Plutonic Repulse Demo

Original ideas can go a long way sometimes, especially when they are applied in a creative way and they improve the experience. This is especially true in video games, where unique genre combinations and gameplay mechanics can sometimes yield fantastic results. However, it is also pretty simple to come up with the wrong ideas and just make everything worse.

Plutonic Repulse is one of those interesting ideas you see once in a while, which although plays like a combination between Spore and Snake, it is actually a weird tower defense game. As such, you control some sort of alien organism that can ‘befriend’ other organisms and make use of their abilities to defend against hordes of incoming enemies. While it sounds quite fun, the actual gameplay falls a bit short.

Since this is merely a demo as of right now, there’s not much of a story going on in the background, which is a bit disorienting. All you see is the blob that’s supposedly your character and the other weird creatures you can interact with. The blob seems to be sentient, because it talks to itself and it helps you get acquainted with the mechanics while doing so, which is a bit cheesy.

The map looks a lot like what you might have seen in flOw, except it’s a lot more colorful and the environment is much more lively. That doesn’t mean it’s good, however, because the maps are very small and they do not allow you too much room to have some fun. Speaking of which, the fact that you can make friends with other creatures and count on them to attack the foes is certainly a nice touch, but it’s nullified by the fact that the A.I. is terrible and it barely notices the enemies most of the time.

The controls are quite smooth, on the other hand, because all you need is the mouse in order to move around and click on the creatures. Visually, there’s not a lot of variety in the environments and you get bored to see more or less the same landscape every time. Thankfully, the soundtrack is quite jolly and it can keep you distracted from the underlying boredom.

When it’s all said and done, Plutonic Repulse still has the chance to make things right, with enough work and dedication from the developers. However, there are many things that need to change, otherwise the gameplay just isn’t going to cut it for most players.