This is part of my Steam Challenge Series (the full list is here).
Time played: 75 minutes.
I didn’t expect much from this game. All I asked was that it be briefly enjoyable, and give me a pleasant experience to remember (and write about). It kinda sorta succeeded.
The graphics were nothing special. I often like cartoony art styles, but this was just…inoffensive. Bland, dare I say. There was one decision that caught me out a few times and ended up just irritating me rather than inspiring me to appreciate it. Using different shades and textures of filler colour for the background elements and terrain is fairly common in these scrolling platformers, but I found that the sharp borders led me all too often to mistake the background for the foreground, and then wonder why I couldn’t go up that hill or jump onto that ledge. A minor thing, but when it leads to your death or even just feeling foolish, it matters.
OH GODS EVEN WRITING ABOUT IT IS BORING ME. That’s the problem I ultimately had with BEEP. It is a solid platformer, and I suppose it might be challenging in the later levels, but the story was pretty much nonexistant and the gameplay itself just didn’t grab me. The one design decision I hated, and what ended up making the experience not worth it for me, was the pits of doom. Falling to your death is fine as an occasional puzzle or obstacle. But BEEP had this death plunge everywhere. You were basically jumping around mountaintops. I died a lot in the almost 2 zones (of…6? I think) that I finished, and I would wager 90% of those deaths were from falling off the mountain. With unlimited lives, and checkpoints, there is little in the way of punishment except time and frustration.
Eventually, I realised (at about the 70 minute mark) that I was just doing this because I was stubborn. It wasn’t enjoyable for me, it was just slogging through levels for reasons I don’t care about. BEEP isn’t a bad game at all, but I’ve been spoiled in the past with games like LIMBO and Trine, both artistically and mechanically. BEEP just doesn’t stand out in any respect, and that’s why I got bored.
A decent pickup if you haven’t played platformers much, as it is easy to get into and runs very smoothly. Great for kids, too, I would think.
Star-Fired Beef 