all speedrunning and killing demons because you were all very bad in life, and now you're dead, in Heaven, cleaning it up and competing for prizes awarded by angels and "Believers," who are smug little angel/cherub creatures that run the place in the absence of God. You and the other main characters knew each other in life, and as you play through the game, you learn more about that. The characters reminded me of Disgaea or something, like silly JRPG or anime stuff. Of course, you all end up not being too excited about killing demons for the Believers as you learn more about the main characters and the Believers themselves. Everything is not as it appears...
Chalk this up as one that, in hindsight, I would have purchased on Steam to own instead of temporarily having access to on Game Pass. Ah, well! Maybe once a year, I can get some more ace medals!
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dkirschner's Neon White (PC)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Friday 12 July, 2024
GameLog closed on: Wednesday 17 July, 2024 |
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