Goombd Played! - Rochard

I appreciate games that don't treat me like an idiot, especially ones that are as intelligent and charming as Rochard, an 'indie' platformer from Recoil Games.

You start off getting to know John Rochard, a hard knocking space miner who along with his team, has hit rock bottom. None of his recent digs have brought out any profits and everything was just about to be shut down by his employers when a mysterious artifact is found and his world is turned upside down.

Sadly for John, other people are also interested in his find and are willing to kill for it. Even though mining and engineering doesn't include combat training in their résumé, John quickly learns to use his tool of trade as a means of defense. A sort of gravity gun if you will, à la Half-Life 2's, the Helga can pick up boxes, which can in turn be used to make footholds, platforms and you guessed it, be turned into projectiles against enemies.

It's an easy comparison to make, so I'll get it out of the way - Rochard might just be the alternative to Metroid on the PC and the PlayStation 3. You find health and weapon upgrades that are quickly put to use during puzzle and combat scenarios, but unlike the heroine from the aforementioned game, John still needs to use just about everything he discovers to his advantage until the very end of his adventure. Out of all of his abilities, there isn't one that doesn't get used throughout the entire game.


That isn't to say that very few of these abilities happen to overlap their usefulness depending on the situation. Granted, it's easier to simply shoot an enemy down once you've found the necessary upgrade, but I'll be damned if dropping a box on top of him isn't as fun in the 100th time I've done it as the very first. The same goes for a very late game pickup which makes it all even easier, although not as much fun.

There are also a few issues in regards to how the game treats physics. Item interactions are never the same in repeat attempts, for instance. Even if you happen to place a box on top of the other every time, you're not guaranteed they'll stay put every time. Given the trial and error in this type of game, this lead to some slight frustration during a handful tight spots in conjunction with how disparate some of the checkpointing is placed in those few cases. None of these issues take away much from the Rochard, however, and can easily be excused by how well the rest of the game plays.

Like I mentioned before, it was surprising to be treated as a smart player than a dumb one during the course of Rochard. None of the puzzles I've found seemed particularly obvious at first. The game gives you a feel tools, cleverly disguising them under the aesthetics of the game, say, a few boxes stacked together in the corner or a faulty robot flying around. At no moment did it just say, "hey, dumbass, grab that thing and place it there", which goes a long way in making me appreciate smartly designed games much more than the 'run and gun', 'lead you by the hand' variety that I'm simply sick of playing.

Rochard's also impressive in the presentation department. All characters are voiced and surprisingly enough, the acting is very well done. John has a gruffy U.S southern accent that gives him a lot of charm. The script is funny enough to punch a few laughs here and there too, which helped keep things light during a few particularly tough puzzles I've ran across. Not to mention the awesome soundtrack that can easily be associated with John Carpenter, with synthesized tunes that beg to be bought and listened to even outside of the game.

Simply put, if you like puzzle games, you shouldn't pass Rochard up. Despite some small issues with the physics model used, its smart combination of platforming, puzzles and combat makes this game a perfect excuse to check a weekend out and just dive into it. You'll dig it as much as I have, that's a rock hard promise! |9