PROJECTIONS
- July 13, 2021
- Wolfgun
PROJECTIONS is a single-player Science Fiction Arcade game with excellent music, where you play as Vision, mastering Projection Combat and Perfect Dodges to reach Aranactha and understand the meaning of change. The game features procedurally generated dimensions and endless enemies, with its difficulty scaling according to your performance. Original art, animations, and music are showcased throughout the game.
Reviews
- The game features stunning and surreal visuals, complemented by an incredible soundtrack from Wolfgun that enhances the overall experience.
- Projections offers a unique gameplay loop focused on dodging and scoring, allowing players to engage at their own pace without the fear of traditional game overs.
- The mechanics are innovative, shaking up the hack and slash genre by rewarding perfect dodges and creating a compelling balance between risk and reward.
- The game lacks audio adjustment options and has long loading times between stages, which can disrupt the flow of gameplay.
- New players may find the mechanics confusing at first, and the absence of a clear tutorial can lead to frustration.
- Some players may feel overwhelmed by the chaotic visuals and sounds, making it difficult to follow the action during intense moments.
- music72 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The music in the game, composed by wolfgun, is widely praised as an outstanding and integral part of the experience, featuring a mix of new tracks and remixes that enhance the gameplay. Reviewers highlight the soundtrack as a major draw, describing it as "incredible," "bopping," and "sublime," which complements the game's fast-paced action and immersive visuals. Overall, the music is considered a key element that keeps players engaged and adds to the game's replayability.
“The art and music are just beautiful, which is not surprising considering Wolfgun's wealth of experience in those areas, and of which I have been a long-time fan.”
“Wolfgun's fantastic music scores a challenging arcade-style hack-and-slash that encourages you to push your scores higher and higher and keeps you up late at night cross-referencing old albums as you try deciphering the cryptic lore.”
“This is a pretty incredible arcade-action title with an absolutely bopping soundtrack.”
“I've been a fan of Wolfgun's music for many years, and when I saw the trailer, I was dazzled but I shared others' concerns about the game being visually busy or hard to follow.”
“Wolfgun is one of those artists that, despite my love of sharing music with people, is hard for me to find others who would enjoy his music as well, but this isn't a review on his music.”
“Those familiar with Wolfgun's music prior will recognize a few select tracks remixed and given new life to fit this new strange universe they've wound up in, along with the plethora of all new songs created to accompany you on the journey to discover the truth.”
- gameplay36 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay is described as fun and straightforward, with a unique blend of mechanics that challenge traditional hack-and-slash conventions, creating a compelling loop of increasing difficulty and score management. Players can enjoy a casual experience or strive for mastery, with a variety of unlockable concepts and a rich lore that enhances replayability. The controls are simple, the visuals are striking, and the soundtrack is highly praised, making the overall experience engaging and rewarding, especially after completing the necessary training.
“The most compelling aspect of this game is how the game mechanics and the philosophy behind them are shaking the conventions of the hack and slash/action games they borrow from.”
“This leads to a compelling gameplay loop where you coax the game into increasing the difficulty until you are balancing tenuously between increasing your score and avoiding letting it get too difficult for you to keep dodging successfully.”
“There's a surprising amount of depth to the combat despite having no lose mechanic; you are given scores for how well you play and penalties for when you don't dodge attacks.”
“The gameplay is basically just attacking enemies and trying to perfect dodge their attacks.”
“Absolutely must do the training before jumping into the game; it's definitely unlike any game you've played before and you'll be very confused and missing out on a lot of unique mechanics unless you do training.”
“I did a whole playthrough and didn't figure out every mechanic and how to do every move (granted, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed for these kinds of games despite my love for them).”
- story24 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game's story, rooted in Wolfgun's extended projections lore, explores profound themes of existence and meaning, offering a rich tapestry of connections and secrets beneath its seemingly straightforward surface. Players unlock 'concepts' through gameplay that reveal cutscenes, deepening their understanding of the world and its narrative. While some find the story intriguing and high-concept, others feel the game's relationship with the developer's discography is the more compelling narrative.
“This is all wrapped in lore from Wolfgun's extended projections storyline that contemplates themes of existence, futility, and higher meaning.”
“I think this game has an incredible spirit to it; the story mode is quite interesting and high concept, and I find myself pondering the meaning (or meanings) of it weeks later.”
“You unlock these 'concepts' to play as with each subsequent run through of the game, which also progresses/unlocks cutscenes that tell you the story and lore of the world you're playing within. While rather straightforward and 'simple' on the surface, the story is rich with connections, secrets, and lore when you dig deeper into things between the cutscenes, gameplay, and some other works released by the creator.”
“The story was alright, although I think the game itself and its relationship with its developer's discography is the much more interesting tale.”
“And the story is the sort of deeply weird auteur stuff I wish I could write.”
“There is a story that takes place explaining more of the lore that was started through his music.”
- graphics12 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The graphics are characterized by stunning and surreal visuals that create an immersive experience, complemented by a captivating soundtrack. Despite the chaotic and minimalist designs, the visuals remain distinct and readable, allowing players to easily identify enemy cues during fast-paced gameplay. The overall aesthetic, combined with randomized worlds, enhances the engaging combat and storytelling elements of the game.
“Stunning and surreal visuals, tight action gameplay with combos and dodging clearly inspired by the likes of Bayonetta, captivating story presentation, and of course, a soundtrack that goes so, so, so hard.”
“As strange and minimalist as the designs can be, and as chaotic as the sounds and visuals can get, it's all extremely readable no matter how fast the gameplay gets.”
“Visuals are extremely distinct and easy to figure out, and every single enemy has some kind of visual or clear auditory cue you can use to figure out when they're attacking, which is good because this is a score-based game.”
“You get immersed very quickly with the combat, the soundtrack, and the visuals.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Projections offers a unique gameplay experience complemented by an engaging soundtrack, providing players with significant replayability to enhance their skills and scores.
“Projections has a unique style of gameplay, a bopping soundtrack, and a good amount of replayability to improve on your skills and scores.”