From the developers of Resogun, Matterfall was a title I hadn’t heard a lot about before E3. Now, having had a chance to play through a couple of its areas, I’m actually quite excited for it, and it could be a sleeper hit for those looking for a visually striking game that’s also a decent platformer/shooter.
It’s a run-and-gun 2D shooter, with elements of bullet hell and games like Mega Man. You fire with the right analogue stick, like a twinstick shooter, and you’re able to move your character around while you jump with the R1 trigger. This takes a while to get used to, and its definitely something my brain couldn’t quite wrap around during my quick demo, but it makes sense. The developers decided on this scheme since your thumbs always need to be ready on the thumbsticks to move and shoot, so it made sense to keep the players’ fingers on the triggers.
Most of Matterfall is colour coded – enemies are red, while blue indicates ‘blue matter’ objects and areas throughout the level that are considered helpful. It’s visually striking, and the insane particle effects the developers are known for from Resogun are on full display here. They’re also aiming for a silky smooth 60fps.
L1 lets you dash, very reminiscent of Mighty No. 9, as you can dash through enemies to stun them, turning them from red to blue and making them easier to defeat. On the L2 trigger, your character can fire a whip-like energy beam, which is necessary to transform transparent blue blocks throughout the level into ‘blue matter’ platforms. You can also use this to blow up blue matter bombs that appear after defeating enemies, or to free hostages trapped in goo throughout levels. This is especially important because hostages can reward you with augmentations.
There are 12 total augmentations you can collect – 4 of these are sub-weapons, while the remaining 8 are passive buffs. Your character can be equipped with any three at any time, so it depends on what you want – would you rather have all passive abilities to buff your range and health; or would you rather have three sub-weapons selectable from the d-pad at all times, or a mix of the two?
In the E3 demo, I collected two sub-weapons which were fired with the R2 button – the first was a grenade launcher that fires projectiles that bounce around the environment. If you’re accurate enough, you can take out enemies in hard to reach places that only small projectiles can get through. The second weapon, a missile cannon, fires a spread of three homing missiles at a target, making it a great choice for enemies that are hard to pin down, or are moving too fast for you to keep up with. There is no ammo for these sub-weapons to collect, they’re simply on cooldown timers. At times, you can also unleash an Overcharge ability, which essentially shatters everything on screen in a huge blast, similar to Resogun.
There are three main areas of the game, although the developers are still working out how long exactly the game will be, and how many sections there will be within those areas. They are also planning on leaderboards for each area to increase replayability.
Matterfall feels like a fun combination of bullet hell with Mighty No 9 (except potentially actually delivering on a fun, and challenging, platform shooter). It takes a little while to wrap your head around the control scheme – although maybe it’s just me. I’m confident I would adjust with time, but that aside, it looks unique both in its visual style and gameplay mechanics. Look for it on 16 August, 2017.
