Energy Hook Review

<p>When I was younger&comma; I spent most of my free time in my parent&&num;8217&semi;s basement Rec Room&period; This was my safe haven&comma; home to all of my video games and my vast collection of sitcoms&period; Arguably&comma; the game I dumped the most time into was <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> on the PlayStation 2&period; The combination of an open world and the fantastic swinging mechanic made it easy to get lost in Manhattan&period; I still remember that game fondly as the closest I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever come to being Spider-Man&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The man behind the acclaimed swinging mechanic&comma; Jamie Fristrom&comma; went on to start his own company&comma; Happion Labs&period; Now&comma; his company has released <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em>&comma; the &&num;8220&semi;Sports Game of the Future&excl;&&num;8221&semi; In essence&comma; the game is the swinging mechanic of <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> placed on a current-generation console&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s all I needed to hear &&num;8212&semi; sign me up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110581" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110581" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110581 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03114722&sol;11855913686&lowbar;5684a3b3a2&lowbar;z&period;jpg" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"358" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110581" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Energy Hook<&sol;em>&comma; Happion Labs&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em> is not the game I or most other fans wanted&comma; and I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be more disappointed&period; The concept is sound&colon; A futuristic sports game with swinging&comma; jet-packing&comma; and awesome tricks&period; But the game is empty and borderline broken&period; The environments have potential&comma; but feel outdated&period; The game looks about as good as <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> did 12 years ago&period; And the swinging&&num;8230&semi;the gameplay in general&&num;8230&semi;is bad&period; Really&comma; really bad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You play a character with a jetpack and a grappling hook who takes on skill and time-based challenges across different maps&period; Props to the development team for making the protagonist a black woman&comma; though this fact is overshadowed by the game itself&period; There is a large amount of customization of controls and settings&comma; and certain settings can be changed or altered by unlocking more throughout the game&comma; but nothing ever really feels right&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The main character constantly glides across the ground like she&&num;8217&semi;s running on ice&period; Jumping is tedious&period; The camera either aggressively follows the character through a swing or doesn&&num;8217&semi;t move at all&comma; which becomes a serious &lpar;or nauseating&rpar; issue&period; I messed around with the settings for hours trying to find something that worked&comma; as the default ones definitely did not&period; I eventually found a set-up to at least get me through the game&comma; but it was never ideal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110582" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110582" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110582 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03114710&sol;11855539744&lowbar;c62151f206&lowbar;z&period;jpg" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"363" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110582" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Energy Hook&comma;<&sol;em> Happion Labs&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As I mentioned&comma; the game is also empty&period; Desolate&comma; even&period; There aren&&num;8217&semi;t a large amount of challenges and they&&num;8217&semi;re generally uninteresting&period; Run&sol;swing through the rings&period; Land in certain spots&period; But nothing is really alive or even moving in any of the worlds&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re the only thing there&period; Everything is static&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s depressing to brokenly swing through an empty world&comma; and extraordinarily boring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I spoke to Jamie Fristrom on The BagoCast prior to this review&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s a great guy who has a passion for games and for the swinging mechanic he helped design&period; When we spoke&comma; he said the most important thing with <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em> was that it &&num;8220&semi;felt good&period;&&num;8221&semi; The game isn&&num;8217&semi;t about winning or topping the leaderboards&comma; in his eyes&period; Rather&comma; <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em> is about the satisfying feeling of swinging through a world&period; I remember that feeling from <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em>&comma; and I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t wait to re-live it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>99&percnt; of the time&comma; that feeling is not here&period; Sure&comma; every great once in a while you get a swing that feels just right&comma; and you land feeling satisfied&period; But the bottom line is that this game does NOT &&num;8220&semi;feel good&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110583" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110583" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110583" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03114658&sol;27956413495&lowbar;4da42eb4f6&lowbar;h-300x300&period;jpg" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110583" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Energy Hook<&sol;em>&comma; Happion Labs&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>This got me thinking&colon; Was<em> Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> REALLY that good&quest; It came out over 12 years ago&period; Perhaps I&&num;8217&semi;m comparing this new game to something nostalgic and rose-colored in my memory&period; So&comma; just to be sure&comma; I ran out and picked up a &dollar;5 used copy of <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em>&comma; dusted off the old PS2&comma; and gave it a shot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> is a GREAT game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No&comma; the graphics don&&num;8217&semi;t really hold up at all&comma; but the gameplay is timeless&period; The swinging feels infinitely better than <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em>&period; The camera swings along behind effortlessly&period; And the world is vibrant&comma; full&comma; and alive&period; People swear at you when you land in front of their moving car&period; Challenges have you interacting with baddies&period; Simply climbing up walls is an aspect that&&num;8217&semi;s sorely missing from <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Energy Hook<&sol;em> is not <em>Spider-Man<&sol;em>&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m not trying to say it should be&period; But there are serious technical and fundamental issues here that a 12 year old game got right&period; Perhaps Happion Labs simply tried too hard to change the formula&comma; or thought that they needed to differentiate&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know that <em>Energy Hook<&sol;em> even needs that much more in it&period; But&comma; in this day and age&comma; you simply cannot release a broken game&comma; or even a game that feels as bad as this&period; There are too many other games out there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 review copy of Energy Hook was provided by Happion Labs for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;