System Purge: Hollowpoint is a maddening platformer, but the good kind of maddening
rockpapershotgun.comAlice Bee (RPS in peace) wrote about platformer System Purge a while back, saying it starred a witch with a nice hop. So I tried out the demo for its sequel, System Purge: Hollow Point, and can confirm that the witch still has a nice hop. I'm thankful for this, because if the witch did not have a nice hop, the game would be maddening in a bad way. Don't get me wrong, it's still maddening. Just in a good way. The hop is good.
System Purge: Hollow Point is a tricky platformer where you play as a witch, who looks a bit like a two-legged My Little Pony. Right at the start of the story, your lover seems to explode into a horrifying mass of tendrils - as is so often the case. You, the pony witch, rock up at a mysterious facility and decide to find out why this happened. And you do so by hopping through its grungy, metallic innards and avoiding the many, many traps it brings.
We're talking floors that flash red and then snap upwards, like jaws. Or floating red orbs that dangle from the ceiling and explode upon contact. A gust of green wind might then blow these orbs around, turning them into the equivalent of swinging chandeliers where the bulbs are mines. There are underwater sections, too, where you've got to swim and scramble for air bubbles when you can. Die to any of these things and you'll restart that level from scratch.
It's a horrible time. But in a good way if you're into difficult platformers which are all about precision. Yes, there are times when the emphasis on trial and error is a bit frustrating. And yet, I thought the demo's levels cultivated a nice progression from small hops to larger, riskier hops.
You can find the demo on Steam.
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