Rochard is what I imagine Valve would do if they made a side scrolling game. That statement is not just because of the Team Fortress like art style but because of its great mechanics and excellent level of polish. The basic premise is that you are a miner on an asteroid looking for a rare element when things go kinda crazy. You are given a sort of Gravity Gun as well as control over gravity and told to sort things out. On your quest you are continually hit with puzzling scenarios that usually require a lot of quick thinking to keep Rochard from becoming space dust.
So in the first minute of this game I had a huge smile on my face. It opens with a cinematic that truly captures the feel of being a Space Trucker, complete with some Space Trucker music as well. It does not take long for the game to give you control and teach you the basics of Rochard, gravity manipulation and block shooting. While this may seem like it would become tedious after a while trust me when I say it never does. While the core puzzle may be lowering gravity, by holding L1, to get a heavier block from point A to point B, it varies up the gameplay with enemies, lazers, giant gaps, electric traps, and force-fields. The last one on that list, force-fields, being the most complex with ones that will allow you to pass though but not boxes, boxes but not you, you but not gunfire, and ones that allow nothing through. To add to all this calamity there are fuses that can be moved from one place to another to either activate or deactivate force-fields. Meaning that moving that block from point A to point B might require you to move two fuses, shoot down some space pirates, and use that block to cross electric floors. Everytime I walked into a new room I was confronted with on of these problems, which are not always block puzzles, but that would always challenge my intellect.
As I said earlier you will face enemies in this game that will kill you very quickly. At first you are only able to kill them with a well thrown block. Soon however you upgrade your gun to start shooting energy pellets and grenades which makes you job much easier. However you are still never all powerful and if you try to run into a room full of baddies you will have your buttocks whooped. Rochard will require you to think strategically as to how you dispatch you enemies. When confronted by one baddie you will usually be able to just blast them but when several are patrolling it is sometimes a good idea to throw a grenade while tossing a block on another’s head so that the third enemy can be taken out Rambo style. Most of the time the combat feels pretty great but there are some times when you are overwhelmed or just walk into a room and get blasted away. Those times the combat seems kind of cheap but this is not a common occurrence and so it usually does not detract from the experience.
Something else that really hooked me was the design of this game. Rochard is one of the prettiest and most well realized 2.5D games I have seen period. While it could have been easy to just make a good looking mine they give you several gorgeous areas to explore including one of the coolest dance clubs I have seen. While it is only a side scroller they use that extra .5D to flesh out the world dramatically giving it a real sense of place. The art style as is interesting as well because even though it is very cartoony it also has a sense of realism with a vibrant array of colors that all look like they have been worn down to fit within the setting. I wish that Recoil Games had put more exploration into this game because I really would have loved to see more. As it currently stands the only time you an go off the beaten path it is to nab a collectable. The collectables are, to my knowledge, completely useless and are not much of an incentive to do what is required to get them which is usually solving a puzzle in a different way. Even without many side routes this game will still offer much to be seen and I for one loved everything that I saw.
Just as everything else in the world, the characters are cartoony both in design and in dialog as well. Every cut scene seemed very much like a good Saturday morning cartoon to me. I say that with the best possible meaning because I loved every scene, except for a overly sappy one early on. The mood can swing from serious to silly in an instant without really breaking the flow of things. Pretty much all of the writing is hilarious with jokes about badgers and dark corporate humor that made me laugh out loud multiple times. At first I thought that comedy might have been all they had and how I could ever care anything about these characters but by the end of the game I was concerned about their well being and was actually invested in the story. Just like with the levels I really with there was more story. I would have enjoyed seeing the universe and characters fleshed out a bit more, but that is only a complaint because I enjoyed what there was so much.
All in all Rochard was a great game. It took some pretty simple gameplay and made it into a challenging game full of surprises. The varied areas and great art pull you into the world and keep your eyes pleased throughout the whole thing. My only complaint is that I want more of everything since the entire experience lasted only about four hours. I hope that there is a sequel to this game as it would be great to see more Rochard. I had a huge smile on my face the whole time while playing this game. If you are looking for a great puzzle platformer then look no further than Rochard.
