Haustoria

Review

On the main menu screen there’s New Game, Continue (a previous game) and Bonus Area. Upon starting a new game you’ll find yourself beside a stone wall, with colourful buildings and homes nearby. Snowcapped mountains are in the distance, with a big bright sun shining down on all below. From here you will have some information about which keyboard keys will allow you to move, jump and interact with to help you on your way.

The world has been cursed by an ancient plant-based cosmic being known as the Haustoria. Making your way across the screen, you come across your father, a wounded soldier who hands you the Magical Thumbtack. This magical thumbtack will allow you to pin and unpin certain objects you cross paths with on your journey. With the magical thumbtack you set off across the land.  However, the beautiful lands that you know will soon disappear. Instead you’ll find yourself in weird and twisted places, and you’ll need to find a way of lifting the curse and removing the Haustoria.



As you make your way through Haustoria you’ll have to solve puzzles so you can proceed. These puzzles can be resolved by using the magical thumbtack or by other means. You may come across objects blocking your way or ladders which are out of your reach. If they have a thumbtack on them then you can manipulate them to your benefit.

Clicking on the thumbtack on the object will unlock that object. You can then move it into position to help you, which you do by moving in a certain direction. So, say you need to move a ladder down so that you can reach and use the ladder, clicking on the thumbtack on the ladder to unlock it and then moving to the left or right will move the ladder up or down. The ladder might not come down far enough for you to use; if this happens then you will need to lock the ladder in its current position, then move your character into a position so that you can unlock and carry on moving the ladder to the position you require. You may need to do this several times, especially if you and the ladder are on a short platform.

Scattered here and there are some weird looking creatures with short arms and legs, two pointy ears and a leaf covering their faces. These are Forest Dwellers and they will help you as you progress on your journey.  If you’re fast enough, you can catch and collect some of these Forest Dwellers; there are thirteen in total. When combined with the magical thumbtack, some will help you clear your way of monstrous creatures.

On the main menu screen you can find the Bonus Area, which will be available to you a short time after playing the main game. Here you play just as you would through the main game, although you won’t have any game saves. What you will find in the bonus area is prototype drawings and creatures which never made it into the game (along with some information about why they didn’t make it into the current game).

There isn’t much in the way of options; the in-game menu will detail the Keyboard Controls and there’s a Music Volume slider. Upon starting the game, you can change some options in the Unity Launcher, such as Resolution, Graphics Quality, Windowed, Key Binds.

Haustoria is a platform game made with nice hand-drawn graphics.  The music is good. I did find it a little bit frustrating at times using the WASD keys when jumping around platforms and falling off. This is probably more down to me and a couple of problems I have; I’m sure most folks will have no problems. I could have tried using the Arrow Keys and rebinding of Jump and Interact keys in the Unity Launcher, but I normally have problems with that, so I didn’t bother. I wasn’t aware that my gamepad (Xbox One) was supported until I tried it just now as I was writing this line in my review.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!


Positives

+ Nice hand-drawn graphics
+ Has achievements

Negatives

- Frustrating at times
- No cards currently

Review Summary

With the magical thumbtack in hand, set off on a journey to repel the cosmic being, Haustoria, and release the curse that is upon the world.

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Zeepond Rating: 7/10

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