PPP2 Review: Spelunky

Another fantastic little game that I found on Steam for about £10 at the time, is Spelunky, and it's definitely worth the money. I have already spent about 20 hours devoted to trying to advance further in the game - which is proving damn near impossible.

This game is brilliantly challenging and wonderful to play. During the game you play as a small explorer while he journeys through the different levels to be able to get to the next area. Each area has 4 levels which are all randomly generated creating the best gaming experience. Unlike some game where once you have died you are put back to the exact same place again, this game is so unique. Due to the random generation in the levels means that this game never gets boring as you never know where the exit is and the exit is always in a different place too.

After you get the aim of the game into your head it then turns you upside down. Combine a simple 2D platformer with destructible everything and an enemy around every corner just adds to the excitement of this game. There are so many different types of enemy, that also change from level to level so you never know what your going up against (and you know your not going to win when you spawn into a level with about 10 large spiders). But for me this is all part of a trial and error type of game as you progressively learn how to defeat certain types of enemies and learn about how to defeat each level successfully.

The game is filled with things to do in each level; you could run through and try to find the exit as quickly as possibly without taking hits, or take your time collecting treasure and saving damsels in distress to gain back lives quicker. But taking your time in this game isn't always the best option as once a chill runs down your spine, the ghost will appear and one simple touch is an instadeath, meaning back to the very start for you. 

Although this game is challenging and can also be quite stressful to try and complete it is still brilliant. It is the type of game you don't feel committed too and you can put it down at any time, because as it is a permadeath game, and every time you die you have to start right from the beginning again. This makes the game very tense in some places, especially when you only have 1 life remaining, as you have to think about whether you can just jump off a ledge or not. Fall too far you loose one of your 4 lives, fall on spikes - instadeath.