Octahedron is a platformer that strikes a perfect balance between accessibility and difficulty. New mechanics are constantly introduced, keeping the game challenging while preventing it from becoming stale. The core mechanic of the game is that you can create your own platforms, which follow you as you move side to side. It creates an unusual split between horizontal and vertical movement, in which it is easy to move side to side, but difficult to move upwards.
The level design plays off of the movement mechanics almost perfectly. Many hazards either make it difficult for you to effectively create platforms, or require complex choreography to avoid them. There isn’t an absurd amount of levels, but each level is well crafted and replayable, which more than makes up for it.
The visuals and audio create a unique experience that I haven’t witnessed before in a platformer, or at least not one this good. Stylistically, it is eye-catching, featuring an absurd amount of pulsating neon lights and visual effects, to the point of requiring an epilepsy warning when the game launches. As for the soundtrack, the levels use the music to pace the game, making it feel almost like a rhythm game, but without any explicit rhythm mechanics. Like much of the game, this is an optional element and can be safely ignored if it is too difficult for you or it simply doesn’t interest you.
The difficulty settings let you play the game more casually, while the optional challenges allow you to make this a moderately challenging game, or even a nearly impossible one, depending on your personal tastes. One of the best features in Octahedron is the variety of challenges that each correspond to a playstyle. If you like to rush through levels as fast as possible, there is an award for beating certain times on each level. If you prefer to 100% a level and find all the secrets, they have a medal for that. If you want to methodically execute your platforming, you can go for the platform medal, which has a “par” number of platforms you can create. To achieve it, you have to create less than the recommended amount of platforms for the level. This lets you handcraft the type of platformer you want to play, using Octahedron as a framework.
Octahedron is easily one of the best platformers I’ve played in a while. It’s a great game that will appeal to a wide range of platformer fans.
