Small Spaceman, Big Charm – Lost Orbit Review

<p>How many times have you picked up a cheap &lpar;or even free&rpar; game on the PSN store&comma; only to play it for a brief while and never open again&quest; Don&&num;8217&semi;t get me wrong&comma; PlayStation has had some fantastic Indie support lately&comma; and there are tons of them well worth playing&period; There are even more that fall flat within a day or two&comma; if not instantly&period; <em>Lost Orbit<&sol;em> is not one of those flops&period; <em>Lost Orbit<&sol;em> asks you for the commitment of a mobile game&semi; You can marathon through it&comma; or play it out in small satisfying chunks&comma; but it packs the polished aesthetic and engaging story of AAA standards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You play as Harrison&comma; an everyman space engineer &&num;8212&semi; Joe Jetpack if you will &&num;8212&semi; who finds himself stranded in space with nothing but a jetpack&comma; recycled air&comma; and one hell of a will to survive the journey home&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not an awfully long game&comma; and its game design is pretty straightforward&period; It plays like a mix of a racer&sol;bullet-hell dodge &&num;8217&semi;em up where the slightest mistake leaves you floating dead into the cold void of space&period; The gameplay is incredibly addictive&comma; the environments vary both in the obstacles you encounter&comma; and the aesthetic of your surroundings&period; The whole adventure from start to finish feels finely polished&period; What really blew me away was how wonderful the story and characters were&comma; even in such a short experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04213955&sol;Lost-Orbit-3&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-85764" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04213955&sol;Lost-Orbit-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Lost Orbit &lpar;3&rpar;" width&equals;"1100" height&equals;"618" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Lost Orbit<&sol;em>&comma; like its protagonist Harrison&comma; has a lot of charm in a relatively small package&period; The albeit light story is told through such a beautifully nuanced narration that even after the frustration of crashing into the same damn asteroid a dozen times&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll want to push on further just to see what happens next&period; The story is narrated in the cold logic of a robot&&num;8217&semi;s AI&comma; first from a distance&comma; and then by your side as it joins Harrison as a very passive sidekick&period; A gradual bromance develops between the two full of playful rib jabbings&period; There are also a couple of really subtle&comma; but fantastic&comma; pop-culture references&period; The narration is infrequent and mostly comes into play during specific story beats&comma; but it ends up being the cornerstone to the experience&comma; and a solid motivation to endure through the narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As I played through <em>Lost Orbit<&sol;em>&comma; I kept wanting to say that it was adorable&comma; &lpar;and it was&rpar; but never seemed to hold the thought for long before being interrupted by a gruesome death animation&period; The character suffers through vivisection by lasers&comma; gibbing into pieces&comma; or hitting something so hard that his bloody skeleton flew right out of his body into space &&num;8212&semi; because that happens&period; There is a glimmer of charming innocence to the art design&comma; and dialogue that makes even the most violent moments conjure the descriptor of adorable &&num;8212&semi; even if only briefly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214009&sol;Lost-Orbit-2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-85763" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04214009&sol;Lost-Orbit-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Lost Orbit &lpar;2&rpar;" width&equals;"1100" height&equals;"618" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay itself is engaging&comma; and the levels add new mechanics that gradually build on each other with a perfect pace&period; It has that &&num;8220&semi;easy to learn&comma; difficult to master&&num;8221&semi; arcade game feel to it&period; You start with the ability to turn left and right&comma; and boost as you travel upwards&period; You can catch yourself in a small planet&&num;8217&semi;s orbit&comma; circle around it and boost out of it&comma; or boost through the side of its orbit to pick up some extra speed&period; You &lpar;ideally&rpar; avoid incoming asteroids and space debris&comma; and travel through frequent checkpoints before reaching a warp gate at the end of the level&period; Eventually&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re managing your speed and maneuvering with the addition of a few more abilities all while you deal with a variety of lethal obstacles and items that boost or teleport you forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Lost Orbit<&sol;em> is a powerfully narrated arcade experience that you can play out in small pieces at a time&comma; or power through in one sitting&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s hours of replayability in revisiting areas for speed runs and challenge modes&comma; which both make <em>Lost Orbit<&sol;em> a strong indie game in the PlayStation Store right now&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A press copy of Lost Orbit was provided by PixelNAUTS for the purpose of this review<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;