David. Review: a great idea falls short

David. theoretically combines addictive gameplay with artistic vision. Reality, however, dictates otherwise: with a frustrating central mechanic and a bland story, David. needs significant refinement before it reaches the heights the developer intended.


The brief tutorial introduces players to two problems in this game. The first is the story, which can be summarized as "small square fights evil." The square is named David, but don't expect any more details than that. What evil? Why this particular square? Who knows. I understand that the story is intended to be cute and abstract, but this barebones plot doesn't cut it.

The second and more important problem lies in the game's main mechanic. Attacking requires that you click on David until several spheres cluster together, at which point you aim at enemies by jerking the mouse in their direction. Although time slows down as you gather the spheres, this surprisingly complex mechanic still suffers from some issues. Because players do not regain control of David until slightly after the move has finished, I experienced many unfair deaths. Yet controlling David was often the least of my problems; instead, I repeatedly died because I did not know where the enemies were. That's right—the screen does not expand to include enemies. I understand the reasoning behind this decision, as zooming out would have made David too small to click with any sort of consistency. As is, however, enemies sometimes flew onto the screen out of nowhere and killed David before I noticed them.

This level is titled 'Anger.' It's an emotion you'll experience frequently in David.

Still, I admit I enjoyed messing around with David's attack. I often stayed in slow-motion throughout entire levels in order to win. Sometimes I would enter slow-motion for some epic Matrix style dodges and then, once I had fired my spheres, escape by sprinting away. This mechanic is more versatile than it might seem in the first hour or so of playing. It's also relatively novel; perhaps that's why it remains so unbalanced.

My third issue with David. arises in the game's controls. David. is not a traditional platformer, but it borrows enough elements from that genre that it needs to handle well. This is not the case, as David carries momentum like no other. I also don't know why the developers included a jump button—considering players possess an unlimited number of jumps, it would have made much more sense to allow the square to fly.

Choose wisely—as in always choose "Okay."

If David. were a more casual game, I might forgive the subpar controls. Alas, David. is quite punishing. The game has two difficulty modes, "Okay" and "Very." In the first, I blundered my way through all of the levels with relative ease. As a result, I was less aware of how my character floated across the screen and how his attack often caused me to take damage.



Because the second difficulty mode only gives the player a single hit point, my concerns about the inferior controls and inherently flawed attack mechanic were suddenly amplified. And it's not as though "Very" is impossible; rather, it's that the majority of my deaths were cheap, many occurring seconds after I spawned. David. is no doubt a tough game to beat, but too much of that toughness comes from poor design. In some cases, beating a level felt more like luck than skill.

Speaking of luck, it was really hard to get this screenshot.

Despite the deficiencies in David.'s gameplay, Fermenter Games worked hard to make this game as beautiful as possible. The minimalist art style reminds me of a more colorful Thomas Was Alone, and the aggressive electronic music suits David. I also appreciated how the music slowed down whenever I began to charge my attack.

As much as I enjoyed the art and music of David., my favorite aspect of the game was the varied levels. Instead of jamming dozens of near identical levels into David., Fermenter Games spent time thinking of many different ways to engage the player. During my time with David., I navigated a maze, fled as I was chased, battled an underwater monster, and more. One of the best levels required that I destroy a thick wall while dodging incoming bullets. Yes, there are only eleven levels, but each introduces new concepts. The fantastic level design doesn't make up for inherently flawed mechanics, but it goes a long way in alleviating the pain.

David. has a second mode that works as an arcade shoot-em-up with the mechanics I have already described. Because this mode plays out the same every time, I found myself less engaged by it than by the campaign. Some may be attracted to its score-attack feel; I was not.

I died immediately after this. I'm still not sure how.

With interesting levels, good music, and beautiful style, David. has potential. To find that potential, however, you'll need to look past the malfunctioning attack mechanic, a nonexistent story, and an inadequate control scheme.

MEDIOCRE

+Beautiful art and sound design
+Excellent level design

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-Subpar controls
-Essentially no story
-Flawed core mechanic

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