Kristian Macanga

Factsheet

Developer:
Kristian Macanga
Based in Zagreb, Croatia

Release date:
11 December, 2011

Platforms:
Web

Website:

Description

Its tone can best be described with the HP Lovecraft quote that was the game's inspiration: Life and Death. Your goal is to make it to the door at the end of each level. You might think that you should avoid those enemies and spikes walking around... and you'd be wrong, since that's often the only way to progress. This will send you to the underworld where you'll have to avoid some truly dangerous demons (or shake them off with button-mashing), until you can make it to a resurrection point denoted by an ankh. There are switches to activate and upon which to place boxes, the momentum of gravity to consider, and fairies to collect. The only question that remains is, well, "To Be Or Not To Be?" Verge is quite the inspired work. Travel between light and dark worlds has been seen in games as diverse as Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Trilby's Notes, and Eversion, but it's never been so confronting a mechanic as it is here. Things feel a little morbid at times, with the constant suicide and resurrection, but never so much so that it overwhelms the clever level design and sedate-but-effective special effects. It's not a game that takes time to explain its mechanics, which may be frustrating to those who don't like having to infer what the game wants them to do. Also, difficulty ramps up a couple of levels in, so you may have to have a high tolerance for block-and-switch puzzles to make it to the surprisingly emotional conclusion. Verge is a highly unique game that the downloading-averse should definitely take the chance to experience now.