Review by Nick H.
Many of Enjoy Gaming’s offerings feel like they are slanted toward a younger audience, and Orion’s Odyssey falls into that bucket as well. That is not to say it is a bad game at all, but it may not appeal to an older audience as it fails to really challenge with most of its puzzles. But the accessible gameplay and cute visuals should resonate with younger folks.
You play the part of Orion, a bored and lonely robot looking for something to do after crashing to Earth and discovering that his skill in creating different shapes can help people and in the process, help him to be accepted by others as well. It is a breezy, text-based and lighthearted backdrop to a game that encourages experimentation. Trial and error is not penalised in any particular way, which means that the bar for challenge is set fairly low.
Part of the reason that Orion’s Odyssey feels ‘easy’ is the control scheme. This is a plus in my book, not a negative. Everything is easy to manipulate, there is never any doubt what you are supposed to do on the screen and this all comes together to make a very playable game that is easy to pick up and learn. You are essentially filling in predefined spaces using different shaped blocks. Visually it all makes sense once you spend a couple of minutes with the first level or two.
The puzzles themselves feel very well thought out, and they are relevant to the story being told. With what boils down to only ten sets of levels breezing through the story mode really does not take very long. There are extras like character screens and a challenge mode that tries to give the title a bit more replay value, but without the story to tie those together, they were somewhat less appealing – but at least the difficulty of the challenge mode ramps up nicely. This was a good design choice, because a younger gamer can experience the story without much frustration, but if the puzzle mechanics click for you, the challenge mode will do a better job of taxing you.
Orion’s Odyssey is work a look if you enjoy puzzle games. The cute trappings around it make it especially suitable for younger players, and it is clear that time and effort was put into this game, with a puzzle mechanic that I enjoyed – especially once I had the opportunity to try the more challenging bonus content.
Reach me by email at: nickh@digitallydownloaded.net
