Game: Technosphere Reload.
Genre: Platform/ Puzzle.
System: Nintendo Switch ( also on Steam)
Publishers/Developers: Adaptive Games/ Ultimate Games
Age Rating: EU3+| USA E|AUS G
Price: USA $14.99|AUS $22.50|CAD € €14.99|£13.49
Release Date: 10th January 2020
Review code used with many thank to Ultimate Games.
Only 10 hours to save Earth
In the year 2590AD the Atlas corporation is excavating for crystals in an asteroid which is orbiting Earth. Something horrendous has gone wrong in the asteroid and it’s orbital correction has been disabled.
The Technosphere is the only hope to reload the asteroid system and restore its orbit around earth before disaster strikes and wipes out Earth and all its inhabitants…..and one other tiny detail: you have 10 hours to succeed in saving Earth. Yes that’s right 10 hours….. that certainly add’s a sudden sense of urgency to the gameplay.
As the player you take control of the Technosphere as you steer it though a mixture of floating platforms, narrow catwalks and traps in your quest to save the Earth from certain doom.
Guide the sphere through the asteroid
One of the first things you will notice when playing Technosphere is the stunning look of the game, the way the light glints of the other structures inside the dark cavernous asteroid, it makes the linear levels feel massive and add to the sci-fi theme of TechnoSphere Reload.
Even though you only have 10 hours to save the Earth and an ever present timer on the top of the screen never lets you forget your deadline, this is a game that can’t be rushed to much as you are controlling the Technosphere which of course has the characteristics of a ball as it moves from point A to B.
Controlling the sphere feels very intuitive, it does feels like a heavy solid ball to the player. The left stick controls the sphere movement, the right stick controls the camera which can be swung around to three set views, a press of the A button and the sphere will jump over gaps and obstacles and pressing the B button will bring the sphere to a complete stop, very handy for stopping on small platforms between jumps.
Not only do you have a time limit of hours there is also a limited amount of five lives for the sphere. If you miss time a jump (which you will often) the sphere will fall. You see a short scene of it plummeting into the depths of the asteroid, crashing and exploding into a ball of fire, it all looks quite dramatic.
Puzzling your way through
You return to the last checkpoint you passed, however checkpoints are not abundantly spread across the levels and having to play the same section over and over again can become a little tiresome. A few more checkpoints would relieve the frustration. The sphere has an energy level for which you collect energy spheres dotted along the way. A long jump requires a boost of speed from the Technosphere, therefore using up its energy. This means you need to ensure it stays topped up as you roll along.
Puzzles range from pushing blocks, rolling into switches that move platforms into place or operate a lift inside the asteroid. I didn’t find anything to difficult in the puzzling aspect of the game. Platforms vary from static to moving so timing jumps is important as you will die if the timing is off even a little bit.
Technosphere Reload’s soundtrack is mostly clangs and clonks of moving machinery, moving platforms hissing into place. This also adds to the feeling of being in a large asteroid full of machinery and devoid of humans.
Fun until the glitch
I had a fun if somewhat frustrating time while playing Technosphere Reload. Yes, some of those frustrations where due to my own silly mistakes but one particular frustration was a glitch I found while playing the game. We have been in touch with the developers via email to report this glitch but at the time of writing this review we haven’t had any communication back from the developer.
The glitch I discovered happens when the game reloads after the sphere loses a life and is returned to the last checkpoint. When I tried to move the sphere in any direction upon reloading it, it would not move at all. Meanwhile, the energy spheres in the area were rotating and I could hear the sound effects. None of the controls of the Nintendo Switch responded to anything I did, not even bringing up the menu so I could exit out of the game. I had to use the Home button to exit out of the game and shut it down. Once I restarted the game all was fine until I was returned to a checkpoint and the same glitch happened again.
Conclusion
Up until I encountered the glitch I was enjoying the game, it is a fun experience but obviously needs an update to fix this problem.
As Technosphere Reload stands now with it’s occurring glitch I don’t have a score for it other than I’m not sure, if the developers fix the glitch in the game my score would be I like it.
Pending a fix my score is… I’m Not Sure
