Late one night, a man ventures from his log cabin into the woods.  In the middle of the forest he finds a giant glowing floating Octahedron.  An Octahedron is a 3-D 8-sided shape.  I didn’t know that until I played this game.  And who says video games aren’t educational?  Anyway, instead of running away from it like a sane person would do, this man does something stupid and actually touches it.  Then he starts glowing and his head turns into an Octahedron, and he falls through an abyss in the ground.  Honestly I don’t think this kind of game needs a background story, but there you go.  In the game, you are a glowing stick man and must jump through 2-D vertically scrolling platform levels.  But you have a unique skill that can help you out.  You can create platforms under your feet so you can jump higher and bypass obstacles.  Octahedron is available to download on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

Play control is easy.  Move around with the left stick, jump with the X button and create platforms with the square or R2 button.  But just because you can create platforms under your feet, don’t think this game is easy!  You can only create a limited number of platforms before you must touch solid ground again, and there are many obstacles and enemies in your way.  Some of these levels designs are pretty creative, too.  I’d talk about them more, but I don’t want to spoil the game for anybody.  There are also lots of hidden items to collect in each stage.  I’m not sure what they do, but they can add more challenge and replay value at least.  I also like the trippy disco light-based graphics.

The main problem I have with the game is that it gets super hard, very quick!  Since all the stages are vertical, it’s especially frustrating when you fall down and must climb back up again, and the checkpoints are sometimes not very forgiving either.  But if you desire a challenge in your 2-D platformers, you may want to check this one out anyway.

Kid Factor:

Octahedron is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  If you get hit by spikes or an enemy, you just turn into a flash of light and warp to your last checkpoint, but that’s about as violent as it gets.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but not necessary just to play.  Younger gamers may get frustrated at the high challenge level, though.

Tags: Game Reviews