Cosmonious High Review

In Cosmonious High, you'll take on the role of a Prismi — a type of alien who can adapt its powers during moments of stress. Whilst the high school you'll attend is full of aliens, no one else is quite like you, which is why the arduous (and fun!) job of restoring everything back to normal falls on your shoulders.

The story is very simple — in fact, I'd argue it doesn't even have one; you just arrive on a bus, and chaos breaks loose as the school gets hit by a ton of meteors. After that, you'll spend your time walking around the campus, trying out different classes, unlocking new powers, and finding tons of collectibles!

Whilst this might sound incredibly simple, I assure you it is more than enough. There's an obvious expertise in the fluidity of the gameplay, and that is due to the developer's experience in the field, having created both Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator! It is quite evident they know how to make phenomenal titles that will keep you invested for hours, as I was quite pleased by how easy everything was to manoeuvre around. I didn't experience motion sickness at all, which I often do during some VR titles, and the controls were easy and rarely glitched; I was grateful for all this, as there is a mind-blowing amount of interactions to discover in the game.

As I said, your job is to fix everything up. The school is in utter chaos in many ways — some areas are on fire, giant meteors are blocking doors or breaking mechanisms, and a lot of places are just in utter disarray, with lamps fallen on the ground and cables broken. Thanks to your race's adaptive powers, you'll learn all sorts of abilities, such as one that allows you to connect cables, a water gun ability, and the capacity to freeze things, among many others. 

Aside from helping you with progression and quests, using these powers on the world around you can cause some incredibly fun interactions. As an example, the two earliest classes are Chemosophy (chemistry) and Visualetics (art), and you can use your abilities to discover all sorts of different alchemical reactions and even make art by blasting paint from your hands full force. I spent a stupid amount of hours in the Chemosophy class because making potions and using them on all the items around was so entertaining. 

Aside from the usual "assignments" that you have per class, you'll also be able to do some extra credit work; there are tons of them per lesson, and they're quite fun and easy to complete but not necessary. Additionally, classmates will give you some side quests to help them; these are usually very simple, and most of them revolve around just finding the collectibles hidden around the world.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of actual dialogue and interaction with the other students: the only way you can speak is by pulling a speech bubble from your mouth and grabbing at the options. The problem is that they're just pictures, and you don't really know what you're even saying to them. This generated a strange barrier between the NPCs and me, causing the experience to feel a bit lonely. They were just there to give quests and barely even moved from their spots. 

Although this is a silly complaint to have, it mostly stems from me really loving the cast and wishing I could have had a bit more bonding time with them or at least more meaningful interactions. Many of the characters were very quirky and adorable, and I appreciated how inclusive the cast is. The inclusion of a non-binary alien was nonchalant and seamless, the jock is very sweet, and you can even find an alien who has two distinct identities. 

Thankfully, my complaint didn't hinder my experience with the game at all. Once I got into the flow of the gameplay, I would play until my legs, face, and arms were begging me to stop. I got lost in every class I took and immensely enjoyed having to scour the entire school for the many collectibles available! Especially the Blebs, which are adorable little blobs with different properties. 

The amount of love, attention, and effort that went into creating Cosmonious High is evident: the controls are smooth, the cast is endearing, and there are numerous things to do and discover! It's a wonderful, charming, and magical experience. I cannot recommend it enough!