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Glare
PC (Steam)
Lights Out
3/5 stars
“Glare” is the first, last, and only (non-mobile) title by Swedish Indie developer, Phobic Studios, which closed down in 2014 after a reported 6 years of game development. “Glare,” which released in 2013, was the studio’s only real effort at making a traditional game in a traditional genre, though it was never released on any platform besides PC, and suffers from a lack of polish that will never be addressed.
Presentation
“Glare” is another in the increasingly-common 2.5D platformers, that is to say, 2D games built in 3D polygon engines. “Glare” uses the Unity Engine, as so many do, and its biggest problems all stem from this fact. The visuals are, at least unique and stylish, though things do tend to be the same colors and have a tendency to blend into each other. Sometimes the camera zooms out so far it makes it impossible to see what’s going on as well. The game’s graphical aesthetics seem to be inspired by Steampunk sci-fi, with distinctive tech designs that wouldn’t look out of place in ‘Buck Rogers’ or “The Rocketeer.”
The audio is fairly forgettable. There is no voiceacting, and the sound effects and soundtrack are both rather limited in scope. I can’t say that any of it stands out.
Technically, “Glare” suffers from the Unity Engine’s weird quirks regarding controller compatibility. Not only does “Glare” not recognize XBONE controllers, it also won’t recognize Xbox 360 controllers or, indeed, any Xinput standard controller. According to what little I’ve been able to learn about this game online, it appears that “Glare” is a throwback title that only supports DirectInput controllers, the precursor to Xinput that hasn’t been actively maintained since 2002! Because of its Dinput support, I couldn’t get “Glare” to recognize any controller natively, so I was forced to use a button mapper to assign keyboard and mouse inputs to an Xinput controller. While this would have been fine and worked well in most games, “Glare” is more-or-less designed to be a twin-stick affair, where one set of inputs moves the main character while another set dictates the character’s facing. Using a mouse cursor for character facing is extremely clunky and sluggish, which put a significant damper on my enjoyment of the game.
Story
Alien fish/tentacle monsters have a habit, in “Glare’s” universe, of invading solar systems and blotting out all light with their own special flavor of purple darkness. When these aliens invade, a hero, known as The Shiner, always appears, bearing a Romanesque Sun helmet, glowing eyes, and an arm cannon, to wipe out the threat and return light to the worlds orbiting the afflicted Sun.
Outside of the intro sequence, there are no narrative features or storytelling in “Glare.” We are never given any further details about The Shiner’s mysterious identity or past, nor are we ever allowed to interact with the alien civilizations that have clearly left technology and dwellings upon the surfaces of the game’s planets. Obviously there’s something going on with The Shiner and his/her/its relationship to the Sun, the solar system, and the galaxy in general, but nothing is ever elaborated upon, leaving the whole thing as a mildly intriguing mystery.
“Glare” is also a horrifically short game, spanning just 5 planets and a huge, elaborate final boss battle. It’s the type of game that can be completed easily in a single sitting, clocking in around 2-3 hours.
Gameplay
“Glare” is a by-the-books 2D Platformer that seems to have a desperate desire to be a ‘Metroid’ game, despite being completely linear. The Shiner, whose armored suit looks a bit like Samus’ power armor, picks up a couple power-ups during each of the game’s 5 stages, all of which are ripped straight from ‘Metroid’s’ playbook: Arm cannon (and upgraded versions), double-jump, sliding dash (and upgraded meteor dash), and bombs. These added abilities complement The Shiner’s starting skillset that allows him/her/it to wall-jump and grapple onto certain pieces of machinery.
“Glare’s” title comes from The Shiner’s key ability to ‘glare,’ or focus light from his/her/its glowing eyes, in any direction. While character movement is governed by typical movement keys, the direction in which The Shiner glares is governed my moving the mouse cursor around him/her/it. Glaring can activate technology, repel enemies (which can, in turn, force them into insta-death environmental hazards), and clear clouds of darkness.
All of the game’s 5 stages (plus epic, frustrating final boss battle) are linear affairs that sometimes loop back on themselves. Each stage also contains 4 hidden Artifacts that don’t really do anything besides unlock Steam achievements. “Glare” doesn’t use the archaic lives/continues system that platformers of old employed, but instead provides the player unlimited tries and has liberally spaced checkpoints. These concessions are very good and very much necessary, as “Glare” can be an incredibly tricky game (partially due to the screwed-up controller ‘support’), often requiring the player to navigate corridors lined with insta-death spikes while throwing a bomb and quickly glaring at a grapple point to activate it. For the most part, the difficulty scales appropriately, until the final boss battle, which forces the player to use every trick they’ve learned throughout the rest of the game in quick succession or even simultaneously.
I would have enjoyed “Glare” a lot more if it was actually a true ‘Metro-vania’ style game, with an interconnected series of maps, backtracking, and more engaging exploration. As it is, it just feels like a short, generic platformer that hands out power-ups like candy in order to cover-up the fact that very little in the game makes cohesive sense.
Overall
“Glare” suffers from major control issues and an almost complete lack of narrative cohesion. While it certainly isn’t a ‘bad’ game by any means, it is missing the focused genre identity that would truly allow it to… ahem… shine.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
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