A free-to-play adventure
Escaping Gravity is a free-to-play adventure from indie game publisher SodorArt. In this retro game, complete with 8-bit graphics and chiptune music reminiscent of the old Game Boy, you follow Archit. The disillusioned alien is looking for a way to get out of Mars and search for whatever lies beyond. Help him make decisions and avoid capture in this story-driven experience.
Its dated graphics yet engaging gameplay make Escaping Gravity greatly reminiscent of classic handheld games like Broforce or the first Dragon Warrior games played through the Visual Boy Advance emulator.
Guide an alien to freedom
The first thing you’d notice about Escaping Gravity is its entirely green interface. Different parts of every scene are colored in varying shades of green, which creates a consistent feel since you’re playing a stereotypical alien design, but with a unique story premise. Its relaxing 8-bit graphics work to its behavior, keeping the visuals simple and leaving you focused on the game itself.
As for its story, it has a consistent, branching storyline that guarantees hours of gameplay and replayability to it. While the endgame is limited, the number of ways to get there varies greatly. What makes its story even more impressive and challenging is that while there’s a lot of dialogue to go through, it doesn’t dump it all through character dialogues–showing its excellent world-building.
The sound effects used in the game are just what you’d expect from old-school games with retro music. For most of the game, it uses almost the same tracks that make it repetitive at times. What saves the music aspect, despite the limitations of being 8-bit, is the confrontation music near the end of the game. The sound was perfectly fitting to the game’s climactic conclusion.
A fun, immersive story
It’s an understatement to say that Escaping Gravity is a good game. In this day and age, it’s a glorious return to the old-school games of the Game Boy and the NES systems of the decades past. It has good audio and video choices, with individual parts working together to push its story better. The only challenge for other players, though, is the heavy use of dialogue. Highly recommended.
