What if Portal, Metroid, and Zelda had a child, and the result was something totally unique?
The Steam description kinda says it all. Supraland is a first-person exploration and puzzle game taking inspiration from Portal, Metroid, and Zelda. It all takes place in this really cool, colorful world that is actually a child’s sandbox. You play as a member of the Red Village and must discover why the Blue Village has sabotaged your water supply. In order to do that you must make your way through the sandbox, solving puzzles and finding McGuffins. Supraland has a great sense of humor, plays well, looks great, and provides a huge variety of abilities and puzzles to use them on.
The set up is abrupt and it’s clear from the start that this is more about the gameplay than the story. That said, the story is clever and offers some great tongue in cheek humor. You, as a Red person, must make his or her way through a child’s sandbox on a quest to find out why the Blue People are cutting off your water supply. All the characters are strange plastic-rubber cutouts that resemble gingerbread men. It adds a level a weirdness to the world that makes it just a little more interesting without wasting too much time explaining itself.
The real star here is the gameplay and puzzles, which are both top-notch. The world is teeming with puzzles, challenges, and secrets. In classic Metroid and Zelda fashion you unlock new abilities that allow you to access more parts of the world. So you may see a treasure chest or platform early on that you can’t get to at first, but rest assured there is some tool or ability you wil eventually find that will get you there. Some abilities are purchased, but the major ones are found at the end of long puzzle sequences. It’s all very open without any discrete levels, however, checkpointing is plentiful you will unlock many shortcuts that will help you get around the world.
Unfortunately, the combat falls a little short of the puzzles, basically resulting a whacking enemies with your sword and shooting them from a distance. It all feels weightless and without much in the way a variation. The platforming can be a little frustrating as well. You get many abilities that make it more forgiving, but first person platforming is still a tricky proposition. While it’s not terrible, there were a few times when I felt frustrated trying to make a difficult jump.
All in all, Supraland more than delivers and exactly what it promises. A Metroid and Zelda style world and upgrade system, with Portal style puzzles. It plays really well for the most part, is challenging while still being fun, and looks great. Even the story kept my interest, which is something considering how much of a back seat it takes. It’s currently on Steam, is well worth the price, and even has a demo you can try out if you’re on the fence.
