Orange Moon Plants Platforming Flag On Early Access
Damn you Recycler!
I was quite taken with Orange Moon [official site], a 2D action-platformer with RPG elements, when I first stumbled across it last year. It's now made its way onto Early Access and, while it's not quite as far along as I'd hoped, it's still showing lots of potential. Echoing the tough-as-nails roguelike sidescrollers of yesteryear, it's a game about exploring a foreign planet where everything is, obviously, out to get you. In its current state, it offers five levels, five weapon types and 49 upgrades, alongside several enemy forms and a smattering of puzzles. Here's how some that looks in motion:
The protagonist's inabilty to angle his or her shots is still a bit of an issue for me, however, having just dived into the latest build, traversing levels, determining enemy weaknesses, and handling its sophisticated upgrades menu feels far more fluent and cohesive now than it ever did before. Enemies appear tougher, but never unfair, and the lone boss adversary (there's to be ten levels with four bosses come launch) is a bastard.
The Recycler, as it's known - a "moderately intelligent and heavily armoured machine used to clean up mining areas" - comes equipped with a stone cutter, a laser, a drill, a grenade launcher and flamethrower. There's only a few of them left on the Orange Planet, apparently, which is just as well because I spent entirely too long taking just one of them down. Again, it's a bastard.
This post details everything else in the current build, all of which leads me to believe Orange Moon is on the right track if you're into this sort of game. That said, although discounted at the time of writing, at £10.99 full price it's a wee bit on the dear side for a game far from finished.
You might want to sample its free two-level demo first to see what you think.
Otherwise, Orange Moon is out now for Windows on Steam Early Access for the reduced price of £7.36/$$10.04/10,04€. Before you go, you should check out this extended developer walkthrough for a better look at how Orange Moon plays:
