I try not to support demo-removing devs, no matter how promising the game looks and whether I had the chance to try it or not, but forgot to mark this ignored and ended up buying it. too late for a refund (again, regardless of price, it's not about that 1.24 eur I paid), so thought might as well play it.
starts in a full screen-sized window with a really loud, skippable intro before any of the settings could be adjusted. settings that can only be accessed by pressing esc, there is no button to click in the menu, only for a list of cutscenes (much more important) and world select. settings are languages, [b]separate volumes that don't affect the intro, nor half the sfx[/b] (seal and puffin sounds) and the usual [b]buggy windowed mode without resolution options[/b]. it's resizable but going back to full screen after won't restore full screen resolution, everything will be all pixely. [b]it literally takes 3 seconds to test it, something they clearly didn't bother with.[/b] restarting the game fixes this in some other games, lazy in the same fashion, but here [b]only editing the registry restores full screen resolution[/b]. that's where progress is stored as well.
and as always, there's more. I wanted to watch an accidentally skipped cutscene. unlike the noisy intro, they're silent and laid out vertically, one picture at a time, lots of blinding whiteness on the sides. fast-rolling animation, can't pause but can scroll once it's done. kept clicking and pressing, which eventually [b]removed the entire ui and audio[/b]. started a level, exited, menu ui was back, audio wasn't, had to restart the game. again. the mouse wheel moves a whole pixel or two with every rotation in the cutscene select window, a bit more when the comic is shown, and does absolutely nothing elsewhere.
it's a [b]sliding game with a melting ice gimmick[/b], each tile traveled shrinks whatever you're standing on. the grid is subtle but visible and there are [b]small pieces of ice indicating how far the platforms can go[/b]. no move counter or limit otherwise, the level complete screen only has restart and continue, can't go back to the menu, makes replaying the odd imperfect level extra tedious.
meltable ice acts as a stopping point, as do unmeltable icebergs that obviously can't be ridden. waves usher you in the indicated direction, orcas patrol in certain patterns, slip between them [b]hitman go[/b]-style. they won't kill but will push you and icebergs under the right conditions. cold water embiggens platforms, gets introduced with a typo, then immediately ignored the next level. warm water melts ice twice as fast, whirlpools are portals. there's rarely more than a single pair but when there are, connected ones aren't marked. no new mechanics in the second half.
[b]150 levels unlocked one by one[/b] in 6 worlds. the main goal is reaching your cub, the secondary and tertiary to knock the seal into water and shoo the puffin away. [b]unlocks aren't based on completed levels but these goals.[/b] you might've solved a bunch of stages but can't access the bottom area without 70 puffins, for instance. terrible design. [b]no level skip[/b] is another problem, compounded by [b]completely linear progression within an area[/b], as well as an [b]absolutely useless hint button[/b]. all it does is adds numbers to tiles, crosses out icebergs, puts arrows over orcas, etc. instead of providing actual hints on how to solve the puzzle. and even this doesn't mark connected portals.
[b]non-rebindable controls[/b] are briefly, partially and randomly revealed on levels and in the pause menu. arrows, undocumented wasd and never mentioned mouse drag to move, 'r' to reset, [b]'z' to undo (no alternative, works from a fail state but not after a level reset)[/b], 'h' for the hint overlay and esc for settings. level number only in the pause menu, which now also includes an [b]animation speed slider[/b] but the fastest still isn't fast enough, should be close to instant.
[b]level select is subpar too.[/b] levels are laid out on a mobiley vertical map instead of something convenient, can't tell at a glance what's imperfect. and of course mouse wheel doesn't scroll, have to drag endlessly like it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mobile game (which it is), or press up/down to go one by one, can't hold them. [b]no tooltips on world selection[/b], only keyboard navigation or clicking padlocks reveal unlock requirements. the former shows progress, the latter only the total needed, which is useless, as what you have isn't shown anywhere unless the location is selected with the keyboard. the red dot indicating something to unlock remains well after it's no longer true and [b]can't tell if anything's incomplete within an area without visiting it[/b]. it's a big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mess and this is just the overworld map.
there's some text with a [b]silent typewriter effect[/b] for speech bubbles, and while they can be shown immediately with space (unless it randomly skips the sentence instead, one of the innumerable bugs), they [b]continue automatically[/b], whether you had the chance to read them or not. as always, it should be an option and they [b]should not play every time a level is reset[/b], making you either wait or hammer space until they're gone, but that's also the only way to see them again if you missed them. incredibly annoying. as is the next level and some dialog briefly appearing BEFORE the cutscene, then the level starts properly.
pleasant presentation (a few things on the sides can be clicked), uneven difficulty but mostly trivial with a few tricky puzzles. it's $5, same as the mobile versions for once, but it should work more like a pc game. [b]it's as basic as it gets, yet has way too many bugs and annoyances, while missing some basic functionality.[/b] obviously can't be recommended and since they removed the demo, I won't bother with any of their other stuff.
