XBOX 360! For those who love aliens and puzzlers. Here's W.A.R.P for you and it's just been released this week so grab a copy now and enjoy its alien-centric gaming. Here's a review for this exciting game:
There are a lot of games featuring aliens on the various download services, as well as a lot of action puzzlers. So for an alien-centric action puzzler to capture your attention these days means it's got to bring some style and personality to the table. From what I've seen, Warp - coming to PC, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live later this year - does just that.
I recently had the chance to test drive a press demo of the PC version of Warp, and walked away looking forward to its full release. The game is a unique hybrid of action, puzzle and stealth gameplay. You play as an orange alien named Zero who is attempting to escape from the underwater labyrinthine lab where he's being held captive. You progress by going from area to area, trying to get past the guards and the various obstacles along the way. With motion sensing turrets, hidden mines and electric fences, gaining Zero his freedom is no easy task - and the fact that the guards shoot first and ask questions later only makes matters trickier.
Luckily, Zero doesn't mind shedding some blood in his quest for liberty. While most of the time you have the option of sneaking past guards without being detected, the infinitely more fun way to play can be quite gory. As sadistic as it sounds, there's something about the cartoony art style and goofy sound effects that makes blowing up a guard from the inside kind of hilarious, and more fun than it should be.
Zero has several abilities at his disposal that players can use to solve the various puzzles and get past the different obstacles scattered across the lab. Most of these weren't yet unlocked in the press version I played, but I was able to toy around with a couple of them. Zero's bread and butter, not too surprisingly, is his ability to warp from one area of a room to another (so long as it's within his relatively small warping range). This is the alien's primary weapon and main tool for puzzle-solving, and also how he manages to warp inside of unsuspecting guards (and, as mentioned, blow up the poor fools from within).
In addition to warping, you can eventually create a double of Zero to lure guards away and help solve puzzles. This adds another cool mechanic, and I used it several times during my short demo to different effects (such as tricking a guard into shooting a turret I otherwise couldn't get past). Hopefully the addition of more skills will make for an even deeper experience that what I played, though I did have a great time messing around with the few abilities I had at my disposal.
Warp has a lot of personality, and the promise of online leaderboards and real-time stat-tracking and Challenge Rooms has certainly piqued my interest. For my money, however, the most interesting part of this forthcoming download is the number of options it gives the player. You can beat each room in any number of ways - there's no one right answer for solving any puzzle. You can either avoid carnage whenever possible by stealthily slipping by the guards or leave a relative bloodbath in your wake. There are challenges to either approach, so assuming the final game is enthralling enough, this should make for a decent level of replay value as you play around with Zero's different abilities and find new ways to help him regain his freedom.
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