ICEY

Games like The Stanley Parable have taught us that the narrator isn't always to be trusted in our games, and their soft and soothing voice doesn't always guide us to safety. Sometimes they exist to be defied and toyed with, of course resulting in rather amusing and unexpected consequences for the disobedient player. This exactly the kind of message that FantaBlade Network's game ICEY gives off too, which we've recently been playing on Nintendo Switch, even if we've not always followed the rules.

You play as ICEY, an android, and just like almost all androids she has a choice to make: follow her commands or become her own person as an intelligent AI. As you'll find when going through the game, the aforementioned narrator rather unsubtly hints at routes you can take, like "oh I do hope you don't go down that path, that would be pointless" and it's through these avenues that the game really shines, otherwise you'll be playing through an apt but otherwise unremarkable tale of an android who kills what she's told to until the credits roll.

When you do go off the beaten track though, the narrator (who is the implied voice of the game's creator) starts interacting with you in more meaningful ways, and you can find yourself in situations like unfinished levels (pictured below) or seemingly endless hordes of enemies in dead ends. Of course, you're encouraged to explore outside of your instructions, but that doesn't mean that there won't be some sinister surprises waiting for you if you do.

The trouble with this meta gameplay is that it's all very heavy-handed. Since it's a 2D side-scroller you can't explore with the same depth as, say, an FPS title, so really the exploration is just a selection of limited routes with scripted phrases that repeat themselves again if you die. The whole idea of coming back to programming screens and finding unfinished parts of the game while the narrator gets frustrated with you whenever you defy them has also been done before, and so unless you're new the concept then none of this will feel surprising in the least. It's also made very clear that these are the themes that the game is going to explore (in the description on the Steam page, for instance), so it's not like it's trying to subvert your expectations like something along the lines of Doki Doki Literature Club.

When you're working your way through the levels in the two- to three-hour journey you're on, you'll be platforming a little bit and also taking on either grunts or big robotics beasts, all of which you can send to their doom with a flurry of cool melee attacks with your neon sword. It's a thoroughly frantic kind of action that will see you mashing a ton of buttons to try and one-up the swathes of enemies, but you'll need to keep your wits about you and deploy some sort of tactics when the going gets tough and there are really hard enemies to contend with.

There are also a handful of upgrades to unlock as well, like improving combos and unlocking new moves, all of which will bear you in good stead if you're looking to find all of the hidden areas that may or may not be packed with bosses. There's even a very cool move that sees you gather up all the energy dropped by foes and unleash an attack that damages all enemies on screen, and when using this in conjunction with all of your other attacks you'll find yourself never stopping when a fight kicks off.

Visually the game looks the part, and the futuristic setting sees you wander through the rubble of civilisation as you dart from place to place, emitting a neon glow on all you see - Tron-style - but the animations in the game are unfortunately disappointing. ICEY runs very strangely, and these animations just don't look as polished and refined as the combat feels, the same stiffness of limbs applying to the enemies as well.

We came away from ICEY satisfied with the amount of engaging combat we'd been given via the cool combos and special attacks, but underwhelmed by the meta-narrative and the length of time we spent with it. It suits the Switch perfectly because of this brevity, making it just the right length for a flight or long train ride, but it left a lot to be desired, which is a shame considering the world it constructed and the mayhem that ICEY can cause.