Paint the town
āWhat was that? A snowboard? A skateboard?ā Jordan and I recapped our Spectrum Break demo from EGLX later while in the hotel room (truth be told, weāre still in the hotel room.) Only one way to find out: Check the Spectrum Break site.
Oh, duh ā itās rainbow boarding. Whatever, Spectrum Break is one of the more pleasant surprises at EGLX.
Spectrum Break is a level-by-level methodical quest to paint everything. Each of the gameās 55 stages is a collection of polygonal platforms, and each of them needs to be touched at some point. Jumping on it turns the shape effervescent, effectively meaning youāre good to move onto the next one.
Platforming is fast and slippery (as if youāre on a snowboard), and getting exactly where you need to be feels half skill-based and half good planning. Thatās where the puzzle part comes in. Every route isnāt created equal. Optimal path-finding is what makes a successful run. Every way doesnāt necessarily feel as if itāll yield positive results.
However, the physics act as both a monkey wrench and a godsend. Touching the shapes sends them floating from the force of your landing. This might very well render your next jump impossible. Itās just too far now. But, if those shapes come in contact with an unlit platform, that gets lit up and youāre a little closer to completing the level.
Itās all simple enough, but something tells me the difficulty will ramp up. Developer Jason Hein told us that later levels might take upward of a minute to complete ā it sounds short but thatās a long time to go without botching everything. At least your failures will be plenty colorful.
Spectrum Break releases on Steam on March 29.
[This preview is based on a build from EGLX, hosted by Destructoidās parent company Enthusiast Gaming.]
Published: Mar 10, 2018 4:00 PM UTC