Spate: a mediocre game drenched in beauty

I once grew hopelessly infatuated with a girl for one reason: she was really hot. I didn't know if we had shared interests because I had never heard her speak. When the two of us went out for coffee on a blind date, I quickly realized she wasn't right for me.

I experienced similar feelings about Spate—a rush of excitement as I grew attached to the warped, shifting backgrounds; a tingling pleasure as the haunting soundtrack creeped into my ears; and then, of course, bland disappointment at the gameplay itself.

Let's start with the good: Spate is stunningly beautiful.  Constant rain crashes down on Detective Bluth as he navigates a psychedelic world complete with impossible physics and a grim but vibrant color palette.  The music sounds beautiful as well, albeit in a mournful and oppressive way.  Although I started to tire of the soundtrack as I neared the game's conclusion, I blame that on the quantity rather than the quality of the tracks.

Spate hooked me with this trailer.  You'll notice the trailer avoids revealing any actual gameplay—in fact, the gif below encapsulates the only action in the entire video.

TWO WHOLE STEPS!!!

There's a reason the developers intentionally avoided displaying this aspect of Spate: while the platforming isn't awful, it certainly isn't great.  At best it is serviceable, and at worst it's mildly frustrating.  The twist arises in the player's ability to drink absinthe: a drunken Detective Bluth jumps much higher than a sober one.  This mechanic is interesting but underdeveloped—not only is it never actually needed, but I found myself spamming absinthe without significant consequences.  Although anyone watching me play would have realized my on screen character needed an intervention, Bluth's apparent addiction didn't even affect the ending.

Spate also makes an occasional foray into other types of gameplay; at one point I shot cannon balls and at another I flew a very un-aerodynamic ship. While these segments succeed in breaking up the monotony of mediocre platforming, they are tedious and a bit frustrating.

If Spate's narrative rivaled the game's atmosphere, I would be willing to accept the average gameplay.  Unfortunately, the narrative flops; I found myself laughing at Bluth's constant references to the absinthe, and the steampunk world clashed with the truer story of a man suffering from the death of his daughter and his painful divorce.  The bad voice acting further damns the story.

This is about as normal as it gets.

Before this game released, Rock, Paper, Shotgun wondered if the subject matter was "Perhaps too heavy?" Unfortunately, they were right: Spate has its moments, but overall it fails to reach its potential.  I purchased this game with high expectations, and just looking pretty doesn't cut it these days.

MEDIOCRE

+Darkly beautiful atmosphere

+Good sound track

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-Average platforming

-Gimmicky main mechanic

-Weak narrative

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