Mini-Review: Aaaaa! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity Pre-Release (Dejobaan Games)
A couple of weeks ago, the guys at Dejobaan Games started taking pre-orders for upcoming basejumper AaaaAetc - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. Not only will those who pre-order the game bag themselves a $10 discount off the final $25 price, but every supporter will also receive a 'Pre-Release' copy of the game (which is essentially a beta version which includes 30 of the eventual 80 levels) and 'exclusive content'.
While it's in no way feasible to write a review off of this unfinished code, it'd still be nice to know whether it's worth forking out $15 for, right? Welcome to my pre-review for Aaaaa! which, in a nutshell, goes as follows: Buy this game.
I'm going to keep this short. Dejobaan have managed to nail the feeling of falling really fast and I absolutely love it. Your task is to launch yourself from a ridiculous height, skim some buildings, smash through targets, wave to your loving fans, flip off the whiners and land safely at the bottom with all bones intact.
Initially this all goes swimmingly and you'll simply enjoy the feeling of being in complete control while simultaneously having no control whatsoever over the frantic pace of it all. Then you'll notice getting a 5-star rating is really, really difficult. While the experience can be completely casual and open enough for anyone to enjoy it, so too is Aaaaa! fitted for the hardcore gamers. Finding perfect routes to maximise score and achieve the highest rating possible will no doubt help the time fly for many freefallers.
I don't want to say much more than this for now - I'll save that for the final verdict in Q3 2009. The package as a whole is definitely worth the $15 pre-order price, but to justify the full $25 purchase, Dejobaan are going to have to keep raising the variety and quality of the levels. It would be all too easy to get bored towards the end and chuck in some generic layouts just to get the whole project rapped up quickly. If they stay focused, this could be essential indie for 2009.
Pre-orders are available through the Dejobaan site. There's also a demo to download, so you can decide if it's your kind of thing. Like rushing past buildings at stupid speeds wouldn't be.
Comments
I've been trying to decide whether to get this, because I definitely thought $25 was too much so I figure I have to decide before the game comes out. I played the demo, and loved it, the levels were great. I suppose this is what I needed to get me to fork over that $15.
Posted by: StarStabbedMoon | June 26, 2009 4:30 PM
There is no excuse to drop the $15 to preorder this game. You're looking at hours of content already in the preorder package, and it's not even halfway done yet! These guys are indie gods in my book.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 26, 2009 7:15 PM
The message at the end of the free demo was hilarious...
Posted by: lokijki | June 26, 2009 11:29 PM
It seems pretty fun, but laggy to the point of being unplayable. The millions of particles and kajillions of plasma effects hurt my three year old laptop.
Posted by: Blair | June 27, 2009 2:16 PM
Thanks for all the great comments, guys; we really love hearing that we're doing things right. ;) I agree with Blair -- I was disappointed to see that the game didn't run well on my (also) 3-year-old laptop. We're thinking about sticking a knob into the settings to decrease draw distance, and so forth. So much yet to do!
Posted by: Ichiro Lambe | June 27, 2009 10:08 PM
Pre ordered the game, really happy with it, just unlocked the 30 levels (and videos ^^)
Now onto the gold medals!
I just hope we will see more levels where you can travel across the level horizontally not only falling. I really miss the old level in the Alpha version released earlier.
This can be finally the fix for the Pilot Wings starvation syndrome.
it's totally playable on my old Athlon64 3.2ghz + 6600 Nvidia.
Posted by: Luc | June 28, 2009 12:20 AM
I just pre-ordered the game as well and would like to say, obviously, that I quite enjoy it. It's a nice mixture of puzzle and, to some extent, basic flying/dodging. I also mirror the requests for the alpha flying map, if possible. That was quite enjoyable. I think I just love the changing of conventions that level brought out. Good puzzlers keep changing things to keep the brain working.
I like how the 5th star is much harder to get than the 4th. Makes the optimizers happy but keeps the game open enough for everyone else who just wants to play. I love the extra powerups. So far, I've only gotten my gloves, but it added some great fun to the level I used them in. Hopefully they can add that needed change up that will help engage the mental faculties.
Add in a couple things I think y'all are already considering (procedurally generated eternal jump and level editor) and this baby is set to fall all the way down to awesome extreme plus seventy. Great work. Thanks for the heads up IG. Keep up the great work Dejobaan.
Posted by: Markoff Chaney | June 28, 2009 1:49 PM
I don't think the problem is the particles, it's the inability to change the resolution the game plays in.
Posted by: Mischief Maker | June 30, 2009 1:02 AM
Am I the only person who thinks this game is crap? A team of 3 devs could kick out something better with an XNA SDK in less than a week...
Complete waste of money
Posted by: Drunk | July 17, 2009 11:54 PM
i thought this game is really cool! ordered it an hour ago, and now Steam says it will be out @ 12p! so excited! played the demo, but i didn't get the cool announcer during the freefalls, just the point and crowd sounds.
Posted by: Bingojubes | September 3, 2009 7:13 PM
I found this brilliant game while trawling the net for free games to post over on the free games project at Giveawayoftheday forums back in April and was gob smacked by the game play from the alpha version. I immediately pre-ordered the game and waited anticipatingly (is there such a word, lol) for the final release. At the time I ordered the full game I didn't know about getting the pre-release version which I also loved. Now after the full release I'm testing the levels editor, which is probably going to be released as an update when testing is over. so far its looking good, but that’s all I can say about that as I'm not 100% sure whether the developers are going to release it, but I reckon they will. The game is so good I’m going to buy the steam version of the game while its on special offer for 50% off. The only difference will be that I get to aim for the Steam achievements and the game will be automatically upgraded when and if the level editor is released.
Brilliant game; and, bargain ‘Indie game of the year’ as far as I'm concerned. I hope they find enough material to create a sequel. :)
Posted by: Whiterabbit-UK | November 18, 2009 10:37 PM