Metro Gravity
by mrkogamedev
Finished: ✓This is yet another example of a game that I didn't really know that much about when I got it.
I knew that it was a metroidvania and had gravity shifting mechanics, but I didn't know that it was a rhythm game (I guess the metro in the title can also mean metronome). It's a combination metroidvania rhythm game.
As a metroidvania game, you explore the world with your weird twisty-turny gravity shifting powers. You can walk on basically any surface in the game, and you can create gravity tractor beams on surfaces for faster travel. This has the potential to get very confusing and disorienting, but the game does a pretty good job at making the layout of the world easy to follow. Rooms are often built upon simple geometric shapes which are easier to keep in your head, and the game has a 3D map (similar to Metroid Prime's map) that you can use to get your bearings. As you explore, you get new items which allow you to navigate and solve puzzles. It's very fun to adjust to the weird gravity shifting; Once you get used to it, it's very satisfying to navigate around the map. You get a grappling hook and it's insanely cool to swing around a room, land on a wall, and then run on the wall.
You also meet new people, help them out, and slowly figure out why you're all trapped in this weird dimension. The game takes inspiration from jazz in its music, and the characters are references to famous jazz musicians. I'm only a surface-level jazz fan, so I only recognized a couple of the names (Coltrane, Sinatra, Davis), but I assume that they're all references.
As a music game, it leans heavily into synchronizing the game to the music tracks. Many of the sound effects that you hear in the game are either in-time or in-tune with the music. This is something that I noticed almost immediately, as the game plays a xylophone when you move through the options in the user interface that is in-key with the title screen music (or any of the music that plays). I had to spend a minute or two just listening to the music and hearing the UI accompaniment.
The combat is very music focused, as each enemy has a unique attack and is essentially a new rhythm track accompanying the music. You'll have to learn their attack patterns in order to parry them and successfully fight back. Combat has you swinging your weapons with levitation powers, so your positioning relative to an enemy doesn't matter that much as long as you are in range, which is probably a blessing when you can be fighting in situations with wonky gravity.
It's interesting to see the ways in which the combat is modified to fit different purposes. Combat in most of the game is about dealing enough damage to the enemy in order to kill it, but the boss fights are much more like stages in a rhythm game. In boss fights, it's about surviving to the end of the song by successfully parrying or dodging attacks. You actually don't have to attack, but doing so scores you points, and successful parries builds a score multiplier that makes each of your attacks worth more points. It's a really interesting idea, and it makes the fights more replayable because of the score-attack format. Mastery of these fights is not only knowing the attack patterns of the boss, but knowing when you can get away with attacking as much as possible and having that not mess up your dodging of attacks.
The boss fights in this game are so stylish. Each boss, being a rhythm game level, is a tightly choreographed fight. The music is structured to synchronize with the attacks and phases of the boss fight. The theming and design of each fight is a glimpse into the backstories of each boss and are incredible set-pieces on their own.
I mean, just look at this video of the first boss in the game:
I think that this is where all of the small details come together to make something that truly shines. The look and feel, the music and music synchronization, the boss fight theming and set-pieces: they all contribute to making every boss fight coalesce into an experience with a very clear creative vision. It's very impressive given that the game is all but entirely made by one person.
The game definitely is a strange mashup of many ideas, but Metro Gravity manages to pull it off and show you why it's dope as hell in the process.