Gearend

What a great game, a truly under appreciated gem. Charming graphics with unique characters and dialogue. The atmosphere is reminiscent of Cave Story and its game-play has light metroidvania mechanics mostly prominent in its obstacle based open map progression. Your character, which is a robot, has interchangeable parts available for specific sections of its anatomy, there is its core/head, which usually offer passive traits, its legs, which affect its form of movement/mobility each set offering a different advantage per the scenario, and last but not least are its two arms which each can be replaced and interchanged independent of the other. This feature is not an accessory or after thought but rather an important mechanic that will require often mixing and matching of parts best to suit the scenario and while you will likely have a favorite set-up, you won't be able to stick to it is for the whole game which is nice because it motivates the player to explore this feature. Finally I come to the soundtrack, which is awesome, usually I don't pay much attention to the music in a game and often I will turn it down in favor of talk radio but in this case I didn't feel compelled to dial it down but instead I looked forward to finding new areas in the game so I might be greeted by it accompanying tune. All in all this is a great game and while I can tell that the story and game length was cut short, I can only hope that the dev will release a DLC or update to fill these voids and I look forward to any of their future projects. Please give this game a try!..

This is a fun little Metroid-style 2D action / exploration game. The graphics look great, this is a 2D sprite game that has dynamic lighting effects! It's so pretty! I really enjoyed the soundtrack as well, the tune in the desert area is my favorite. There are secret things to find all over encouraging you to explore and all the equipment you find is neat and serve a purpose. There is lots of cute colorful dialogue you have with NPC's. The controls are great, I played on an XboxOne controller just fine. I would say the game is challenging, moreso for somebody who isn't a 2D platformer-pro and there are instant death spikes, spinning blades, and crushers to look out for, so be careful! If you die, you're straight back to where you last saved, so it can be very punishing if you haven't reached a save room in a long time! The biggest downfall would have to be that the game is so short and left me wanting more. It only took me about four hours to complete with almost everything. [spoiler]After you complete the main quest, there's just a short end-game without much to it and you fight the final boss.[/spoiler] It's a fun little game that you won't regret playing. It's an experience, I hope to see more games from Solarlune in the future!

TL:DR: Worth playing if you like medium-length, cute metroidvanias and don't mind some rough edges. This game has an abundance of charm and personality, and has enjoyable, slightly quirky gameplay. It has all the hallmarks of being a one-person project, and this is both a good thing and a bad thing. The game's plot is simple, well explained, and just ambitious enough to lead to a surprisingly effective resolution. The NPC dialog is a highlight of the game, and the character design is also well-done, varied, and appropriate for the characters. It seems like Cave Story must've been an influence. Regarding gameplay, each new ability changed the character's behavior just enough to be genuinely novel, instead of being merely a new kind of incremental upgrade. I enjoyed playing around with different combinations of weapons and equipment, when normally I find one setup and stick with it unless forced to change by a specific puzzle. This helps the game stand-out from the crowded metroidvania genre. The game didn't feel especially difficult, but there was enough hidden content and limited backtracking to make it occasionally frustrating or confusing, even with the mapping upgrade, but I never quite felt "stuck".Having beaten the game and found all of the upgrades, I don't expect to come back to it any time soon. The music is very well done, but in some cases, is so ambitious and complex as to be distracting. There are certainly worse problems to have, though. The music matches the graphics, which are pixelized without any of the palette limitations common to retro games. It hangs together well enough, and with a few notable exceptions conveys all the important info clearly. The lighting is a bit strange in this game. Some areas have barely visible 1-hit kill spikes. The end boss area has spikes also, which were so dim on my screen I couldn't tell what was killing me at first. Playing the Linux version, the game is surprisingly graphics intensive. My computer isn't cutting edge, but I was still surprised at how slow/choppy some scenes got with particle and lighting effects set to full. there were some technical issues and bugs, but nothing game-breaking. Well... not really. The developer seems committed to continuing updates, so these may be fixed by the time you read this. The end-boss got stuck in a wall, which made for a trivially easy fight, once I noticed the spikes. That made the end fight quite anticlimactic. There were also some sound issues where sound effects would be stuck in an endless loop, even after quitting to the title screen. This was relatively rare, thankfully. Regardless, I enjoyed the game and recommend it to fans of the genre.

Gearend was an amazing expreience, To the art, music and animations it was just amazing, The game is a bit short but besides that i had a great time playing, From the start to the end i loved it, The hard yet nice platforming and the NPC's and enemys were very uniqe Everything about Gearend just feels nice, to the walking, jumping, selecting items, and general how everything is played out. After so long of following and finally being able to play this gem of a game i can truely say i loved it.

I've been watching SolarLune's dev vids on YouTube since the reboot of the game's development and I say, for a small game, it was even better than I hoped! Cute characters, nice story, and of course, the classic SolarLuned music! :D [spoiler] P.S. The bonus spiky tower in the weapons area is hair-tearing. [/spoiler]

Game's decent. Stylistically very nicely done, and with a handful of very good tracks. As for actual game, you could probably call it a "metroidvania" as it involves exploring the map and collecting upgrades while working your way towards the objectives. Discoverable items include different weapons (you can equip two at once, which is nice), cores (which grant different passive effects), and chassis (mobility). There are 4 large-ish areas total (each with it's own secrets) and the game takes 4..5 hours to complete (a bunch more if you want to 100% the game and achievements). As for the negatives, there are various small oddities with the game itself ([url=http://steamcommunity.com/app/574500/discussions/0/1353742967808652750/#c1620600279662496628]my notes[/url]), and the framerate can be slightly unstable depending on GPU (which is regulated by changing settings or running windowed). I assume that those will be addressed over time

What to play a metroidvania different from all others? Do yourself a favour and try this game out. Now *this* is what I call a hidden gem. It really saddens me that it's hidden though. The game is absolutely fantastic and it's unfair SolarLune sells it dirt cheap. Splendid graphics, reasonable amount of customisation and a well presented dark atmosphere. Someone get some mainstream streamer to play this game and give it some publicity because it deserves it! Eagerly awaiting for a sequel as well :D

Fun if short Metroidvania. I don't usually give reviews but this game is getting pretty overlooked. Pros: - Fairly good animations and some nice graphical effects that make the game feel vibrant and active. - Great soundtrack, with the music you have to listen to the most being some of the best. Lots of variety considering the fairly limited scope of the game, eg every boss has its own music. - Amusing characters and dialogue highlight a competent if not super original plot. Little touches that make me think it was made by someone with a background in engineering. - Fluid and functional controls. - Suitable level of challenge and reward in finding out how to progress further - far from obvious without being completely arbitrary and frustrating, - Some decent platforming/jump navigation sorts of areas that incorporate equipment upgrades well, - Some other equipment upgrades that are interesting if not that useful. - A fair amount of exploration bonuses. - Linux support! - You don't have to sit through credits because only one person worked on it... Cons: - It's pretty short for the genre, especially if you don't feel like scrubbing the world for every upgrade. Just three main "level" areas outside the central hub area. - The ending, while not abrupt per se, feels like it leaves important parts of the story unresolved, although I don't know if it maybe changes if you get absolutely everything or trigger something (I doubt it because there's no achievement for something like this) - Saving can only be done manually in a few designated spots and there are a lot of instant kills which take you back to the last save. This is kind of antithetical to the genre and can be frustrating. You'll want to save whenever you run past a save spot and probably even backtrack to them after clearing stuff on the map so you don't have to redo it. - The bosses seemed too easy, except maybe the first and last one. - A couple of the hardware upgrades require navigating tricky areas and may lead to many dozens of attempts and screaming at the monitor. On the one hand, they're optional so you don't have to subject yourself to this. On the other hand, they felt like they had little practical payoff which kind of adds insult to injury. I guess what I'm saying is maybe don't bother unless you want the equipment achievement. - Although there's a lot of good to the graphics some of it's a on the programmer-art level. Mainly some of the background tiles which seem too flat and blocky and conflict with the depth effects. Verdict: A lot more good than bad, especially if you're into Metroidvanias. The biggest weakness is that it leaves you wanting a lot more. For some the price may seem slightly too high for the play time, so maybe it's better worth waiting for a sale. I'm personally hoping for DLC or a sequel or something.

Gearend is a wonderful 2D platforming game with a lot of charm and fun. The platforming and combat are challenging, but not unforgiving, and the game feels enjoyable even just to move around in. The visuals are absolutely stunning, and it's very clear that a lot of care and dedication went into making every area of the game have a particular atmosphere. Exploration feels organic, rather than forced or linear, especially with upgrades hidden all through the world. Best of all is the soundtrack. I've always believed a soundtrack can make or break a game, and Gearend's music really makes it. I would recommend Gearend to anyone who enjoys platforming, action games, or even just a stunning and atmospheric world.

Love your work Solarlune!

bad game xd