Some games are just hard. From bosses that will crush you in seconds, to puzzles that will test your grey matter long into the night. Heavenly Bodies is one such game. One in the same vein as Octodad: Dadliest Catch, I am Bread and Manual Samuel, where your greatest challenge more often than not is just moving your character.
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Developed by Aussie studio 2pt Interactive, Heavenly Bodies is, on paper, a walk in the park. You fill the space suit of a 1970s cosmonaut who has to fix up a number of broken bits of kit in the blackness of space.
Gravity Unwell
But in reality, completing your mission within this physics-based challenge is an utter nightmare.
Heavenly Bodies sees you push, pull and twist your way through a range of evermore challenging scenarios. You’re going to have to waggle the arms and legs non-stop if you want to achieve anything. And in space, of course nothing stays still, not even for a second. You’ll also need a lot of luck.
Controls are key to these sorts of games and they are a mix bag here. Controlling your arms to grab and hold while using your legs to kick off of things, but there is a lack of precision to it all, as more often than not you’ll spend far too long fumbling on pulling levers and switches.
Gravity Assists
Though there are a few controls schemes including an assist mode, which takes the sting out of it a little but you’ll still get overly frustrated in the long run.
This is a real shame as the puzzles themselves are well crafted and scaled very well in terms of difficulty showing real thought has gone into them.
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With some only taking a second to work out how to complete, but then taking HOURS to actually achieve because of the controls and objects you need floating away every 2 minutes.
Gemini
If you want to share your pain, well you’re in luck as you can tackle it all in co-op with a mate – which does add some light relief to things with the moment to moment buffoonery that will unfold.
Though beware it also may lead to a few harsh words and fists flying as the controls will truly test your friendship. Often to the limit.
Heavenly Artwork
Heavenly Bodies has a lovely simplistic art style. It’s clean and crisp, making it easy to see what you need to do from area to area. The audio does a really good job capturing the desolate feeling of being very alone.
Heavenly Bodies is a truly challenging, often captivating title. Tackling its array of puzzles will leave you spinning for hours. Take your time, think out your moves and plan what you and your buddy need to do and it does come together, it just needs a hell of a lot of patience to get there.