A space oddity.
I had never heard of Lost Orbit before being asked to review Lost Orbit: Terminal Velocity. Come to find out, Lost Orbit was a 2015 game released on Steam and the Terminal Velocity version is the “definitive edition” that comes with a few more levels and challenges. Funny enough, it reminds me a lot of a game that has its title in this game’s title, and that’s a good thing.
Lost Orbit has players controlling Harrison, an astronaut who finds himself stranded in space with no ship or any real way to find food. He must rely on his suit’s jets to propel him through systems while trying to get to a habitable planet before he succumbs to hunger. Along the way, he meets a droid that follows him around and speaks to him to record his journey, just in case he doesn’t make it.
Platforms: PC, XB1. PS4, Switch
MSRP: $9.99
Price I’d pay : $9.99
The gameplay is rather simple. Players maneuver around a 2D plane scrolling upwards. That must avoid obstacles like asteroids, planets, and other debris in space to try to make it to the end of a level as fast as they can for a better score. Messing up just once will result in death, and players must either start the level over or begin at the last checkpoint, but this has an effect on their score for the level. Harrison has a boost that can be activated for some extra speed, and his abilities can be leveled up for even greater impact. Each new stage offers up different special interactive things that can aid in the traversal.
There are planets to orbit that will refill the boost gauge and send Harrison flying, warp wormholes that will teleport him forward and to another section of the level, and water planets that stop Harrison in his tracks and allow the player to aim where he rockets to. Each new area has something to add to the gameplay. As I stated at the beginning of this review, it feel a lot like the original Velocity.
The story, told a la Bastion, has it being narrated by the sarcastic droid. It comes off genuine at times and at other times, a bit hokey. It teeters on that line of funny with dark humor thrown in with the more serious story telling that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do. I’m ok with gameplay narration rather than static screen text cutscenes like other games would do, although I did find the few story levels where I just slowly float through space while exposition was happening to be rather annoying. I get that there is a story here, but with a trial and error game about speed, you really don’t want to get bogged down by a level of just floating.
The presentation is really well done. The visuals are vibrant and colorful and add a lot to the overall action when speeding through a level. Along with that the music is fantastic, with a futuristic space score with electronic sounds and the over-the-top space opera feel to it.
Along with the story mission levels, there are also challenge levels along with time trials to add some more to the overall package.
Lost Orbit: Terminal Velocity is a decent game. The gameplay can get slowed down by the story at times, but when upgrading abilities and hitting that Zen moment while speeding through a level, it feels pretty great. Even if it is just a short time with the game, it’s still a pretty fun time. I would suggest picking it up if you are a fan of the trial and error style games like Velocity, Trials, and others where you don’t mind trying to perfect your time.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
