Kometen Review

By , on May 18, 2010


Kometen
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Beautiful high resolution artwork and animation.
  • Relaxed bit-tune soundtrack.
  • Open objective exploration gameplay.

CONS

  • May be too 'Indie' for some.

VERDICT

The old cliche holds true here and you'll either love or hate Kometen for the freedoms it gives players, but at least for a while you'll blissfully enjoy gracefully navigating the stars with your disturbing space-pacman.


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Kometen is the latest offering from well known Indie developer Erik Svedäng of Blueberry Garden fame. Pairing up with artist Niklas Åkerblad, it's an 'experience' based game that offers no true objective outside exploring the universe you're given by attempting to master gracefully propelling yourself from planet to planet.

There's not a lot to controlling your space-pacman as all he requires is a simple touch to initiate an orbit around a planetoid, while swiping the screen will sling-shot you across the map to your next destination. Various planets will have Lucky Charm style objects to consume which will slowly power up your boost meter, allowing you to rocket your way even further across space once it's full.

There are a handful of art-planets to discover, but Kometen gives players very little in the way of direction or guidelines to their play, giving them an open sandbox to play around with. The experience is ultimately quite relaxing and pairs well with the game's down-tempo synth bit-tune soundtrack.

Kometen is a bit of a mixed bag, pairing incredible visuals and style with a lack of direction that typifies the 'Indie' experience in gaming of late. Players will experience a sense of mixed joy and loneliness through the stark and wide-spanning freedom you're given, but many new players will unfortunately put this game down without stricter sign-posts to guide or at least initiate new players to the Kometen world. Definitely a unique experience for your iDevice.

Screenshots

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