Supraland!

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It's a game, alright?

I think the most succinct way of characterizing it is to call it an actionadventureplatformerpuzzlegame. It's kind of an open world, as much as it is a bunch of open areas between which you can travel freely through various means. The perspective is first person, and you have a sword...at first.

Let's get the least important bit out of the way from the get go: the story is extremely barebones, and hardly even there. But who the heck would play a game like this for the story? What, are you playing Super Mario 64 for the story?

It's like watching a porn movie for the lovely soundtrack; you're missing the point!

This game is all about the gameplay. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that I don't hate it, because it's got first-person platforming, which sucks. Why does it suck? Because it's impossible to see exactly where you're standing. This game kind of makes that a little better by allowing you to see your body and your feet, but it's still virtually impossible to both see your feet and see where you're going at the same time.

The main reason why I think I don't mind the first-person platforming so much is that the game gives you an increasing ability to compensate for the flaws. I won't spoil what those are, but I'm sure you can guess a couple of them.

In fact, the game has a great sense of progression overall. It's a game that usually clocks in at between 15 and 20 hours, but unlike boring as shit games like Star Control Origins, where you play the game in the exact same way at the end as you did at the beginning, Supraland has you get new tools and skills throughout, and new ways to employ them. You'll be tackling challenges very differently at the end than you did at the beginning. 

I think this is what makes the game consistently fun for me. See, even if a game is really fun in itself, if it goes nowhere and just repeats itself it won't be fun for long. Supraland left me with a feeling of "Damn, that was a nice game!", because it hadn't bored me stiff by the time it ended.

Note; what I just wrote isn't just applicable to gameplay. A game like Mass Effect has the same gameplay throughout, but goes to new locales, meets new people, etc. That's simply another way of adding variation. The thing about Supraland is that it belongs to a genre that hinges entirely on gameplay, and that means you need variety of gameplay.

The graphics are nice, subscribing to the "Low complexity/high fidelity"-school of thought, where the models and environments are simple, but the graphics quality is surprisingly high.

All in all, really a game worth playing if you want great gameplay, no story to speak of, and puzzles that'll sometimes have you think hard to find solutions.

That's all for now, have a safe journey home, and don't panic.