Released for PCs in 2016 by Russian studio Goonswarm and now ported to Xbox One by Sometimes You, Alteric is a single-player 2D platformer with a very sad premise: You died. Now your soul is trapped in the alien space between two worlds. Creepy, isn’t it? Prepare to face 30 levels of spikes, lasers, traps and many, MANY respawns as you guide your character, a squared piece of energy through three chapters. Let’s now embark on this journey and see everything the game has to offer in this review, for yet another Sometimes You game. (they are on a roll) 

 THE GOOD

• Alteric has challenging gameplay with good physics! You guide our little character through the level double-jumping and switching between worlds (representing light and dark-like worlds). Every time you switch between them, something will change in the level. Maybe a platform or a saw blade will pop up in an unexpected place. Maybe a solid column will reveal a passage for you. You never know what waits for you, but you must always consider the possibilities before switching and jumping, resulting in some splitsecond reflexes!
• New mechanics and obstacles are introduced in a good pace, so you really feel like you are progressing . You can expect many things like lasers, gravity switches, clones and much more, it isn’t really original but I didn’t mind that.
• The music in Alteric provides a pleasant atmosphere to the game. There is a small number of songs, but they are so enjoyable that you won’t complain about the repetition. The developer hit the jackpot with these songs that reminds me of slow and melancholic Eurodance-like tracks from the 90’s (yes, I’m an old fella).
• Whenever you die (expect it to happen a lot – you even have achievements related to your number of deaths in the game), the game quickly respawns you in couple of seconds. It helps to build that ‘one more time’ feeling to keep you engaged to finish the hard-to-beat level.

MIXED FEELINGS

• Visually speaking, Alteric has its charm. Think about it as Thomas Was Alone met Limbo or Albert and Otto: geometric forms with dark platforms. Your background switches between blue and orange themes. One aspect that is worth mentioning is what happens to your character when he dies: he shatters in many small pieces in a delightful effect.

THE BAD

• Something that bothered me in some levels is the fact that items throughout the level don’t go back to an ‘initial position’ when you die: platforms and traps continue moving like nothing happened, sometimes killing you as soon as you respawn. Only after three or four respawns, they move away or you find a window to avoid them before getting killed again. Thankfully it takes no more than a couple of seconds between one and another respawn, so it may be not enough to piss you off.
• It happened more than once: the game insisted in not saving when I reached chapter three, making it necessary to replay some of the previous stages, really annoying.

Alteric [Score: 67%] For those who enjoy a challenging platformer, Alteric is a must buy! Its mechanics and interesting gameplay make it a fun pick for more hardcore players. Those not-so-hardcore players have another entry to the list of ‘throw controller in TV platformer’, a list created by our editor-in-chief Dae Jim to group those games that will put your nerves and perseverance at test from the moment you start playing them. If you are an achievement hunter, the price tag of this game at 4,99 USD / 4,99 € may be more than enough for inviting you to try it.

Dev: Goonswarm Publisher: Sometimes You
Played on: Xbox One | LifeisXbox received a digital review code, provided by Sometimes You.