Biped is a wonderful experience that incorporates the teamwork puzzle dynamic of a game like Portal 2, but replaces the presence of an all-seeing robot overlord that has no regard for human life with a different despair that leaves you wondering if you need new friends.
NExT Studios released Biped on March 27th of this year. They are also known for one of their other titles: Unheard, an innovative investigation game where the evidence is entirely in sound. While I don’t know too much about their other titles, games like Unheard and Biped are very promising for the studio.
Biped takes a very simple concept, the physics-based movement of two tiny robot characters, and expands upon it incredibly well. You start with just you and your partner, moving slowly across a simple three dimensional platforming world. You have to coordinate not only your own movement, which is already difficult due to the abnormal controls, but also your partner’s in order to progress. At the end of the game, you’re gliding across the floor with ease and controlling complex physics puzzles in real time. Sometimes the camera turns 2 dimensional, but you still can use the same controls to navigate while exploring a completely new challenge. The progression is steady but the scope expands dynamically.
The aforementioned movement is unique but not completely unseen. Many games take a physics-based movement system and create a frustrating gimmick experience. They’re often fun for a little while, but are inhibitive of extended gameplay. Biped manages to take an abnormal movement system and make it just hard enough to be rewarding but easy enough to not be a negative part of the game. This is supported by essentially having two movements to master: your own and your partner’s. The satisfaction that comes when you and your partner conquer something together through your own teamwork. Unfortunately, part of why you don’t get tired of the movement is that there isn’t enough movement.
Biped is a game that cuts itself off short. Just as soon as you feel you’ve mastered the mechanics, and are ready for even more difficult challenges, you realize you’ve completed the final level. There are bonus practice levels, but they don’t really measure up to the main game experience. I hope that moving forward, NExT Studios considers adding DLC’s in the form of level expansions. As it stands, the game feels almost like it’s incomplete. Incomplete not necessarily in coding quality, presentation, or mechanics, but in raw content. This is, in my opinion, Biped’s greatest flaw.
One way this could be addressed would be a PvP mode. In my suggested mode, you could have physics based traps and puzzle weapons much like how you can interact with the world in the main bulk of the game. In order to maintain the friendly atmosphere, “killing” could just manifest as dropping them off the stage, or some other softened form of off-screen death much like that in Super Smash Bros. While cooperating with your partner is a challenge in the main gameplay loops, often leading to accidental murder (or the laugh-filled intentional kind), being able to explore its more combative hidden aspects would be a fun party game and form of repeatable content for players that want to keep playing Biped.
NExT Studio’s Biped is a fantastic game. It has endearing animations. It’s accessible, appealing to a wide array of audiences. The game mechanics are innovative but intuitive. It’s complex without taking itself too seriously. One of the only bad parts about the game is that there isn’t enough game to go around. It’s for these reasons that I rate Biped:
8.5/10
Check Out the Biped Trailer:
Biped is out now on PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam.
PlayStation 4 Review
My name is Devon Huge. I'm passionate about writing, art, games, and lists that are one item too long.
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