The New Classics #10: Forward to the Sky

 

The Backstory: I bought Forward to the Sky based on its graphics and title alone, without knowing anything about the gameplay. I just had a crush on the sky vistas, and the title sounded inspiring enough; upon booting up the game, I was introduced to the notion of climbing a tower to reach the big baddie, and that concept instantly clicked with me. Whether we’re dealing with a tower or an abyss, I just love the notion of making your way through millions of floors. 

 

 

The Game: I fully expected FttS to play like a dungeon crawler; however, I quickly realised that despite the floor gimmick, it’s actually much closer to an action-adventure game à la Tomb Raider. You have dungeons puzzles by the truckload, booby traps, fully obvious traps, platforms, and a couple of foes lounging around for good measure; and you have to climb your way up, ever up. 

 

 

That’s a simple enough concept; and I usually dig simple concepts. The first level was really pleasant: I ran, jumped and climbed around, make mincemeat of the resident foes, solved nice puzzles, collected a ton of pretty blue crystals, and generally enjoyed myself. I was ready to holler ‘New Classic’ and keep climbing; however, the second level destroyed my enthusiasm before I was even done with it.

 

 

Indeed, the cracks showed very blatantly in that second level. The wobbly physics and the awkward camera angles made me fall prey to some vicious traps I could have waltzed around with better physics and camera angles; and combat fully revealed its half-baked and inept nature as I was confronted with stronger foes. After plunging to my death a dozen times, losing a ton of health to enemies whose hits landed every time while mine didn’t seem to make contact, and solving a couple of boring puzzles, I called it quit and turned of the game.

 

 

The Verdict: No suspense here: not only is Forward to the Sky no New Classic of mine, but it’s actually a pretty bad game overall. The two existing reviews on Metacritic produce an average score of 35; and unlike my beloved Arc of Alchemist, I feel FttS fully deserves that low score. Next please!