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Capsized

An intense and beautifully designed action-physics platformer, which also happens to be dirt cheap.
71%Game Brain Score
music, graphics
stability, optimization
75% User Score Based on 1,460 reviews
Critic Score 63%Based on 4 reviews

Platforms

MOMac OSPCPCWinWindowsLinLinuxXboxXboxX3Xbox 360
Buy Nowfrom $2.10
Buy NowGet on Steam$9.99

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
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+3

75%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,464 reviews
music326 positive mentions
stability20 negative mentions
  • Beautiful hand-drawn graphics and a captivating atmosphere.
  • Engaging gameplay with a variety of weapons and physics-based mechanics.
  • Great soundtrack by Solar Fields that enhances the overall experience.
  • Floaty and imprecise controls that can lead to frustrating gameplay.
  • Difficulty spikes in later levels that may feel unfair and punishing.
  • Visual clutter makes it hard to distinguish between enemies and the environment.
  • music
    469 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    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 players find captivating and immersive. While some reviewers note that the music can become repetitive over time, the overall consensus is that it enhances the exploration experience and complements the game's beautiful visuals. Despite a few criticisms regarding volume levels and occasional intrusiveness, the soundtrack is often highlighted as a standout feature that significantly contributes to the game's appeal.

    • “The music is fantastic too.”
    • “The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous.”
    • “The absolute star is the solar fields soundtrack and the atmosphere it helps to create in the game.”
    • “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.”
    • “There is virtually no music, and what little music there is, is complete shit.”
  • graphics
    412 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    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 may detract from the game's clarity and playability.

    • “The graphics are very good, with a very good use of color and nice little touches that makes you want to stop and stare sometimes and just take in the atmosphere.”
    • “In addition to its gorgeous hand-drawn graphics and an atmospheric musical score, the game offers hours of exploration in richly detailed environments.”
    • “The entire art style for the game is very beautiful, consisting of complex hand-drawn artwork.”
    • “Capsized has a lot of interesting ideas, ultimately hindered with a frustrating execution and muddied visuals.”
    • “I don't like doing negative reviews of people's hard work - but I just can't see anybody really enjoying this game as it is: the plot is silent and boring, with no immersion-factor at all; the visuals are distracting and stressful, making the game feel strange and clunky; and the level design seems uninspired and generic.”
    • “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
    360 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of the reviewed games is characterized by a mix of innovative mechanics and frustrating controls, often leading to a clunky experience. While some players appreciate the variety of weapons and physics-based interactions, many express dissatisfaction with the execution, citing issues like floaty movement and unclear objectives. Overall, the games offer a visually appealing experience with potential for fun, but are hindered by inconsistent gameplay quality and mechanics that can feel unpolished or overly complex.

    • “The gameplay itself is really good; jetpacks, sling-hooks, and an arsenal of different weapons make the game feel like a platformer as well as a shooter.”
    • “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.”
    • “Beautiful graphics, great soundtrack, and unique game mechanics make this title a sure recommendation.”
    • “I can recommend this game only if you're a masochist or have a kink for broken gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay is 'medium-tough' with some of the later levels approaching infuriating and I had to turn the difficulty down for one particularly challenging level.”
    • “Gameplay 'difficulty' mostly based upon frustrating controls, frustrating enemies, frustrating pseudo physics, and frustrating level design.”
  • story
    274 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of *Capsized* is simple and minimalist, revolving around an astronaut who crash-lands on an alien planet and must rescue crew members while navigating various missions. It is conveyed through comic-style still images, which some players find charming, though many criticize it for being repetitive and lacking depth. Overall, while the narrative serves its purpose, it is often described as basic and forgettable, with the gameplay taking precedence over storytelling.

    • “The story is simple but effective, and the alien world you explore is pretty damn creative.”
    • “Capsized did an excellent job of telling a simple story and capitalizing on an inventive momentum-based movement system.”
    • “The story, although simple, is enough to keep one playing through the game and more enemies are added to keep things interesting.”
    • “The story is nothing to write home about.”
    • “The story is very dull and is told through still frame pictures with no dialogue or text.”
    • “This game gets really boring, really fast, especially with its lackluster story.”
  • atmosphere
    110 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    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 enchanting. Players appreciate the game's ability to evoke a sense of exploration and survival, reminiscent of classic titles like Metroid, while the atmospheric soundtrack enhances the overall experience. Despite some gameplay frustrations, the rich visual and auditory elements contribute significantly to the game's appeal, making it a standout feature.

    • “The atmosphere it creates is simply... breathtaking.”
    • “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.”
    • “Capsized manages to provide a very enjoyable action platforming experience with a stunningly beautiful atmospheric environment.”
    • “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.”
    • “I’m relatively certain it’s by design, since the atmosphere is alien and aquatic in nature, but I never felt in control of the character.”
    • “The atmosphere of the game was alright.”
  • stability
    20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is heavily criticized, with numerous reports of game-breaking glitches, awkward controls, and inconsistent physics that can disrupt gameplay and force restarts. While some players experienced minimal issues, many found the game to be unfinished and riddled with bugs, particularly affecting control support and exit functionality. Overall, these stability problems significantly detract from the gaming experience.

    • “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, errors, or development oversights, whatever you call them, prevent me from completing this game at all.”
    • “Oh, and the game freezes when you try to exit it, so there's that too.”
  • optimization
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The optimization of the game is a mixed bag; while it runs smoothly 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 not well-optimized for gamepad controls, with mouse input being recommended instead. Overall, it is visually impressive but marred by performance challenges that can hinder the experience on less capable systems.

    • “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
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game evokes strong emotions through its beautiful graphics and immersive environments, which transport players to an alien world. The heartwarming backstory of two friends reuniting to complete their projects adds a personal touch, enhancing the overall experience. Despite some gameplay hiccups, the emotional atmosphere and superb sound design contribute to a memorable journey.

    • “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 (famous for Mirror's Edge), and the gameplay is an awesome physics-augmented 2D platformer shoot-em-up.”
    • “The environment is wholesome and has tiny little details that add to the experience.”
  • replayability
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers a mix of replayability through various modes, including co-op, versus, and campaign, despite a relatively short campaign duration of 4-5 hours. Players appreciate the abundance of weapons, collectibles, and hidden items that enhance the experience, alongside additional modes like duel and infinite survival, making it fun and addictive for repeated play. Overall, while it can serve as a one-time distraction, the game encourages score chasing and exploration, contributing to its replay value.

    • “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).”
    • “All the game modes (whether co-op, vs., or campaign) are all around fun and addictive with unlimited replayability!”
    • “The game lasts for about 4-5 hours; it has some replay value but is mainly a one-time distraction.”
    • “The extra modes outside the campaign give the game extra replay value, including a duel mode against bots or a friend locally, an infinite survival mode, and others.”
    • “A lot of content and different modes add to this game's replay value as well.”
  • grinding
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be particularly tedious, especially with repetitive objectives like defeating the same boss multiple times or collecting items scattered throughout levels. Many reviews highlight that the game suffers from inconsistent physics and glitches, making the experience feel chore-like and frustrating, particularly in the later stages. While some acknowledge that the game's shorter length helps mitigate potential tedium, the overall sentiment leans towards a negative view of the grinding mechanics.

    • “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
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Reviewers praise the character design as exceptional, highlighting its ability to immerse players in a vividly crafted alien world. The strong visual elements contribute significantly to the overall experience, enhancing the sense of adventure and danger.

    • “Character design is fire, the environments look amazing and when I started playing it, I felt like I was truly lost in a dangerous alien world.”
  • humor
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game features a humorous tone, with players appreciating the funny story slides and enjoyable art style. However, despite the comedic elements, many users express frustration with technical issues, leading to mixed recommendations.

    • “Funny game with remote play co-op.”
    • “Some of the story slides are funny.”

63%Critics’ scoreBased on 4 critic reviews

Buy Capsized

22h Median play time
16h Average play time
2-29h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs

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