Title: Capsized
Platforms: PC
Developer: Alientrap Games
Genre: Platformer
Release Date: April 29, 2011

Indie developers are definitely having some great success in the gaming industry lately, so it’s always nice to find another team bringing us an enjoyable game, showing promise for their future. Alientrap Games, from Saskatoon, Canada, recently released Capsized on Steam. Along it begins with a very basic story premise and appears as a simple platformer at first glance, Capsized puts the player in a great environment with stylish graphics and ambient music, increasingly challenging the player with numerous objectives and a wide arsenal to defend against various enemies.

Without much fanfare at all, Capsized begins simply showing that the player’s character has crash-landed on an alien world. Each level in the Campaign mode begins with a few comic-style frames to advance the story and present the next objective. The player controls a single astronaut/space traveler to explore the surroundings and ultimately attempt to leave this hostile world. And believe me, it’s hostile. The aliens encountered start off simple, but get quite complex in later levels to include shields and stronger weapons, even creating gravity wells to pull you in. The traveler will find his way through different areas to search for his comrades from the ship, pick up ship parts and power, and destroy anything interfering with the escape. A simple goal, with more complex gameplay.

As the player explores, various weapons can be found. In some levels this will even lead to having 8 or 9 different weapons to choose from at one time. Besides a basic one-shot-at-a-time unlimited ammo gun, which will require some feverish mouse clicking when other ammo is scarce, there are also weapons such as the machine-gun Pulsar, the cannon-like Plas-mortar, or your own gravity well-making Quasar Array. Some weapons will even have an alternate firing mode with the right mouse button, such as a shotgun with the Pulsar. With enemies of different strengths and number, it’s a great asset to be able to scroll your mouse-wheel through so many options to find the most appropriate for each situation. Unfortunately sometimes the situation be may too frantic to work with the scrolling, so weapons can also be chosen by hitting their respective number. The only issue with this is that the weapon selections don’t always stay on screen, so memorization is helpful.

Besides the various weapons available, several other tools and items are quite useful in this adventure. The Hook is a grappling beam that can help the traveler reach higher places and swing over dangers. It can also grab on to objects to move them, and even propel them as weapons when the beam is released. The Gravity Ram is a short beam thrust that can also be used to propel objects or even shoot the traveler into the air when used on the ground. Once enough fuel is obtained, the Jetpack is even more useful to navigate around the levels. There is also a shield power-up that works for a limited time to defend against projectiles, as well as a limited nano-bot power-up that will fly around and attack enemies. All of this variety provides great diverse gameplay that allows the player to confront increasingly difficult challenges with their own preferred method.

Along with the nice comic intros to each level, the level environments are also drawn by the artist Jesse McGibney to great detail. Although the basic ground is somewhat repetitive throughout the levels, the traveler, the enemies, and the background and other parts on the ground are quite attractive. The graphic feedback for receiving damage is also impressive enough that it really makes your computer screen look like it’s shattered and bloody. The music in Capsized is also a great soundtrack to listen to while exploring an alien world, as it’s ambient electronic music from the artist Solar Fields. This comes together to make a foreign world that is comfortable and appealing to explore.

Alientrap Games should definitely be proud of Capsized. It is a fun and challenging platformer that keeps the player coming back for more. Besides replaying levels in the Campaign simply due to difficulty (with many deaths!) and trying to discover every well-hidden secret and beat your best times, there are also other Arcade modes to allow for practice and even more challenge, such as Survival against waves of enemies and even a Bot Match that pits the player against an AI-controlled traveler with the same capabilities. Capsized reflects promise for this developer for future projects, and even bringing Capsized to consoles! If you’re looking for a good value for a new PC game from indie developers, check out Capsized on Steam.

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