SkYscrapeR

The most enigmatic of the Game Gale entries, most people are probably looking at SkYscrapeR and wondering just what the hell kind of game it actually is. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s a mirror puzzle game, and if you don’t know what that is, it will be explained in detail before the end of this review.

The sky is falling. The player is thrust into the role of a young, unnamed girl as she struggles to escape the titular SkYscrapeR, a building so tall it literally touched the sky. The building is falling apart so she must hurry to escape, but unfortunately every door is locked down tight. She can unlock the doors by entering a “code” of sorts which involves using a series of “mirrors” to reflect an orb into a glowing goal area. Along the way, she makes random amusing commentary to herself regarding the absurdity of her situation and the building’s bizarre architecture.

Level Design 3.5/5:
The game makes use of neat 3D images in the background of each level, vaguely reflecting the sort of environment the player is currently in. However, these backdrops are just decoration, there is no exploration in the game, every time you complete a level your character rushes off to the next puzzle without any input from you, which is fine for a puzzle game.

So, let’s talk about the puzzles.

In each “stage” your goal is to direct a little white orb into the glowing “goal” area. You cannot control the ball directly, at your command it will fly off in a pre-determined direction, and from there it will move in the direction dictated by the “mirrors” it collides with.

It is important to note that the mirrors are not really mirrors in the technical sense, they are simply the object you can use to direct the orb’s path. Along the way are also “arrows” which you cannot influence, the orb will automatically race off in the direction the arrow is pointing if it touches it. Also important is that the orb never really overlaps with the mirrors the way they do in a more typical game like this, instead it sort of stops one “tile” short before going off in the proper direction.



The controls are a little iffy. You select each mirror with the press of a key. You cannot actively select which mirror you want, instead you cycle through all the mirrors in order until you reach the one you want. A little annoying, but not terrible. You also use the keyboard to orient the mirror in the direction you want. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing which mirror you currently have selected without pressing a key to move it. Having the currently selected mirror glow occasionally or something like this might help, but again, just a fairly minor annoyance.

For the first half of the game, the protagonist may call several unnamed adults for hints on each level. Unfortunately, I found these hints rather useless, and later in the game they are no longer available to help.

It can take a while to get used to the controls, and it can also take a while to wrap your head around the idea that the orb doesn’t actually touch the mirror the way it does in a more traditional mirror reflection game. So really, it might help to think of the game as less of a traditional mirror puzzle and more like an… OH GOD.



Once you get the hang of it, the puzzles are quite fun and it is one of those games that makes you feel so clever if when you figure out the solution. The difficulty of the puzzles increases as you go but generally stays reasonable, it never becomes insane. It also introduces new mechanics such as having to collect little objects along the way before reaching the exit. If you’re not careful you might also set up an infinite loop, the game accounts for this problem and lets you cancel it out but you must wait twenty seconds and it takes generally far too long when you just want to cancel it and retry.

One other thing of note is the game is timed. The building you are inside of is literally collapsing and this is kept track of in the “breakdown” timer, which starts at thirty percent and rises a little every second, depending on the difficulty setting. I never ran out of time but I imagine it causes a game over. Messing up a level also causes a penalty, which again varies based on the difficulty. I found the timer fairly generous and never came close to losing, but on the hardest difficulty it rises much more quickly.

Story and Characters 4/5
The game begins with our nameless girl evacuating the building, her only goal to escape. It isn’t long before she is separated from her friends and forced to wander the enormous building all by herself. She takes the situation in stride and tries her best to diffuse her own trepidation by making snarky, deadpan commentary about various things along the way. Every few puzzles will result in a few comments from her as she reaches a new setting of sorts, breaking up the game flow very well and preventing it form becoming too monotonous, but also not dragging on if we want to get back to the puzzles. These interjections by her are very amusing and enjoyable and serve as an excellent “reward” of sorts in a game with no collectibles or other interaction.

The design choice of casting the player as a young girl also works on another level as it highlights her weakness and helplessness in this situation, where the world may be ending and even if she escapes the building there is no way of knowing what fate has in store for her. By the end of the game, I really did feel like I was lost and alone in a strange world I didn’t understand, not knowing if I would ever be safe again or if I was just chasing a rainbow. It really works very well.

My only complaint with the story is it doesn’t even really feel like it ends. It just sort of…stops.

Music and Sound 4/5:
I loved the music in this game. Not only is it very catchy and appropriate to both the setting and the game’s subject matter, but it is all composed by the same person, giving it perfect consistency. This is the kind of music I would listen to all the time. I did feel that the game could benefit from more sound effects though, particularly during the execution phase of each level, giving sound cues when the orb hits something. But it isn’t a big deal.

Overall 3.5/5
Definitely an excellent puzzle game that I enjoyed a great deal. Not only are the puzzles enjoyable, but the narrative is enjoyable as well. I would have kept playing if the game had gone on much longer, and it perhaps could have benefited from more puzzles of a crazier difficulty later in the game, but as it is it is still a fun experience. Maybe not everyone will enjoy it as much, especially if you aren’t really into puzzles, but if anyone is curious about this game but wasn’t sure whether to download it or not, I definitely recommend you give it a try.