Orbus Impetus

Sorry, no bonus points for the fancy name

Reviewed by Shawn from afro-ninja.com

Orbus Impetus seems to be following a growing trend of arcade minigames that feature multicolored circles, squares, and stars as their main point of interest. I mean, I know they’re easy to draw and everything, but it feels like I’m playing the same games just with a different spin each time. Orbus Impetus is by no means a bad game, but I just wish it would have done something to differentiate itself from games like it.

In OI you control a circle with the keyboard. In each level you must collect all the other circles you see, without running into any stars. Stars cost you a life, and after three lives you’re dead. The balls you need to collect come in different formats, all ranging in size, speed, and movement pattern. However, all the ball types are already introduced to you by level 6. I would have liked for this to have been spread out more to give the game more of a ‘let’s see what’s next’ feel to it. Also, while the stars aren’t that hard to avoid, they appear randomly in the screen. This can be very annoying when a life is instantly knocked off because you happened to be sitting in a spot where a star randomly spawns. I think the stars should only appear from the sides of the screen- it would cause you to be more cautious around the edges but more fair too.

The graphics are simple (as I said, circles, squares, stars) but have some cool looking effects to go with them. The ball you control leaves a trail behind as you move around the screen, and collecting other balls results in particle explosions. The sound is catchy, and thankfully there is an options menu where you can turn it off/on, as well as adjust the quality settings. Besides playing for a high score the game offers a little extra replay in the form of cheats. You can unlock cheats by accomplishing certain things in the game, like getting a x10 combo. The first two cheats were manageable in my opinion, but after that the other ones (x25 combo, x50 combo, x100 combo) seemed a little out of reach to me. I made it to level 18 without losing a life, but then quickly lost them all by level 21 due to randomly appearing stars. It would be nice to play a mode that gives you more lives or lets you start at a certain point in the game once you get to it, but your only option is starting over. The author also offers some cheat codes that are available by typing in certain words, but I think he should have added those in the game to unlock by accomplishing things. Maybe instead of jumping to a x25 combo he could have added cheats for x15 and x20 combo.

Overall I have to say the game feels a bit too much like jmtb02’s ‘ellipsis.’ Instead of running into circles you’re clicking on squares. Not to mention that the ellipsis particle engine is a little more impressive. I think an adjustment to even out the difficulty and introductions to circle types could have done a lot for this game. After playing through once and dying I didn’t feel too compelled to play it again. There’s still a draw here for the high score addicts, but everyone else might tire out fast.

Click here to play Orbus Impetus






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