Ultrageist, a whole new level of gaming

This is an interesting game by Tom Russell. Tom's games are known for their originality and abstract types of play. That said, I think this one takes the cake. The player plays as a small box shaped object(possibly a ship) that must fight through hordes of strange grotesque creatures. The reason for that I'm not quite sure. It is amazing how hard it is to describe this game when the controls are simply arrows to move and space to shoot. To make this task easier I'll break it down into the statistical groups.

Graphics: The graphics are pleasantly soft on the eyes. They are dull pinks, grays, and oranges. They are not extremely advanced, but they get their point accross. The player's weopons use the flare effect with similarly dulled shades.

Sound: The sound consists simply of one music track for the gameplay and a short victory track if you manage to beat the game. That said I find teh tracks very fun to listen to, and they add to the gameplay what is lacking: imersiveness.(You can say what you like, but obviously I'm biased since I made the music.)

Gameplay: The gameplay consists of flying through this strange world, and blasting enemies to smitherings. That said, it possesses an extreme amount of unerlying complexity which I cannot begin to describe. As stated by the author you have to learn to use various gimmicks to your advantage, but first you have to discover them. That is where the replayability comes in, as well as the difficulty. You have ti pay close attention to what's going on to notice the apparent glitches and bugs. This can be a lengthy process however, and will most definately require many many playthroughs to master.

Story: Well, this is a pickle.The story is extremely hard to pickup, if it even exists. I may have delusioned myself into imagining this but here goes: "There is a person trapped in a strange land inhabited by terrifying creatures. demons even. He must find his way out, but the way home is closing. He only has a certain amount of time to discvoer the secrets of this strange world, and escape, or he is trapped forever." Atleast, that is the gist I inherited from it. You can come up with your own, and that is the beauty of it.

Interface: The interface is slightly confusing at first, and I still am not completely sure about it. I believe the bar on the left represents your progress, or possibly the time limit(which is also measured by the music track). The bar on the right is a experience bar or something to that effect. It must be filled up to proceed to the next stage or boss, and I believe it decreases when you are hit by enemy fire.(You can't die regularly). The number in the middle is obviously a multiplier.(hence the x) Of what I'm not quite sure. Possibly experience. One thing I did notice was that it increases until you destroy an enemy and then it decreases. Possibly the "Benefits of mercy"?

All in all this is definately a must play. Even if only for the challange of beating 3 stages and 4 bosses in three minutes. Good luck and good fun!

- Nathanael Crane.