Review for Matterfall. Game for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 15/08/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 16/08/2017
This summer has undoubtedly made arcade-style video game lovers happy and demonstrated how Housemarque is a truly capable software house, capable of creating titles with a similar soul, albeit with different identities; about two months after the excellent Nex Machina arrives in fact Matterfall, a Playstation 4 exclusive able to offer a different perspective of the twin stick shooters, a few particles less but as many, humiliating failed missions.
Matterfall welcomes the player with a video in computer graphics dubbed in Spanish; the localization in our local language is also present and well done in the game menus, although everything is extremely intuitive and the narrative component just an excuse to frantically press the controller keys and crumble aliens, machines and corrupt humans in a shower of sparks and fragments, in full Housemarque style.
The voxel effect is less intrusive than Nex Machina and this allows for better orientation, also thanks to a less saturated color palette and a mainly two-dimensional movement system.
Unlike the previous title of the software house in fact, Matterfall presents horizontal scrolling levels, with just a few no gravity sections in which the mercenary Avalon Darrow is free to move along the y axis as well. Most of the time, however, the player will advance in very varied maps and well thought out in level design, but still linear and with no secrets to find, apart from the few civilians to be rescued during the adventure.
Dedicating yourself to evacuation as well as to alien extermination offers its advantages: you go from an always welcome restoration of the HP bar to obtaining new active and passive enhancements for the protagonist, which can be equipped up to a maximum of three at the same time and capable of customize the player's approach to the various levels.
The latter are nine and divided into three "worlds", at the end of which a fight with the boss at the end of the stage begins. The difficulty management system is “honestly dishonest”, the difference between one modality and the other is considerable, especially in the final levels. At the end of each map the player receives an evaluation e a score, recorded in a global ranking, based on the time it took to finish the mission and bonuses in case he rescued all civilians in distress and was not defeated even once.
This score is added to that obtained during the level itself by defeating enemies and collecting the orbs released by them: defeating many opponents will quickly increase score multiplier, taking damage will lower it by one unit, until it is zeroed. It goes without saying, therefore, that to place at the top of the ranking you will need the right mix of speed, map knowledge and dodging skills, all at the maximum manageable difficulty.
As already mentioned, Matterfall's gameplay draws heavily from the arcade feeling of every Housemarque game, without being redundant. If in Nex Machina you had waves of enemies to eliminate as fast as possible, hundreds of bullets and deadly obstacles in bullet hell style with perpendicular perspective and limited continuous, Matterfall reduces the number of opponents and elements to dodge, maintaining the frenzy with increased level interaction.
Based on the simple visual gimmick of the "Blue = good, red = bad", Matterfall grants a brief and concise tutorial of the basic mechanics to the player, before launching them into a riot of aliens and destruction.
The protagonist can manipulate the blue matter thanks to the technology with which it is equipped: it can therefore slow down the opponents thanks to the shock waves generated by its movements and create platforms and barriers capable of hindering the enemy advance and allow it to advance within the levels; against, the red matter is out of his control and indeed, it is extremely damaging to her at the touch, a bit like the fire and the spikes of the dear, old 2D platformers.
When using the primary weapon as in a classic stick shooter, the player must therefore combine the right armor upgrades, the most suitable secondary weapon for the situation (in the case of the final boss, at least a couple of replacements are practically necessary) and reasoned displacements, the result of a reasoned analysis of the environments in which one moves and fights. There trial and error component typical of arcades returns with arrogance also in Matterfall and is an essential part of the game experience.
The only big drawback of the title is the amount of content actually offered: an "average" player will be able to finish Matterfal in less than 5 hours at standard difficulty and if he is not interested in "competing" for the best places in the standings, he will find no secrets, a heart-pounding finale or extra modes waiting for him.
The list price of 19,99 Euros at launch it is however justified by a remarkable technical quality level, both in the design of the levels (a little less in that of the enemy creatures and the protagonist, far too much a "Samus Aran of the poor") and in the fluidity of everything that moves and explodes on the screen: on both PlayStation 4 models , Matterfall guarantees 60 frames per second stable, a resolution of 900p on standard consoles and 1080p on Pro, upscalable to 4K if you have a suitable screen.
Matterfall carries with it the Housemarque seal of quality and the icy omen of dozens and dozens of defeats that only an old-school title can deliver. Too bad therefore for the extremely small number of levels and the almost absent replayability for a player who aims at completeness and not at competition with others, which confines the title to a "niche" product for fans of the genre, the only ones who could consider a full price purchase justifiable.
► Matterfall is an Action-type game developed by Housemarque and published by Sony for the PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 15/08/2017 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 16/08/2017
