TurnOn

I rate the platformer adventure game TurnOn 3.5/5. Pretty good, especially considering how this game had a very small development team (something like 4 people only). EDIT: (THIS GAME WAS MADE BY RUSSIANS, THEREFORE I CAN IN GOOD CONSCIENCE NO LONGER RECOMMEND THIS GAME DUE TO THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE). TurnOn is a platform game wherein you control a cute little electrical alien orb which jumps from powerline to powerline turning on various electrical appliances (usually lights and generators) to bring power back to a city which has gone dark due (I guess) to an electromagnetic pulse from a passing asteroid (I guess the same asteroid that brought you to the planet to begin with). Or perhaps you were created or otherwise drawn to the surface by some weird scientist guy. This game, which features no real dialog, is very light on explanation concerning exactly what is going on and why. The cut-scenes leave a lot of room for interpretation also. It is fun to jump around on powerlines and turn lights on as you go but there are several segments here and there (which act like boss levels of a sort) which can be frustrating and have a much higher difficulty than the rest of the game. +Somewhat innovative and strange platform gameplay, forcing a two-dimensional control scheme into a quasi-three dimensional environment (sometimes you can jump to a distant powerline by simply jumping up or down from the line you are at, even if it is in the background or foreground). I’m really not sure how to describe it. Merely jumping up or down can, if there is a place to jump to, cause you to jump either into the foreground or into the distance. +Your character really is amazingly adorable despite the fact that it is essentially a bolt of electricity with a face. +Nice, artistic artistry and colorful lighting effects. +This game is not necessarily simply a children’s game. Despite TurnOn’s generally high level of cuteness, there is a lot of urban decay depicted in this game including lots of empty beer bottles laying around, destroyed cars and some ghetto style street parties here and there. Poverty and some of its effects are prominently depicted along with some of the crime that same poverty creates. There is some social commentary hinted at in the inner city scenes this game shows you. This game takes place in a city and it does not shy away from how the city can be an ugly place to be forced to live in when you don’t have money and how that state of affairs can be even worse if there’s no electricity or other services. +/-Controls are very responsive but I often wished that my character could jump just a little bit higher. Responds well with a keyboard but it’s best to be very proficient with a keyboard if you play this game on one like I did. A controller is NOT absolutely necessary however. +/-OK sound though the constant electrical zapping sounds could get irritating over time. The music is mostly mediocre but can be fairly good in places, especially during the nice ending level. -Extremely uneven difficulty. Most levels are very easy but some levels are crazy hard and some of these happen fairly early in the game (like the one where you have to defeat the weird malfunctioning flying drone and the ones where you are forced to race along on long-distance power lines at breakneck speed) These frustrating areas sort of act as boss levels between the far better designed normal areas where you just have to solve some simple puzzles and light stuff up as you make your way from point A to point B. TurnOn can become fairly challenging and frustrating very quickly with little warning. New gameplay elements occasionally come into play with no introduction or explanation of those elements whatsoever. You simply have to adapt as you go along. To decrease frustration it’s probably best to play this game in short bursts rather than for hours on end. -No character upgrades in this game. The abilities your character has at the start of the game are the same abilities your character has at the game’s end. -Most menus are self-explanatory and simple but the status display which appears at the top left of the screen as you actually play is a bit strange and seems mostly irrelevant. -Fairly short game which took me only 4 hours to adequately complete. Early levels will spam you with steam achievements. -No good explanation as to why the majority of the city’s power grid is ultimately controlled by this one generator on top of the city’s tallest building. It felt as though more levels were planned but were never made. -Highly linear game with no alternate endings or choices to make. No way to be an A-hole and turn everyone’s lights off instead. No replay value as a result. -TurnOn sounds like it should be some sort of a hentai sex game but it isn’t.