Rescue Co. Review

Rescue Co. is a platforming game that features elements of rescue- or escort-type missions. In it, players take control of a round protagonist as he rolls around and hops to guide other spherical explorers to safety. Although it has a relatively unique control scheme, the entire experience feels a little uninspired - and thus ultimately a bit bland.

On any given level, the player character rolls from left to right as the screen scrolls in the same direction. Along the way, the environment can present hazards as simple as a steep incline or as complicated as a black hole that players need to swipe the screen to help the protagonist keep moving forward. Swiping in  Rescue Co.  causes the hero to jump in the direction that was swiped, with longer swipes indicating long jumps and shorter ones short hops. The goal is for players to successfully make it to the base at the end of a level without losing any characters by sending them off of the screen.

Since the screen auto-scrolls, much of  Rescue Co.'s gameplay challenges players to hop over and through obstacles, but maintain control so that no character flys off the right, left, or top part of the screen. As players progress they'll gather scrap metal that can be spent on upgrades to make achieving this task a little easier, but each cleared level in  Rescue Co.  brings a more difficult environments to jump through.

For the most part these basic components make  Rescue Co.  a fine game, but the whole experience ends up feeling a little empty due to its procedural generation of levels. Unlike some other puzzle/platformer experiences, the random generation make for a potentially endless number of unique levels, but unfortunately means that there's no particularly strong vision or progression to be experienced. Sure, players can expect to see more and more obstacles from level to level, but  Rescue Co.  doesn't really divide itself up to reveal new gameplay mechanics or new ways to shake up the experience, which makes it ring pretty hollow after sinking just a little time into it.

In terms of gameplay ingredients,  Rescue Co.  has a lot going for it. There aren't many games out there that rely on the same mechanics as this brand of traversal and challenge. The only real problem is that the lack of intention behind the level design keeps the mechanics from being used in creative ways. This doesn't necessarily make  Rescue Co.  a bad game, but it does make the experience of playing it feel mostly uninspired.