Traverser Review

In the world of Traverser, the earth is dead thanks to a sun that no longer burns, oxygen is the only thing of any real value, and the omnipresent big brother-esque corporation that runs everything under the name of the Raven Corporation has hired the star of the show as part of their secret police force.

Young Valerie is a traverser able to travel between the upper and lower halves of the city in which she lives thanks to the technical marvel that is her gravity glove. This little gadget also lets her pick up items, manipulate them in 3 axis and if necessary, throw them about with wild abandon. Something which is more amusing than you might think when people ask you to put things back where you found them as they bounce off their heads.

The game itself is an isometrically-viewed puzzle game that has you following the exploits of Valerie as she uncovers the lies and propaganda that hide the nefarious actions of the corporation.

When you first start to play the game, the introduction takes place in the last day of Valerie's training, starting with her sick father sending her out to see Phil the air salesman and replace the air canister for the house (he’s the one who asked me to put things back as I merrily bounced a canister off his head at a later point). Upon her return she then heads off to finish training, which acts as your tutorial in the finer points of gravity glove operation.

Spot the Professor's name? Yup, first name Nicholas

Once the training is over, young Valerie trips off home to express her joy at her gainful employment to dear old daddy, only to find the house a mess, and said parent missing! Woe is she, you may think, but thankfully she’s a resourceful little minx and we join her in her investigations as to the whereabouts of yon paternal figure at this point.

The visual style of the game is really quite beautiful, depicting the steampunk nature of the city in detail, giving it a Victorian feel that conveys the grime of lower city and the relative niceties of upper city with equal ease. One feature that shows the amount of thought put into this game is the fact that as Valerie takes damage, the screen takes on a deeper and deeper red hue that just screams “the red stuff is leaking out, get me somewhere less ouchy please” giving the player a good strong hint about damage taken. All with a well designed soundscape backing the action that encourages a true sense of ennui in the player portraying the overarching horror of life after the sun has gone out as we’re all mole people.

The boss battles are intuitive yet challenging, the first one being a big octopus-like monster that likes slamming his tentacles at you. This is not a clever thing to do when there’s a box of very inviting and eminently throwable dynamite sticks lying there for you to cause havoc with.

Gatling Goat Studios have done something wonderful with this little game and it deserves to be a stonking great hit; I for one will be coming back to it again and again.