Rochard (PSN) – Review – PS3

I remember the time when it used to be easy to find great side-scrolling platformers. With games like Super Mario Bros., Castlevania, and any other popular classic platformer, there was always something new and great to enjoy. Now, there are some great platformers, but they tend to miss some important features or lack fluent controls. Right from the intro cut-scene to the cliffhanger ending, Rochard is an insanely fun, constantly progressive story driven 3D, side-scrolling platformer.

Story: John Rochard and his team of space miners have had nothing but a bad streak when looking for turbinium across the galaxy. It’s been four years since they last found any turbinium, space diesel as they call it. However, just as they were about to pack up and go home, an interesting discovery was made on the latest asteroid they were mining. This gained the interest of the Wild Boys, a group of hired guns that fight for what others find. Now John and his team are required to protect what they have found. Interestingly, as the story progresses, you learn more about what was found, who is involved and how John and Skyler, the female miner on the team, are more involved than they realize, and have been more involved for years.

Gameplay: As you might imagine, space mining would be a tough job. Heavy rocks and objects must be moved all the time. So to help with this procedure, John is equipped with a G-Lifter. The g-lifter is a very handy device and is reminiscent of the portal gun with the ability to lift objects and it even sounds the same. It looks more like a heavy duty flashlight though as opposed to the portal gun. The g-lifter can lift heavy boxes and help grab onto other objects such as hinge doors and malfunctioning droids that get in your way. With the g-lifter you can lift and place boxes to reach new heights, you can use boxes as a shield against enemies and you can even drop or throw boxes on enemies as an offensive tactic. As you progress, the g-lifter is upgraded to a gun and also will have the ability to shoot explosives. Eventually, near the end of the game, the g-lifter will be upgraded so much that you will even be able to lift the enemies off their feet.

Another really useful and constantly used feature is the ability to modify the gravity. On the asteroids, a machine is used to simulate gravity and, with the press of the button, you can switch to low gravity which allows you to lift heavier boxes, reach new heights, avoid enemies, and easily complete puzzles; some of these are built around low gravity. With that said, I found the low gravity stuff really fun and as a result, had it almost always active. However, I found myself constantly holding the low gravity button. Instead of having to hold the button to toggle it on and off, I feel that there should have been a way to toggle it on with the press of a button, play, and then press the button again to toggle it off. Speaking of gravity, there are sections where the gravity shifts and, instead of walking on the ground, you walk upside down on the ceiling. These sections, among others, provide some interesting and challenging gravity/physics bending puzzles to change up the gameplay but the puzzles aren’t limited to just negative gravity. Lasers, electricity and barriers are among some of the other obstacles in the way.

Controlling John, navigating the levels and using the items are all very fluent. Everything that I think I need in a platformer or would think, hey, I wonder if they have this item in the game, was in the game whether I used it or not. For instance, I rarely used crouch or the flashlight but it was there and helpful for the little time I did use it. Grabbing and moving the boxes around with the g-lifter as well as having the ability to control the low gravity at any time was fluent and kept the game fun and fresh. However, the one thing that was not included was co-op. Co-op is something I always look for in a game but at the same time I can understand why it was not included for the main story. Although, I think that having separate co-op puzzles would have been interesting. DLC maybe?

Graphics/Audio: Right from the start, you immediately think of Team Fortress 2 (TF2) with the colourful cartoon and almost enhanced digital clay-like graphics. The overall music in the game provides an electronic space expedition feel as well as a southern rock/blues feel with the intro song and accent that John has in his voice. Another great thing about the music is that it was written by Markus “Captain” Kaarlonen from Poets of the Fall which is usually very enjoyable music and of course continues to be enjoyable in Rochard. The voices are great for each character, however, the actual voice-over talent was only ok and only at times sounding in character.

Overall: In the end, I wanted to give Rochard a perfect score because of the great, constant story progression and fluent controls, but with the voice over being only decent and a story that jumps back and forth lacking something completely original, it is just shy of being perfect. The gameplay as a whole reminded me of Shadow Complex on the XBLA and a mix between Portal with the g-lifter and TF2 with the art style which is great because all are great games and, who hasn’t thought of a Portal or TF2 platformer. At the end of the story I was left with a feeling of wanting more and wondering immediately what was going to happen next.

Overall Score: 9.5/10

Pros:
-Fluent controls and everything you might want in a platformer
-Constant story progression
-Great music and art
-Interesting and challenging gravity bending puzzles

Cons:
-Only decent voice over work
-Lacking some form of co-op

A PSN code for this game was provided from the publisher for review purposes.

Popularity: 12% [?]