A neat puzzle game that has some technical issues on vita
Playstation plus has been a great way for me to check out a variety of smaller games that I would have overlooked otherwise. Nova-111 is apart of the selection of PS plus games this month. It does something that hasn’t been done in very often in video games up to this point. Turn based movement mixed some real time obstacles. The basic plot of the game is that a spaceship full of scientists gets lost in a dimension rip after a grand experiment. They don’t try to tell much of a story and it is much more about adding in new elements every time you start up another set of levels.
Now the easiest way to explain how the gameplay works is to say that the game is turn based. When moving around the spaceship every other enemy can move at the same time. Dodging attacks is left up to noticing the enemies tell and then dodge out of the way. Yet they very quickly throw that idea out the window with real time elements existing at the same time. The player is always on the turn based system but dealing with the rogue elements gives this game plenty of unique situations that must be figured out.
Looking at the big picture Nova-111 is more of a puzzle game than action. Each level has hidden collectibles for the player to discover and different types of enemies that require some thought to defeat. The deeper I got into the game the more it gave me new ways to deal with different types of puzzles. For example after starting the game it gave me a laser that could attack a enemy/object from far away. A simple power up but it allows the developer to introduce new types of enemies. They continue slowly dripping out new powers throughout the game and the final battle makes great use of them all.
Overall on the Vita this is a well put together game. Yet it has one fatal flaw that makes it a less than stellar port and that flaw is the frame rate. Early on you won’t notice it but it becomes a real problem later on. Everything begins to look like it is going in slow motion and in the really rough moments it slows down to a unbearable crawl. That isn’t the only problem either since it can also crash randomly. It only happened twice during my playthrough early on but it did inconvenience me since levels are in 3 part chunks I had to replay them.
Even with those caveats I do still think this game is worth checking out. The blend of turn/real based combat gives this game a unique progression through 18 levels. If you in the mood to play a puzzle game on the go this one is worth checking out.