Jumper Demo

So many games have taken their inspiration from Portal over the years, and some of them even managed to match its sharpness when it comes to the puzzles. Obviously, the setting and the characters are unique, and it would be a lot more difficult to dethrone Valve’s baby in that regard. However, with enough dedication, developers can at least achieve the same level of entertainment in regards to the puzzles.

Jumper is about as simple as the name implies, since it’s all about jumping from one place to the other as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are no actual characters or a storyline to follow, just a series of rooms you have to get out of. At the end of each level, there is a door that leads you to the next room, and you have to do that all the way to the end.

The actual puzzles involve jumping, as you might expect. There are these jumping pads you must use, which provide you with a boost and allow you to reach otherwise inaccessible places. However, although the first couple of puzzles are pretty straightforward and simple to execute, things get a lot more difficult when the platforms start to more and you have to time your jumps perfectly.

There are a couple of problems with this model, on the other hand. Whenever you miss a jump, you go down and have to come back up using the stairs. While this sounds fine in theory, doing this over and over again for every mistake gets too annoying after a while. The jumps are not even high or fun enough to be worth the effort, since you are usually just trying to reach a nearby platform.

Given the fact that the game is built using Unreal Engine 4, it certainly looks better than you would expect an indie production to look. On the other hand, this version is still pretty early, so there are plenty of missing textures and annoying glitches that ruin the fun on a regular basis. Not much of a soundtrack either, which is quite a shame, because it would be nice to have something to listen to while you walk up the stairs ad infinitum.

In the end, Jumper has something nice going, but it’s too rough to enjoy it right now. Maybe after the final release will hit the shelves things are going to be better, but for now, it’s just full of annoyances to mess with your good mood.