I think I got to the final level of Rochard today. I didn’t have much time to play, but the couple of hours I did have were enough to get there. As expected, the shifty looking boss of Rochard and his friends betrayed him, so I’ve been spending most of my time trying to beat his goons and figure out what’s going on.

Apparently, the asteroid Skyrig was mining on was home to a temple belonging to an ancient civilization. Even more interesting, the ancient civilization seems to use the writing system that some of the Native Americans used. Conveniently, Rochard’s lady friend Skylar has an uncle who is a descendant of this tribe and even has an object needed to translate the writing.

A lame pun, but it was bound to happen.

Now we’re back at the temple, to see what we can learn and why it’s so important.The evil boss is interested in translating them, so he left the mining company for dead and went after the uncle. Of course, Rochard managed to escape death, follow him to Skylar’s uncle, save him, get the item, and even infiltrate the Skyrig base to steal the rest of the data.

The game is fun. It provides a challenging level of difficulty, but the puzzles are interesting and the action happens often enough so it doesn’t get dull. It took me a couple of hours to get through a large chunk of the game today, but the time just flew by. It’s very likely I’ll complete it tomorrow.

However, some of the achievements require me to play through the game more than once, so I won’t be aiming for 100% right away. It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it; it’s just that there are other games I have yet to even try.

I decided to mix it up a bit and try a game recently added to my backlog, via the latest Humble Bundle.

Rochard is a puzzle platformer based on physics. Your character uses a gravity manipulator/gun that allows him to shoot enemies (eventually) and manipulate physical objects such as crates, droids, explosives, etc. Quite early in the game, you also learn how to manipulate gravity itself, reducing it to a fraction of the one we usually work with. This allows Rochard to jump further, lift heavier objects, throw them further, etc. It also allows him a special move where he throws an object and uses the counter force to propel himself further.

The story is told in real time.

The basic story is that you’re part of an asteroid mining company looking for an extremely valuable material. In one of the digs, you stumble into something weird which is followed by an accident and a raider attack. Pretty soon, all hell breaks loose.You use all of these abilities to progress through the game. There are, of course, preferred solutions to any puzzle, but the general rule is, if the physics allow it differently, you can do it your way. This is why I like physics puzzles. Even if you get stuck and don’t see the proper solution, you can always build a tower from local debris and advance that way.

The story isn’t deep or amazing, but it works with the game and its style. The graphics are cartoonish, somewhat Pixarish, even, and the voice acting is decent. Overall, the game has a nice and enjoyable style which can last for many years to come. If you combine this with the fun mechanics, you get a pretty damn good game.

The first area of the game I played through was a sort of tutorial, but the instructions weren’t really getting in the way of what I wanted to do, which I like. I was slowly getting through the story, past the initial accident and the raider attack, all the while upgrading my tool to allow shooting, gravity manipulation, and most recently, explosives. The game also introduced new minor mechanics every now and then, which keeps things very interesting. I’ve played for a bit over an hour total, so I assume I didn’t get very far, but then again, there’s a “Complete the game in three hours” achievement, so I’m thinking it shouldn’t take more than five to six hours on a regular playthrough.

It’s getting late now, though, so I’ll play again tomorrow.