12.2 hours played
Written 4 years ago
I have been a Steam user for over three years and have never posted a review until now, but very few people know this game even exists and the developer, Chema, spent almost five years working on it as a hobby project, so I want to try to help get the word out.
[i]Sockman[/i] is a spiritual successor to the 1983 ZX Spectrum game [i]Manic Miner[/i] and gameplay is very similar. In each stage, Domin "Sockman" Dominguez must run and jump his way past one-hit kill enemies and obstacles to a key, unlocking its respective door–which will usually be as far away from the key as possible–to grant entry to the next stage. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's a simple formula, but the level design consistently varies (and grows ever more difficult).
The game is pretty simple and short, but becomes difficult fast. The controls are self-explanatory running and jumping. However, everything kills you with one hit. A single misstep, and you will die and you will go back to the beginning of the stage. I wouldn't say it's as difficult as [i]Manic Miner[/i], however, having infinite lives, as well as no time limit or fall damage to allow the player to practice the game's physics without fear of inexplicable death. This means that the only significant loss is the player's sanity as they die over and over again. The cheeky developer made sure to include a death counter which will happily remind you of how many times you have died during your playthrough.
One neat little feature is secret rooms that lead to in-game arcade cabinets where you can play mini-games reminiscent of [i]Breakout[/i] and [i]Cannon Ball[/i]. They're completely optional, but they're a fun bonus feature.
I will say there's a few select moments where the difficulty feels debatably cheap. For example, after defeating the World 1 boss you collect a magic orb that makes you float down a vertical corridor with spikes, and a second magic orb makes you lose your floating ability and plummet down to the room below where a bed of spikes is all too happy to impale you if you don't quickly manoeuvre to the wind currents nearby. I should mention that dying after defeating the boss sends you back to the room after you beat him instead of sending you all the way back to the beginning of the stage, and maybe my reflexes aren't quick enough, but I still wonder, "Who's going to dodge those spikes the first time?"
I also noticed a few minor spelling/grammar errors, which seem to be the result of the game originally being made in Spanish and then translated into English. It's no big deal, unless you're an extreme Grammar Police Officer.
All in all, I would recommend this game, especially to [i]Manic Miner[/i] players.
Now where's the mention of [i]Breakout[/i] in the Influences list, again?
P.S. If you're having trouble with the arcade mini-games due to limited coins you can spend on them, I would recommend creating a backup of your save file in a separate directory if you find a cabinet. The save file is "sock.sck", found in the same directory as the game file.
