To face out as a Souls-like today, a recreation must both attain related heights because the style’s namesake in the case of gameplay, or have a compelling new spin on the style. Whereas One other Crab’s Treasure will get shut on the fight entrance, its glorious 3D platforming are what assist distinguish it. Combining these gameplay parts with a real, if maybe gradual to start out, story a couple of crab named Kril, who begins as a loner simply desirous to get his shell again and go residence, however as a substitute finds a better understanding of the huge ocean, makes for a enjoyable tackle the style.
The sport kicks off with Kril’s shell being repossessed as a tax by a rich monarch, however this setup is principally used as an excuse to ship him on a treasure hunt throughout the ocean. Kril’s story throughout One other Crab’s Treasure is a very robust facet of the sport. Whereas initially framed as a story about Kril breaking out of his routine and discovering renewed objective, it will definitely tackles the ocean’s ongoing air pollution issues, taking the narrative to a spot that’s bleak but additionally real. The place Kril finds himself by the top is not a type of overdone glad endings, however as a substitute a much more sophisticated place that feels true to among the recreation’s extra dour themes.
The sport is damaged up into giant ranges, crammed with each enemies and platforming challenges, that you’ll want to discover to search out an goal, corresponding to a bit of a treasure map, or attain a far-off construction. The degrees are well-designed, with fight and platforming flowing collectively seamlessly. There are a couple of locations the place the brutality of One other Crab’s Treasure does overdo it–such as throughout platforming sections missed by ranged enemies–which leads to unwelcome issue spikes. Making an attempt to navigate these areas whereas not getting blown up by ranged assaults that take away a 3rd of your well being goes from tough to irritating, however this solely occurs in a handful of situations.
One other Crab’s Treasure gives little or no steerage in these open ranges. There is no such thing as a goal marker, nor a spot the place you’ll be able to see what your present goal is at a look. The one path comes from cutscenes wherein characters clarify your subsequent purpose, or by talking to characters within the degree, which is ok more often than not. Nonetheless, there have been a couple of situations the place one thing so simple as seeing the present goal would have saved a headache.
Within the manufacturing unit space, for instance, you will discover a puzzle that results in the following part of the map, and whilst you can work together with it for those who discover it early, you’ll be able to’t really clear up it. However, as a result of I could not examine my present goal, it wasn’t clear that I wanted to go elsewhere. One other puzzle has you utilize a magnet for platforming. Naturally, a steel shell is required to do that, however you even have to carry the block button for it to activate, which a close-by NPC takes pleasure in not telling you, a mirrored image of the aloof characterization of characters discovered all through One other Crab’s Treasure, though it loses some attraction right here because of the frustration of unclear mechanics. These small hiccups take away from degree design that’s in any other case robust total and sometimes guides you with out the necessity for goal markers.
The platforming, nonetheless, sings because of a simplistic method. You may have a restricted toolset that lets you grapple between factors, hover soar over perilous falls, and climb nets, all of that are launched early within the journey. The platforming challenges as a substitute come from the addition of more and more difficult obstacles and size of the platforming sections, with the calls for constructing alongside your personal platforming ability. There’s additionally some good leeway in the case of platforming, as falling solely takes a bit of well being as a substitute of immediately killing you, offering simply sufficient of a security internet that you simply aren’t pressured to take it gradual and might as a substitute let the motion actually construct momentum. There have been a couple of situations of objects within the setting catching or stopping my motion in a method that felt unintentional, but it surely wasn’t a prevalent subject.
The place Kril finds himself by the top is not a type of overdone glad endings, however as a substitute a much more sophisticated place that feels true to among the recreation’s extra dour themes
The fight ought to really feel acquainted for anybody who has performed one among these arduous 3D motion video games. It has mechanical mainstays, corresponding to dodges, blocks, and parries, however the place One other Crab’s Treasure distinguishes itself is thru using shells. Since Kril has misplaced his shell, he can use miscellaneous objects discovered all through the ocean as a substitute, so he is in a position to equip something from soda cans to sushi rolls and even occasion poppers. Every shell has its personal protection worth and different numerous stats, like elevated bodily or ability injury, together with a particular transfer that you should use in fight. These particular strikes could be a projectile assault, just like the fizz from a soda can, or a standing impact like an electrically charged can, which offers injury once you get hit. Crucially, these shells break ceaselessly, forcing you to adapt primarily based on which shells can be found close by.
Every shell has an armor meter of assorted sizes, which is diminished every time you block or take injury. Until you unlock and execute the parry, your shell will all the time take injury throughout fight and break. This additional layer provides some depth to the fight, forcing you to all the time be looking out for a recent shell when exploring ranges. Even for those who actually like a shell, it is solely briefly accessible to you, forcing you to adapt and conserving you from changing into complacent. Not with the ability to lock myself into a particular construct let me expertise much more of the choices at my disposal, which saved fight recent over the dozen hours it took to beat One other Crab’s Treasure. When you can insure a shell later within the recreation to ensure you’ll respawn with it, this selection comes late enough–and is dear enough–that it would not disrupt the dynamic or develop into a crutch but additionally seems like a welcome possibility when it arrives.
One other Crab’s Treasure falls brief throughout fights in opposition to harder enemies and executives. Whereas errors might be extremely pricey in video games like this, right here they’re as a rule deadly. Lacking a block can simply get you caught in an enemy’s assault string, and with harder enemies, you’ll be able to virtually by no means take greater than two hits with out dying. This resulted in shedding many, many fights due to one mistake. Shedding since you did not execute a single block or parry might be extraordinarily irritating, particularly the third or fourth time it occurs in opposition to the identical boss. The overwhelming majority of my deaths got here with most of my heals unused, as a result of I misplaced all of my well being with out the chance to treatment the error. Whereas usually the problem within the recreation comes from there solely being somewhat room for error, there are many fights that really feel like there is no such thing as a room for error in a method that’s unfair and irritating.
Gallery
One other Crab’s Treasure additionally has a number of situations of pointless friction in the case of quality-of-life options. New expertise can solely be discovered by quick touring to a particular place, as a substitute of simply at any checkpoint, placing a number of loading screens between unlocking a brand new ability and getting again to the motion. There’s trash to gather all through the sport that may be bought for extra microplastics (the equal of XP), however as a substitute of with the ability to rapidly use this stuff, you might be as soon as once more required to quick journey to a particular location to money them in. The abilities vendor and junk vendor are additionally in numerous areas, so doing each without delay takes even longer.
Whereas not every little thing in One other Crab’s Treasure is as easy correctly, and a few unforgiving enemies take away from the enjoyment of the extraordinary fight, the sport is a stable tackle the Souls-like style nonetheless. It brings in recent concepts with the shell system and a give attention to platforming–traditionally an afterthought within the style. And whereas Kril’s journey takes an act or two to search out its footing, the locations it goes make the ocean value exploring.