Gravity? What gravity?

​Meet John Rochard. He's a good-natured astro-miner who, as is so often the case in the land of video games, finds himself smack dab in the middle of an extraordinary situation.

Rochard's unsuccesful deep-space mining team is about to be out of a job when they make the discovery of a lifetime: an alien artifact that could unlock the secrets of the universe. The discovery earns Rochard's tiny corner of the galaxy plenty of unwanted attention, leading to his former workplace being overrun by galactic pirates and corrupt space police.

While this may sound like the set-up of any number of modern shooters, Rochard is actually a physics-based puzzle platformer that requires the player to bend gravity and think around corners in order to succeed.

It's a tricky genre to pull off well, but the team at Recoil Games have managed nicely.

 

Spend five minutes with PSN-exclusive Rochard and you'll be able to tick off the boxes for video game basics: The game looks great, sports a solid voice cast and a surprisingly stellar soundtrack. What matters most in a title all about timing and precision, though, is how well it plays.

Thankfully, Rochard has been fine-tuned to near perfection. A 2D platformer, the game utilizes a unique two-stick control scheme that doesn't skimp on the options. One stick controls the titular character while the other aims your trusty G-Lifter, a *ahem* gravity gun that's used to do just about everything in the game--lift/shoot objects, fire lasers, launch various types of grenades, slide platforms, tether and swing Rochard to his objectives, etc.

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While some rooms require little more than jumping around and taking out the space scum that have overrun your asteroid, the vast majority of Rochard consists of meticulously crafted puzzles you'll need to solve in order to open new paths, discover secrets and rid the galaxy of a pirate or two.

Equipped with the ability to lower/flip gravity in certain areas, Rochard takes the puzzling in unexpected directions, requiring the player to use their brain rather than run in blindly with a finger on the trigger. Low gravity or no, leaping before you look will almost always result in death and, due to the lengthy load times, you'll quickly learn that patience and planning is the best way to survive in a space mine.

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While Jon St. John lends his talented voice to the lovable hero, not everything that comes out of Rochard's mouth is a winner. The story is interesting enough to move things along and much of the dialogue is right on target, but there were a few too many jokes falling flat throughout the lengthy campaign. I'm all for deep South banter, but you're trying too hard when "git-r-done" and mispronouncing "extraterrestrial" as "extra-tennessean" make it into the conversation.

But at this point, I'm nitpicking. A few bad jokes aside, Rochard is a solid title that puzzle and twin-stick shooter fans should have little trouble getting behind. The puzzles get trickier the deeper you go, but Rochard always has the right tools for the job.

The Official Verdict: 4 out of 5

This review is based on a PSN download provided by the publisher.