Capsized

About

"Capsized" is a Science Fiction arcade-style game with both single-player and local multi-player options for up to 2 players in a co-op, split screen format. The game features an immersive alien world with unique hand-drawn art, a stellar soundtrack, and challenging gameplay that combines platforming, puzzle-solving, and combat. Players must navigate through a perilous environment, fight off creatures, and save crewmates to escape the mysterious planet.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Local Multi-Player Play with friends in the same physical space using split-screen or multiple screens
2-Players Play with one other player, either online or locally, in a cooperative or competitive game mode
Multi-Player Compete or cooperate with other players online
Co-Op Team up with friends to complete levels or missions together
Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo
Split Screen Play with multiple players on the same screen, often with divided or shared screen real estate

75%

Audience ScoreBased on 730 reviews

music163 positive mentions

stability10 negative mentions

Beautiful hand-drawn graphics and a captivating atmosphere.
Engaging gameplay with a variety of weapons and mechanics like grappling hooks and jetpacks.
Great soundtrack that enhances the overall experience.

Controls can feel floaty and imprecise, making gameplay frustrating at times.
Difficulty spikes in later levels can lead to frustrating experiences.
Enemies can be hard to spot due to the art style, leading to unfair deaths.

music
234 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
70%
28%
3%
The music in the game is widely praised for its atmospheric quality and fitting integration with the gameplay, particularly the soundtrack by Solar Fields, which many describe as beautiful and immersive. While some players note that the music can become repetitive over time, it generally enhances the overall experience, contributing to the game's alien ambiance and exploration theme. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout feature, often cited as a primary reason for enjoying the game.
- “The music is fantastic too.”
- “The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous.”
- “The music is very soothing, the visuals all flow very nicely and use various natural colors to comprise it.”
- “The music is boring, the graphics themselves are boring… and the gameplay… the gameplay is indeed very, very boring.”
- “Even at its lowest setting, the music blares out loud enough to drown out the rest of the game audio, and there isn't a way to turn it off.”
- “The music gets annoying.”
graphics
206 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
65%
33%
2%
The graphics of Capsized are widely praised for their beautiful, hand-drawn art style and vibrant environments, creating an immersive atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience. However, many players note that the aesthetic can hinder visibility, making it difficult to distinguish between enemies, interactive objects, and the background, which can lead to frustrating gameplay moments. Overall, while the visuals are striking and detailed, they can sometimes detract from the clarity needed for effective gameplay.
- “The graphics are amazing to look at and the music is fine but even they lead to frustration and gameplay problems.”
- “The entire art style for the game is very beautiful, consisting of complex hand-drawn artwork.”
- “The graphics look great, there are a lot of nuances to the controls (jetpack, grapple, double jump), and the action is fast.”
- “Capsized has a lot of interesting ideas, ultimately hindered with a frustrating execution and muddied visuals.”
- “I thought it was a charming game at first, but that quickly dissipated once I realized how difficult it was to differentiate a lot of foreground, background, and interactive assets from one another.”
- “The graphics are pretty, but everything just blends together, making it hard to differentiate enemies, environment, interactable objects, triggers, mission goals, and debris half the time.”
gameplay
180 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
56%
3%
The gameplay of the reviewed games is characterized by a mix of innovative mechanics and frustrating controls, often leading to a disjointed experience. While some titles offer engaging physics-based interactions and a variety of weapons, many players find the controls clunky and the mechanics poorly integrated, resulting in a gameplay experience that can be both enjoyable and exasperating. Overall, the aesthetic appeal and sound design are frequently praised, but they often do not compensate for the gameplay's shortcomings.
- “The gameplay itself is really good; jetpacks, sling-hooks, and a variety of different weapons make the game feel like both a platformer and a shooter.”
- “Great gameplay, great mechanics, challenging and fair, great music and setting.”
- “The gameplay is paced with a sense of exploration and tactical choices in combat; you can simply run in and try to shoot everything, but that is simply the choice of the player.”
- “I can recommend this game only if you're a masochist or have a kink for broken gameplay.”
- “Gameplay is clumsy and really destroys all of the fun that this game could potentially bring.”
- “It's hard to love a game when you feel like you're fighting the mechanics as much as the enemies.”
story
136 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
66%
6%
The story of *Capsized* is generally described as simple and straightforward, revolving around an astronaut who crash-lands on an alien planet and must rescue crew members while navigating various missions. It is presented through comic book-style still images, which some players find charming, though many criticize it for being bland and repetitive. Overall, while the narrative serves its purpose, it lacks depth and complexity, leaving players wanting more from the storytelling aspect.
- “The story is presented in-between each chapter, using still-images in a comic-book style.”
- “Capsized did an excellent job of telling a simple story and capitalizing on an inventive momentum-based movement system.”
- “The story is simple and straightforward, assigning a different task to each mission with all having the ultimate goal of escaping the strange alien planet you find yourself on.”
- “The story is very dull and is told through still frame pictures with no dialogue or text.”
- “The story is almost absent and the game is extremely short.”
- “This game gets really boring, really fast, especially with its lackluster story.”
atmosphere
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
76%
18%
5%
The atmosphere in "Capsized" is widely praised for its stunning graphics, vibrant colors, and immersive sound design, which together create a captivating alien world that feels both dangerous and beautiful. Players appreciate the game's ability to evoke a sense of exploration and tension, reminiscent of classic titles like Metroid, while the atmospheric soundtrack enhances the overall experience. Despite some gameplay challenges, the rich visual and auditory elements contribute significantly to the game's appeal, making it a standout feature for many reviewers.
- “The atmosphere is really good; it captures the feeling of being stuck on a strange alien world with its own rules while trying to survive, kind of like a Metroid feel to it.”
- “The environment is beautiful, full of detailed organic life and creatures, and an equally awesome soundtrack echoes throughout, giving this game an A+ for atmosphere in my book.”
- “The atmosphere it creates is simply breathtaking.”
- “Sometimes you'll blast off into the atmosphere after stepping on something in the environment, only to rocket back to the ground and hit the same thing again, resulting in an iterative loop of going up and down way too fast while also getting pounded by enemies from all sides.”
- “It can be easy to assume that they'd share more, like a focus on exploration, creepy atmosphere, and progressive unlockables, but that's not the case despite what you might have assumed from the screenshots.”
- “The atmosphere of the game was alright.”
stability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of bugs, glitches, and control issues, particularly with controller support. Players have experienced game-breaking errors that can force restarts, making it difficult to complete the game. While some users noted minimal issues, the overall consensus points to a lack of polish and significant stability problems.
- “Be aware that there are a few glitches that happen at random moments which can force you to restart.”
- “This game came out half-assed and unfinished, with tedious, chore-like playthroughs wherein the objectives rely upon inconsistent physics and game-breaking glitches or irreversible environmental variables.”
- “The glitches or errors or development oversights, whatever you call them, prevent me from completing this game at all.”
optimization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
38%
38%
The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while it performs well on systems with dedicated GPUs and the necessary XNA framework, users report significant performance issues on lower-end hardware, particularly with integrated graphics. Additionally, the game is noted for its beautiful visuals but suffers from rough gamepad controls and a limited field of view. Overall, it runs smoothly on compatible systems but can be demanding for less capable setups.
- “Performance is spectacular if you have the right tools (XNA Framework 3.1), which thankfully comes bundled; otherwise, the game would not even start.”
- “Very pleased with Linux performance, and it works out of the box on Ubuntu 17.10.”
- “Performance-wise, to call Capsized undemanding is an understatement; the deck only just warms up above idle for this, versus rather convincing fan-heater impressions for many other titles I've played on the thing.”
- “Beautiful game plagued with bad performance issues and very rough gamepad controls.”
- “Actually, that's not exactly true; when I initially picked it up, those aforementioned performance issues were too bad to play it on my crappy laptop at the time.”
emotional
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game evokes strong emotions through its beautiful graphics and heartwarming story of friendship, enhancing the overall experience. Players appreciate the immersive atmosphere and attention to detail, which contribute to a touching narrative despite some minor gameplay hiccups. The combination of stunning visuals, engaging sound design, and a compelling backstory creates a memorable emotional impact.
- “The environment is wholesome and has tiny little details that add to the experience.”
- “Amazing atmosphere and a pretty touching story thus far; gameplay has some physics hiccups, but only because it has decent physics interactions to begin with.”
- “The story behind its creation is heartwarming: two old friends team up during their separate college years to finish off their senior projects and get back together. The visuals are simply gorgeous, the sound design is superb, the music is by Solar Fields (of Mirror's Edge fame), and the gameplay is an awesome physics-augmented 2D platformer shoot-'em-up.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
Overall, the game offers a mix of replayability through various modes, including co-op, versus, and survival options, alongside a solid campaign that encourages score chasing and collectible hunting. While the main story lasts about 4-5 hours, the abundance of weapons, enemies, and hidden items enhances the replay value, making it enjoyable for multiple playthroughs. Players appreciate the fun and addictive nature of the different game modes, contributing to a lasting experience beyond the initial campaign.
- “Lots of weapons and enemies, nice visuals, a solid long story with replayability for collectibles and even splitscreen mode!”
- “The extra modes outside the campaign give the game extra replay value (includes a duel mode against bots or against a friend locally, an infinite survival mode, and others).”
- “The campaign may be short but the game is highly replayable and really promotes score chasing with some fun unlockable modes.”
- “The game lasts for about 4-5 hours; it has some replay value but is mainly a one-time distraction.”
- “A lot of content and different modes add to this game's replay value as well.”
- “The atmosphere and hidden items are reminiscent of Metroid and succeed in adding to each level's replay value.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be largely tedious, particularly in levels that require repetitive tasks like defeating the same boss multiple times or collecting numerous items. Many reviews highlight issues with inconsistent physics and frustrating controls that contribute to a chore-like experience, especially in the later stages. While some appreciate the game's shorter length as a potential relief from tedium, the overall sentiment leans towards the grinding being a significant drawback.
- “Levels that had the objective of 'beat the same boss 4 times' or 'collect the 20 gubbins from around the level' were particularly tedious.”
- “This game came out half-assed and unfinished, with tedious, chore-like playthroughs wherein the objectives rely upon inconsistent physics and game-breaking glitches or irreversible environmental variables.”
- “If the controls were a little tighter, I would say to play this game, but it's really hard to get around, especially with how many enemies can move you around or cling to you, and eventually it becomes just tedious and unfair.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
150%
Reviewers praise the character design as exceptional, contributing to an immersive experience in a captivating alien environment. The strong visual elements enhance the sense of adventure and danger, making players feel genuinely engaged in the game's world.
- “Character design is fire; the environments look amazing, and when I started playing, I felt like I was truly lost in a dangerous alien world.”
- “The character development is incredibly immersive, allowing players to form deep connections with the characters.”
- “Each character has a unique backstory that unfolds beautifully throughout the game, making every interaction feel meaningful.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features a humorous tone with amusing story elements and a fun art style, but its overall execution is marred by significant technical issues, leading to mixed feelings about its recommendation.
- “Funny game with remote play co-op.”
- “The art style is cool, the music is pretty decent, and some of the story slides are funny.”