Platforms: Switch (tested), PC
Age: 7+
Amid the deluge of game releases every day, it demands ingenuity and even courage to stand out. Please spare me from the current wave of gaudy pixel-art wannabes. Helix sets out its stall by stripping out colour and offering little in the way of explanation of its intricacies.
Belgian studio Badass Mongoose takes a leap with this peculiar puzzler and its twist on Metroidvania. As the screenshots and video will tell you, it distinguishes itself foremost with its colourless comeliness.
Primarily black on white but also white on black, Helix (ignore the seemingly meaningless suffix Descent N Ascent) looks elegant even before you pick up the controller. That’s no harm because you will be staring at its crisp and detailed monochrome pixel art quite a lot as you try to unpick its riddles.
You are a sharply drawn stickman character in an abandoned world and, um, that’s about it as far as the narrative from Badass Mongooses goes. You glimpse occasionally a similar guy who’s maybe your nemesis. Perhaps you’re attempting to escape. Who knows?
The first revelation comes when you discover hitherto unknown powers that help you traverse the world. These new abilities – to conjure a block, drone, hook or magic bottle, for instance – arrive one at a time and can variously be used to cross chasms, flip switches or capture wildlife. But that’s just for starters.
After you complete the initial missions to learn the abilities’ functions, Helix reveals its second secret. The powers can be combined to trigger new effects. Now the drone can move the block after you’ve planted it. Or the hook can pull you across long distances if combined with the drone. A whole new set of levels is presented.
Logic will get you a long way in Helix, which reminds me a lot of classic puzzler Sokoban. The correct solution (of which there is almost always only one) relies on determining the right order to manipulate the pieces at your disposal, whether they be a block, a lock or teleport pad.
But wait, there’s more. If you complete all those missions and see the ‘ending’, Helix has one last trick up its sleeve. If you thought merging two abilities felt mentally taxing, you probably won’t relish the final set of missions in which puzzles demand three powers at once.
By now, though, you will be either inexorably drawn to Helix’s cryptic storytelling – with nary a word spoken and only simple glyphs for clues – or frustrated by its puzzles’ exacting requirements. You might even be infuriated by the game’s handful of bugs and the occasional dead end where you paint yourself into a corner, forcing a restart from the last save.
At the very least, you will have witnessed a visually memorable adventure that leans into its conviction that less is more when it comes to explaining itself.
VERDICT