Feist review

Developer: Bits & Beasts

Price: F2P ($3.99 to unlock full game)
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPad Pro

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Overall Rating:

If you enjoy the melancholy atmosphere and simplistic form of LIMBO it's likely you'll have a ball with Feist as well, but in a very different way.

It's stark, striking, and unforgiving as you're thrown into a world of beasts that all want a piece of you. There's nothing here you've not seen before, but it doesn't really matter in the long run.

Feisty lad

Immediately, you're booted off into a mysterious world without so much of a whisper of explanation. As a black, furry creature on an unknown journey through a variety of different environments, it's your job to make it through the levels without being smashed up, stabbed, or devoured.

If you're not getting chased by huge, bear-like monsters, shot at by creepy mosquitos, or one of the many other foes, you might just stumble across a trip wire or two and get speared through the chest. Delightful.

Rather than LIMBO's more chilled-out and puzzle-focussed playstyle, Feist is more of a twitchy survival game. Enemies are encountered frequently and some of them come out of absolutely nowhere fast. Your reactions are one of the things that'll keep you breathing.

Unlike plenty of these sorts of games, you're not totally helpless. You can use trip wires and traps to your advantage, or use sticks and pine cones to lure or kill enemies in your way. But, actually mastering this is trickier than you think and some are easier to kill than others.

You can also use the environment to your advantage, jumping between flimsy branches or hiding beneath mushrooms to avoid enemy attack.

Its graphics really give the game a sense of depth and texture. Though the foreground is all solid black and shadowy, the stark, colourfully contrasted background helps each little feature stand out – from the hollowed hiding placed in broken logs to the spiky fluffy bits on your own body.

Smashy stick

The controls aren't bad. They're easy to get to grips with and straight forward, but I expect they're more effective on smartphones. Playing the game on an iPad was a joy visually, however it was awkward to keep hold of after a while.

For a slower-paced platformer this wouldn't be much of an issue, but the controls in a reflex-based survival game are one of the major buffers between success and failure. As the game progresses, and battles get harder to fight, you might find yourself more frustrated than anything.

Unfortunately, the curse of the platforming genre means you'll experience plenty of repetition with it. Once you start fighting through trickier enemies, you slip into a familiar pattern – run, fight, die, repeat.

It's not so much the difficulty of its enemies that makes the game challenging, but rather the frequency in which they're thrown at you. While this is great if you love to push yourself and enjoy these hard-as-nails survival games, for more casual gamers you'll likely be frustrated.

Feist won't be for everyone. LIMBO fans will love the visuals and general environment, but if you're looking for another thoughtful puzzler you certainly won't find it here.

No, this is a game that stands on its own two feet and isn't afraid to push your buttons, even if it means you'll be close to throwing your phone against a wall.