Coloropus is developed by Pigsels and published by Lace Mamba Global for the PC. It is a puzzle adventure game which relies heavily on its colour mechanics and physics to progress through the game.
Coloropus is a small octopus that is having fun, swimming around with his girlfriend when she is captured inside a bottle and he must find a way to save her. Along the way you meet some other sealife that will help you out after you’ve helped them and plenty of enemies that will try to eat you.
The game starts with a short tutorial where you follow your girlfriend through some underwater caves, learning basic movement and interactions as you go along. Coloropus uses no written words at all during the tutorials or game. Everything that would usually be written is instead made out as animations within thought bubbles. This works reasonably well but sometimes it isn’t quite as clear as it should be. Luckily the hints clear up any frustration that these can cause as they show the solution to the problem at hand.
Gameplay relies heavily on physics and colour changing. The game is very simple to control but can be a little worse for wear because of it. Click and hold down the left mouse button to move around in the direction you are pointed at and move it further away to swim faster. This has caused problems with manoeuvrability in hectic situations as you need to do quick turns and Coloropus can be too slow for it to work as needed. Click and hold on objects to attach yourself to them and move around to pick up or drag the object in that direction. Right clicking will fire ink balls of whichever colour you currently are. The longer you hold the button down the larger the ball you fire but to aim properly you must also hold down the fire button. You may only fire if you have any energy left in your energy bar; this can be refilled by eating the fruit you find during the game.
Colour plays many roles; you can hold two colours at any one point and you will be that mixture of colours. You gain a colour by either eating the colour off of a small fish or plant or by defeating a small or large fish and eating the colour that it drops. Firing ink at enemies and walls that are the same colour as you are the only ways to kill enemies and destroy walls. Sometimes colours that are slightly off colour still work on enemies eg green and light green but not always. Being the same colour also protects you from enemy ink, electric crystals and prevents certain enemies from attacking you. There is also a plant that siphons the colour out of you if you pass by with the same colour.
Enemies are vicious and once they catch sight of you they will come after you with a vengeance. In some areas there is very little chance for escape and it will mean that you die purely from being unable to get passed the enemy that is attacking you and blocking you from moving anywhere at all. Death isn’t the end of it all though; when you die you either go to heaven or hell. During your time alive planting new plants and a few other actions increase your alignment meter towards good while killing defenceless non-aggressive fish and breaking plants sets the meter towards evil. Whichever state you are in when you die will send you to that resting place. Hell tends to be more difficult while heaven is more relaxed and easy. Once you complete the puzzle and renter your body you will resurrect in a grave closest to where you died.
While it does look pretty it can hold some dark overtones when it reaches certain areas. Sometimes colours can be close enough in tones for it to not be obvious enough that you have the wrong colour. The lack of written communication translates well through thought bubbles and any grievances that it causes are cured by the hints.
Presentation and Audio
Bright, colourful and childlike it gives the sense of ease that is quite deceptive of the tones it can carry with hell and some of the fighting that goes on. Audio is generally cheerful but can get dark. It does make the lack of verbal and written communication work well due to how both the presentation and audio are implemented.
Gameplay
Deceptively hard at times, with some challenging puzzles involved, hidden upgrades and a unique colour mechanic. Death can be frustrating and movement in the more hectic moments can be too but generally speaking it controls well.
Overall
Coloropus is not a long game but it is enjoyable enough if you can get past the frustration of dying. It is more comparable to an adventure game as you play it for the puzzles and knowing what to do lets you speed through more quickly than a first playthrough.
Comments:
Plenty of achievements to unlock will keep you occupied if you want to get them. There are many hidden upgrades throughout the game and some are in the heaven and hell levels. I became a little too acquainted with hell and heaven than I’d like to have been but it did help once I got the upgrades that they had hidden in them.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
