At a glance...

Rochard review

As I stated in my preview, Rochard was a bit of a surprise for me at Gamescom. It wasn't a game I'd heard of, but it was one I was pleasantly surprised about. I played a fair chunk in the Sony Online Entertainment booth, and as I stopped to dash off to my next appointment I was informed I was almost about to collect a weapon. Turns out it really was only around the corner. This is important because the impression of Rochard that I put across in the preview was that the game wasn't about shooting. In fact, there is rather a lot of it, but the physics-based puzzles still make up the majority of the game.

Rochard is a side-scrolling action-adventure game, similar to the likes of classics such as Metroid and Castlevania, with the modern twist of using both analogue sticks; left one to move, right one to aim, giving you a great degree of freedom. In fact, this makes it similar to 2009's excellent Xbox Live Arcade exclusive Shadow Complex, although whereas that focused on combat and exploration, Rochard places a greater emphasis on solving puzzles, with a fair bit of combat thrown into the mix.

The puzzles focus on the use of the "G-Lifter" already in the possession of titular hero John Rochard. Similar to Portal's gravity gun it allows you to pick up objects and fling them through the air. Sometimes this is used to take down enemy soldiers, turrets, or pesky flying robots. But it's primary use is to solve the variety of puzzles which include disabling force fields by yanking out their power supply and manipulating powerful lasers to point them in the right direction. There's quite a range of different tasks to carry out with the G-Lifter, and Rochard expects you to build up your skills before throwing you into some of the more difficult challenges towards the end of the game which might require carrying out a combination of actions.

Although it's good at explaining a new gadget or puzzle the first time you encounter them, and it introduces new things at a steady pace, Rochard doesn't hold your hand all the way through the game. It certainly possible to get stuck for a while on some of the puzzles, but often that's because you're trying to over-think a solution. The challenges never get tedious, and although similar concepts are used throughout, it doesn't feel like you're doing the same thing over and over again.

Any frustration you experience in Rochard is likely to come, not from the puzzles, but from the combat. While the G-Lifter can often be used instead of the blaster to take out enemies, doing so can leave you rather vulnerable, as Mr Rochard isn't a hardened armour-wearing space marine; he's just a space miner caught up in events caused by the actions of a madman. This does mean you will die quickly and often, and while it can be more fun to fling objects than firing a weapon, you will probably stand a better chance of survival by using the less exciting option. Having said that, most objects make very good cover which you can hold up in front of you, something that often proved invaluable to me in some of the more gun-heavy stages.

It's that need to turn away from the most elegant or exciting solution which gets in the way of Rochard's brilliance. The combination of the G-Lifter, physics puzzles, and gravity control make for some excellent scenarios, but some of these are undermined by the need to resort to regular combat, and some scenarios are fully combat-based. As I said before, combat does not feature in the majority of the game, but I still wish it featured a bit less.

It was the combat sections which dominated the middle part of the game which became frustrating at times when you die repeatedly, but it's more than made up for by the way the game gently eases you into its new ideas, and the fantastic final portion of the game that really gets you thinking on your feet. As your weapon becomes more powerful, and you become more used to the tricks you can do to avoid being killed, you can instead focus on the crazy gravity-bending scenarios that Recoil have thought up. Rochard's campaign should take you about 5 or 6 hours, with the possibility of replaying to get a better time, although everything will be the same as your first run-through.

Powering this PSN release is the Unity 3D engine, which had previously focused on browser-based gaming, but is now branching out to consoles and mobiles. This is one of the first appearances of Unity 3D on the PS3, and despite its somewhat simple origins, it doesn't hold Rochard back from looking just as great as many other visually pleasing games on the service. It benefits from a bright and colourful art style that has a Pixar feel to it, and enemies and objects are never confused with the surroundings. There were occasional moments of slowdown in some of the most manic action, but generally the game, in particular the animations, felt smooth, and there's plenty of pretty visual effects thrown in there too.

So after discovering Rochard by accident at Gamescom it has managed not to disappoint with its PSN release. While I would have preferred a greater focus on the puzzles and less of the shooting, it is nonetheless a highly enjoyable game, and another great PSN exclusive (not counting the PC version).

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