Welcome to our review of another indie to get a Nintendo Switch-port, Forma.8!
Forma.8 is a unique take on the proven Metroidvania action-adventure formula, with a striking visual style and a huge world to explore. It is available on most consoles and is now also available on the Nintendo Switch! Let us take a look at what the Italian gaming studio called Mixed Bag brought to the table!
As the small exploration probe Forma.8 you’ve stranded alone on the surface of an alien planet. Separated from your companions by accident you have a life or death mission to accomplish: find and recover a lost, powerful energy source before it’s too late. Ancient civilizations, great perils, and dystopian visions await you. And not everything is what it seems…
You are thrown into this game without any type of tutorial and need to figure out everything yourself, which is not always a good thing! You will encounter enemies in your quest and without any help at all, you need to find the mechanics that best them.
This can be very unforgiving and prepare to die a lot… While I do not like spoiling, I will just once change my intention never to spoil anything as I do need to say this, use your weapons to influence other weapons. Once you get more than the regular powershield for your probe, you will need to find a calm place and experiment using two weapons at once.
As a probe on this alien planet, you are hit with an amazing color palette and a steady pace at which you fly through the world, killing the enemies, big and small and solving minor puzzles. You fly through obstacles and avoid other. This is a beautiful game, but the pace at which everything happens, it can be annoying and takes a very long time to get used to.
As you progress, you are sometimes faced with the need to backtrack and this is exactly where the fixed slow speeds become tedious… All the time, this game has such a relaxed pace, sometimes I did wish it was faster.
With the bad parts out of the way, let me also sing its’ praise. The design, like I mentioned before, is quite gorgeous and it really is what keeps you coming back. Exploring the vast world that you landed on, while mostly a visual eye candy, do not lose your way and stop looking at your surroundings.
Another thing I loved, getting the timing right of your weapons. You don’t just get a repeat shooter or instant reload, no, they are timed. This is actually an added bonus to this game as it makes killing off enemies so much more rewarding and you never get the feeling this is in its’ core an Action adventure game.
In conclusion, Forma.8 is a special game and should be rewarded for its’ stunning visuals throughout the game. Just the pace and lack of a tutorial are what often got on my nerves while playing this game and I can not say I can look past it while rating this game.
I ended up giving the game a 70% rating, the positives outweighed the pace and lack of a tutorial, but just barely.
