The Freeware Indie: ‘Perspective’
Imagine playing a 2D platforming game. Now imagine being able to move the camera around in 3D, while still being restricted to moving in a 2D environment. Confused yet? I certainly was when I first started playing. Once the initial “what on Earth is going on here?!” wore off, what had seemed like a strange game turned out to be one of the most innovative platforming experiences I’ve had in a long time.
As the title of the game says, it’s all about… Perspective (drumroll). No, really: Remember how environments in the real world change, depending on where you view them from? That’s how it is in this game too. While you’re only able to move your character left, right and jump, each level has gaps or other obstacles that you won’t be able to cross simply by jumping, as they’re much too wide. So what do you do? Simple: You move the camera around to find an angle that’ll create a path across! That it’s a mere optical illusion rather than an alteration of the environment doesn’t matter – as far as the game is concerned, there is now a path there. In a way, it’s almost like you’re creating a 3D environment while moving through it at the same time. Crazy stuff.
Since moving the camera around is likely going to be confusing enough on its own, you’ll only need to watch out for a few things, none of which are moving objects: Touch anything that’s not blue and you’ll die, but at least dying will never take you back more than a few seconds; I wonder if the developer placed checkpoints everywhere? A kinda neat trick that comes into play early in the game, is the ability to increase/decrease the size of your character by moving the camera further away/closer. Needless to say, shrinking will let you crawl through small spaces while being taller lets you jump higher. With all that to keep track of, it’s a good thing that the game is paused while moving the camera around; especially when you have to jump around corners, or pull off even weirder moves! That’s right: Jumping around corners in a 2D game. Think about that for a second…
If your head is spinning at this point, watching the trailer below might help. The game itself can be downloaded for free from the official website, and if you’re feeling social why not check out the Perspective Facebook page? Have fun!
