Clockwork Ambrosia Review – Yo Dawg, I Heard You Like Guns, So I Put Guns On Your Guns – WGB

There’s one thing instantly compelling about Clockwork Ambrosia earlier than you even boot it up. Possibly it’s the identify, which sounds just like the form of delightfully pretentious phrase an indie metroidvania generator would spit out after an excessive amount of espresso, or possibly it’s the truth that that is the end result of greater than a decade of labor from its builders. Both means, it arrives with the type of backstory that virtually begs for a triumphant underdog success story, the form of story the place years of ardour and persistence lastly repay in spectacular vogue.

What gamers get as an alternative is one thing much more modest: a wonderfully competent metroidvania with one genuinely intelligent central gimmick, wrapped up in polished pixel artwork and backed by stable fundamentals. It’s additionally a sport weighed down by awkward navigation, irritating pacing choices and an inclination to maintain its greatest concepts locked away for a lot too lengthy. I loved my time with it and I’m glad I noticed it by way of to the credit, however in a style packed tighter than my kitchen junk drawer, “completely nice” doesn’t all the time lower it.

Clockwork Ambrosia’s greatest concern is that it takes far too lengthy to provide gamers the instruments wanted to make it fascinating. The early hours are, bluntly, a little bit of a slog. Quick journey doesn’t unlock till nicely into the journey, and earlier than then, the sport repeatedly asks you to trudge throughout its sprawling map whereas preventing enemies you’ve already dispatched time and again.. Greater than as soon as, I discovered myself hovering dangerously near quitting altogether as I wandered round attempting to determine the place the sport wished me to go subsequent.

And that’s the place my greatest criticism lies.

Metroidvanias are, by design, constructed round exploration and uncertainty. Getting misplaced is a part of the enchantment, as is noting areas to return again to in a while. The very best examples of the style perceive this and subtly information gamers by way of environmental cues, good map layouts or small nudges that make progress really feel like discovery fairly than blind luck. Clockwork Ambrosia principally simply leaves you to wallow in your personal ignorance, and whereas some gamers might love that hands-off philosophy, I discovered it extra irritating than rewarding.

Far too typically, development got here all the way down to tediously scanning the map for clean room exits or ultimately discovering that the trail ahead was tucked behind some barely seen tunnel I’d beforehand dismissed as background ornament. It isn’t that I wished the sport to carry my hand, however often pointing me in roughly the appropriate course would have been appreciated. The power to pin icons on the map is genuinely helpful for marking beforehand inaccessible areas, although just a few extra icon sorts would have been welcome. A correct zoom-out operate would assist enormously, as would clearer zone labels and a teleport menu that really tells you the place every vacation spot is past a cryptic checklist of names.

It’s a frustratingly recurring theme all through Clockwork Ambrosia: methods which might be nearly wonderful, however cease simply wanting being actually player-friendly. It wanted one other go by somebody who may simply level out the quality-of-life hiccups and UI trip-ups.

The sport’s defining characteristic is its weapon modification system, and to its credit score, that is the place Clockwork Ambrosia earns its id. You’re given 4 base weapons — revolvers, an power rifle, a grenade launcher and a rocket launcher — every of which may be extensively customised with over 150 totally different elements that alter their behaviour in typically absurd methods.

The system is a bit like making a salad. The bottom substances are pretty plain, however begin chucking sufficient bizarre stuff into the combo and earlier than lengthy you’ve by accident assembled one thing that in all probability violates a number of worldwide treaties. A rocket can out of the blue lower off mid-flight, roll harmlessly alongside the bottom for a second after which violently spear upward for causes recognized solely to no matter deeply regarding engineer designed it. The power rifle may be reworked right into a pseudo-shotgun by way of sufficient modifiers, whereas different combos create gloriously chaotic loss of life machines that really feel much less like weapons and extra like proof for a future Geneva Conference listening to.

When the system lastly opens up, there’s real enjoyable available in seeing simply how ridiculous your arsenal can turn out to be. And the quantity you take pleasure in Clockwork Ambrosia might be going to return all the way down to how a lot you want tinkering.

The issue is that it takes far too lengthy to achieve that time. For a lot of the early sport, helpful modifications are sparse sufficient that I settled right into a handful of efficient builds and barely felt compelled to experiment. By the point the system actually opens up, I’d already fallen into habits that the sport by no means gave me a lot cause to interrupt. I’ll freely admit youthful me might need gleefully spent hours obsessively tweaking each weapon for each encounter, as a result of that’s actually what the system desires you to do. Present me often appeared on the out there choices, shrugged, and solved issues utilizing no matter Frankenstein’s monster I already had outfitted. My default? The revolvers with shadow bullets, explosive rounds and large cylinders in order that I may spray bullets like a cowboy.

Nonetheless, if experimentation is supposed to be the guts of the expertise, it ought to really feel frictionless and rewarding sufficient to naturally encourage that behaviour. Too typically I discovered myself pondering {that a} specific mod may be helpful for a particular encounter, solely to determine it was much less problem to brute-force the state of affairs with my present setup. That leaves Clockwork Ambrosia within the awkward place of getting its most distinctive characteristic typically really feel extra like a enjoyable toybox than a transformative gameplay system.

Outdoors of its weapon tinkering, it is a very conventional metroidvania. You’ll unlock acquainted traversal upgrades like enhanced jumps, environmental mobility instruments and different motion skills that ship you scuttling again by way of earlier areas seeking newly accessible secrets and techniques. The fight begins on the slower facet however improves considerably as soon as motion upgrades start stacking, ultimately evolving into one thing nearer to a satisfying run-and-gun platformer. Boss fights are typically stable too, although there are occasional problem spikes that really feel just like the inevitable facet impact of balancing encounters round a weapon system this versatile.

Visually, Clockwork Ambrosia is undeniably polished. Its pixel artwork is persistently engaging and there’s an honest number of environments to discover, however there’s a curious flatness to all of it that’s tough to completely articulate. It seems good, definitely, however not often putting sufficient to go away a long-lasting impression. There’s technical confidence within the presentation, but it lacks that further spark of environment or visible id that elevates the most effective video games within the style from merely nice to genuinely memorable.

The story barely registers, although that’s hardly a dealbreaker. You play as Iris, an airship pilot who crash-lands on a mysterious island after being attacked by a robotic dragon, due to course she does. The island’s surviving inhabitants often supply snippets of lore and elective dialogue, however the narrative principally exists as a paper-thin excuse to justify all of the taking pictures, platforming and occasional owl-related violence. Truthfully, that’s completely nice. Not each metroidvania wants sprawling lore or emotional depth.

Clockwork Ambrosia’s gameplay fits its identify, ticking alongside like clockwork: dependable, predictable and barely stunning.

After fourteen years in growth, I wished it to go away an even bigger impression than it in the end did. There’s clear ardour behind it and sufficient intelligent concepts to indicate why the undertaking endured for thus lengthy, however ardour alone can’t elevate acquainted design or easy over awkward pacing. What’s left is a stable metroidvania with an ingenious gimmick, one which style diehards will probably take pleasure in even when it by no means comes near difficult the heavy hitters of an absurdly crowded style.