Puzzle platformer Etherborn channels M.C. Escher and rainbows
Careful you don't fall.
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I'm a sucker for gravity-based games, but that's only half the reason Etherborn caught my eye. The other half, as you may have deduced, is its bright, pearlescent aesthetic. There's a grand sense of scale to its inexplicably suspended geometric world which dwarfs its tiny humanoid protagonist, and I'm all about it.
Developer Altered Matter describes Etherborn as a platformer where gravity is relative to where you're standing. "The main character experiences gravity in a direction perpendicular to the surface she's standing on," the studio says. Which, applied creatively, sounds like a recipe for some good puzzles.
Etherborn is chaotic and geometric, but it's also stunning in simple stillness. Environments really play up highlights and the smallness of the player. I'm looking forward to seeing more when it releases "sometime in 2018." In the meantime, you can find more information on Etherborn's official site.
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Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.