Ethan: Meteor Hunter is a platformer that mixes puzzle elements, including the unique abilities of pausing time and manipulating objects using the power of the mind. Our hero is a rodent who obtained his telekinetic power from coming into contact with a meteor and he’s now on a mission to collect fragments of the fallen rocks.
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Seaven Studio was set up by a group of former Hydravision Entertainment employees after it closed down in September 2012. The team have decided to go ‘full indie’ which has the benefit of getting closer to their target audience during development, and are therefore able to share a lot more about their project with their fans. Ethan: Meteor Hunter is their first project together.
We initially got our hands on the title at the Rezzed 2013 indie show earlier this year, where its high quality and the variety of game mechanics immediately caught our attention. Seaven Studio were kind enough to provide us with a preview copy and help with some of our questions, answers to which went into our first article about the platformer. Our initial experience with the gameplay was very positive; we could tell it was going to be an addictive and challenging game.
Ethan is a rat who finds himself caught up in a meteor storm, interrupting a feud with his neighbour who quickly becomes his nemesis. After coming into contact with one of the rocks, our hero develops the special ability of telekinesis and sets off to collect all of the other meteor fragments that fell from the sky. It’s a very comic-book-style story that is introduced briefly at the beginning of the game, although not much more is revealed throughout which is pretty normal for titles of this genre.
Ethan: Meteor Hunter’s gameplay begins with some easy platforming and puzzles, but the difficulty is quickly ramped up like a slap in the face. This isn’t a bad thing as too many games are dumbed-down these days with lengthy tutorials and so it’s a welcoming change to be thrown head-first into acidic goo, crushing machinery, sharp saw blades and hot burning flames without the usual hand-holding. Ethan is best played using a gamepad; we used a wireless Xbox 360 controller which is perfect for this type of game.
Each level is short and only takes one or two minutes to complete, and this would be a problem if it wasn’t a platformer that has such a variety of game mechanics. But something new is introduced with each: for example, an early stage features a pogo stick which allows Ethan to bounce his way upwards, and later on mouse traps can be used to launch objects. Seeing a new mechanic at each level is refreshing and ensures the gameplay doesn’t get stale as it progresses – something we also found in Thomas Was Alone.
The most unique mechanic comes from Ethan being in the meteor storm: a telekinesis ability that allows him to freeze time and manipulate objects in the environment to build structures or traverse obstacles. This power forms the basis of most puzzles such as stacking wooden shapes to reach ledges or conduct electricity with metal blocks to active machines. Controlling it is simple: a button-press pauses time, allowing Ethan to move certain objects with his mind within a restricted area. The controls may be simple but the puzzles aren’t, and they provide quite a challenge involving both logic and timing.
Ethan doesn’t have an unlimited use of his telekinesis ability; he must collect tokens that can be used to pause time and these are typically used-up for one puzzle. A sense of achievement can be had when completing a challenge and finding you still have one token left, but this doesn’t make the rest of the level any easier. Only the exact amount of pauses needed to get past a puzzle are provided. If you make a mistake it’s possible to rewind time to attempt the puzzle again, just like in Braid, and this cleverly ensures that you’ll never get stuck.
Seaven Studio set out to make Ethan: Meteor Hunter challenging for gamers, and we definitely found it to be a difficult game – welcome in today’s world of quick-time-events and regenerating health. You can expect to be replaying short segments repeatedly until you get it right which can be slightly punishing, but overall the experience is enjoyable. Some of the harder parts are introduced by Ethan’s nemesis and this can be a little frustrating; if it takes ten attempts with a forced five-second cutscene each time, it tends to break the flow of the gameplay. Thankfully, switching between puzzling and platforming feels natural and mostly uninterrupted unlike other similar games that insist on breaking up the action constantly.
The visual design takes a familiar style we see in platformers today: it’s rendered in 3D with 2D side-scrolling and a sense of depth provided by two backgrounds that move independently. Most of the action keeps the focus at the foreground leaving the background easy to ignore even though it does include some interesting animation based on the style of the current level such as a sawmill, a strange underground chemistry lab and a greenhouse. It does feel like everything takes place underground but that’s understandable considering Ethan is a rat.
The environments are detailed and our hero himself is well-animated (check out his long tail). Objects both useful and dangerous are clearly drawn with the green glow of meteor fragments or the bubbling of acid being the most visually pleasing. As with any game, it’s important that interactive objects are instantly recognisable and that their function is obvious and this is something Seaven Studio have accomplished well; there are no problems with attempting a speed run through a level and getting stuck when you have to pause to remember how something works.
Death scenes for Ethan aren’t gory but do show some mild violence, depending on whether he’s being sawn into small pieces or burnt alive. This keeps the age rating down and a dedicated section of the developer website explains how safe the game is for kids. Take a look at their a humorous video of Ethan’s various death animations.
Music and sound effects are subtle but do well to represent what’s going on and give the title a feeling of being underground. The sounds for objects and traps clearly identify their functionality which is enough to support the gameplay, but unfortunately they aren’t memorable enough to stand out. The background music doesn’t demand much attention but its bass line and melody certainly provides some tension.
Ethan: Meteor Hunter was made to appeal to all types of gamers; those that want hard-core challenges, achievement hunters, laid-back casuals and speed-run enthusiasts. There really is something here for everyone, especially if you want to be tested, as one particular boss battle took us an hour of retrying to overcome. Thanks to the wealth of innovative mechanics there’s a lot of variety in the gameplay, and replayability comes from collecting all of the meteor fragments and discovering the hidden cheeses. At one point we found ourselves asking: how did we come to play as a rat riding a shark bumper-car shooting mines? It’s rare to be asking yourself such questions whilst playing video games these days.
Overall we’ve thoroughly enjoyed Ethan: Meteor Hunter: it’s a challenging but enjoyable title with some well-executed and innovative gameplay mechanics. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for in a platformer because it will definitely provide it. As the difficulty can quickly change from easy to hard, this is a game we imagine is very suitable for a parent to play with their child – as long as the elder can get through the more challenging sections without having to hand the controller over for it to be done properly! For those who don’t do too well with difficult titles requiring trial and error, there are bound to be some moments of rage but keep calm and stick with it for a feeling of accomplishment.
A big thank you to Seaven Studio for answering our questions in our preview and for their time at the Eurogamer Expo 2013 where they joined us for an interview. It’s been a pleasure and we look forwarding to seeing more games from them in future.
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Reblogged this on TrueSelfGaming and commented:
Interesting new game