Incandescence

Prior to playing Incandescence, I was notified by Luis, my fellow game-whore who has given up on writing guest reviews but not on playing these games for kicks, that this was the game controls like a cheetah with an inner ear problem.  I'm paraphrasing, of course, but nevertheless, it's worth noting that I didn't go into this game very optimistically.  That in mind, let's play this thang.

Well the controls definitely aren't great, but I've played a lot worse.  Really the only problem is that the mouse sensitivity is too low, which wouldn't be a problem if the game allowed me to adjust it manually.  Instead, I got a perplexing control options screen where the only options are "invert y axis" and a blank field for you to type stuff into, which does nothing.  huh...

My main problem with the game is how it feels. Occasionally, you'll run into these glitchy-if-effective boost rails, which bring you up to a satisfying speed, but the momentum you gain from them runs out almost the instant you leave them.  The rest of the game is pretty sluggish, all things considered.  I'm just coasting around the city with no real sense of challenge or excitement.  It's just plain ol' boring.  If Igneous were paced like this, I would have torn it a new one because every other aspect of its design focuses on adrenaline.  Incandescence, with its blue tonality, calming sound direction and placid control style, and consequence-free level design seems to go for a much more relaxing atmosphere, which is fine as long as there's something to keep me occupied.  I need to derive some sense of fun from a game...that's why it's a game!

Imagine a game based on that one scene from Aladdin where you're just floating on a magic carpet through the clouds.  No sense of danger, nothing standing in your way, you're just coasting.  Every now and again a little piece of bread or whatever will float by that you can collect, but past that, nothing.  Sounds fun, right?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  That's what Incandescence reminds me of.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay musical

Links
Ink on the fence: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24656