Metrico+ Review

By Marcus Jones  |  Posted: August 23, 2016

As someone who had not played the original Metrico from Digital Dreams, I didn't have much to go on when I first started the game other than an understanding it was about infographics and shaping the world with my own input. It's hard to understand how to translate that into gameplay, but Metrico+ captures the look and feel of a living world revolving around graphs, information, and more. This interesting (for lack of a better term) puzzle-platformer captures a minimalist approach to the genre with beautifully rendered environments, and an excellent soundtrack backing it.

The stylish design of the game is meant to draw your eyes around as you push onward through each level and section. Each "section" of the game is very stylistically different while relying on the same kind of draw. Solid shapes and more fill the background and change as you complete puzzles, while others are comprised of wireframe designs (perhaps the coolest level in my opinion). Colors are starkly bright, lines crisp, et cetera. I spent more time looking to the horizon in levels to see things change rather than focusing on the game at hand. For a puzzle-platformer where I kind of need to pay attention to what I'm doing, it was a nice change of pace.

Like I mentioned, the minimalist approach to the game is immediate, even from the main menu screen. Booting Metrico+ up presents you with the option to basically begin, but without any form of "press start", which could leave some players confused. The game is meant to be intuitive for players based on how it's presented from the start; there's very little-to-no text throughout the game, and the character you choose doesn't do much more than make noise every so often. There will be occasional pop-ups when new mechanics are introduced, but beyond that the expectation falls to the player to discover their way through the various puzzles and landscapes. Thankfully, the game is incredibly simplistic in controls and relies on the mouse and only a few different keys on the keyboard. The real challenge will be attempting to solve increasingly difficult puzzles as you progress.

The puzzles themselves are steeped in the platformer genre, requiring timing, jumping, and using the mouse sometimes to shoot a ball. During my time with the game, there were perhaps only a few that really stumped me, but there were many that required some trial and error to learn how to overcome. The puzzles do not seem to be designed with the goal of preventing players from progressing; rather they do an excellent job at challenging you to think. Some seemed to really make you step back and focus on how you manage your platform skills. One of my chief complaints of the game stem from this, as I found my character sometimes slow to respond. While this may be a design element to the game, it was still a bit frustrating.

Simply Put

Honestly, I enjoyed Metrico+. It's strange design and simplistic nature combined with the puzzle solving aspects make for a fun, if short game. Plus, the music is just great to chill with and listen to.