Cobalt | Review

When a name like Mojang gets attached to a new game – even as a publisher rather than developer – there’s a certain expectation that the game will be something special. No-one really expects another Minecraft, but it’s impossible for comparisons not to be made.

And that’s the position in which the small development team at Oxeye Game Studio find themselves in with their debut Xbox title, Cobalt – not least because one-third of that team is none other than Jens Bergensten, the ginger wonder who took over Minecraft’s reins when Notch departed.

Cobalt is… well, chaos, at first. A side-scrolling action-platform-shooter-brawler-adventure game that apes no other but draws its influences from a thousand different places. It’s a game built from the imagination of a precocious six year old with an impossibly diverse gaming pedigree stretching back thirty years. Oxeye clearly started with the question “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” and just didn’t stop. Nobody stopped them. Probably, no one tried.

Once you have got to grips with the game, you’ll be glad no-one stopped them. While Oxeye dreamt up cool stuff for you to see and do, there’s every chance your first hour will be spent exclaiming, “What the… what just happened?” and, “I have no idea what… oh, okay.”

Your agile little cyborg protagonist – the titular Cobalt – can run, jump, double jump, and somersault. And later can travel through flight, on the backs of indigenous wildlife, and through magic doors. As Cobalt you will punch, kick, throw, shoot, roll slide and sneak your way through, around, over or past enemies. You’ll throw switches, re-route power, double back, triple back, miss-time leaps, upgrade weapons, hurl birds, ride beasts, pick locks, dance like your life depended on it and explode on contact.

It’s chaos. At first.

But get past the manic leaping and frantic button mashing, and there’s a wonderful precision to be discovered that’s deliberately obscured by the adness happening on screen. This you will need to discover for yourself, though, the game gives little away. The short tutorial explains that your forward roll can be used to deflect bullets, but it doesn’t tell you that it works in far more subtle ways, too. The roll changes your momentum, and your momentum changes where your shots go and how far your grenades can be thrown. And there’s the ‘bullettime’ time dilation effect that’s applied automatically whenever you’re in danger that the game thinks you should be able to get yourself out of – like a grenade landing at your feet. Suddenly you are arcing through the air, avoiding bullets and destroying grenades with a hammer blow, pirouetting gracefully behind the shield-wielding grenade-tossing Ninja to deliver a lethal punch to his rear.

It’s exhilarating, glorious, wonderful stuff. You’ll feel like a gaming god, only to be brought low almost immediately by a low-level but unseen enemy. It’s a game of highs and lows. It’s tough, but never unfairly so. You never feel cheated – the game lets you know you could have done better, if only you played better. If only you were better. Your moments of planned perfection are outnumbered – certainly at first – by flashes of sheer flukery and instances utter
incompetence.

There is a plot behind the Story Mode – you are stranded on a mysterious planet having been called there by a distress signal, tasked with discovering the fate of the human colonists last heard from 50 years earlier. You will get the answers you seek by unlocking the Artificial Intelligence that runs the planet, but to do so you’ll have to travers a diverse array of areas to collect… you get the picture, classic MacGuffin stuff.

In truth, it’s not the MacGuffin that motivates you – it’s the adventure along the way. It’s the puzzle solving, the running-jumping-shooting mechanics, the” just one more go at that baddie” mentality the game engenders that keeps you playing. And playing through you’ll find wonderful touches of humour, a light-heartedness that is maintained throughout, even as the game touches on complex themes such as sentience, gender identity and isolation.

You might skip campaign altogether at first, and head for the challenge modes. Here you’ll get more opportunity to explore the powers your little cyborg has. You’ll also get a feel for the rhythm-less ebb and flow of the story mode, where you will ace one challenge on your first attempt before while failing repeatedly at the next, easier one. Persevere, and you will finally scrape through.

There’s multiplayer, too, and death match or ‘Plug Slam’ (Capture the Flag) rounds are every bit as hectic and wild as the main game.

No matter which mode you play, there’s always something new to discover. Cobalt doesn’t explain itself, other than a short tutorial, and it doesn’t need to. The joy is in the discovery, the exploration, and the order you sometimes find in the chaos. I know I have barely scratched the surface, yet I have encountered more things in the game than I could possibly include here. Did I mention the flash bangs? Horde mode? Upgradable weapons? Co-op story mode? In game currency? Shields? Invisibility? Phreaking? Humour? Stealth? Hacking? Grenade jumps? Time travel? Weird alien sages? You will encounter all of these. And so much more.

All this is wrapped up in skin that goes beyond functional – the worlds you traverse are diverse but each is lovingly rendered and visually striking. Sound too, is nicely implemented, with enough audio cues to let you know what’s going on, without completely overwhelming you.

Cobalt is not the new Minecraft, and anyone expecting it to be so on the back of the publisher’s pedigree is foolish. Cobalt is, though, an accomplished, chaotic exploration of games and your own gaming skill. It is at times exhilarating, at times funny and – on occasion – irritating. It’s a shooter that encourages creativity, and there’s rhythm-action dancing and giant rideable space rodents. It’s not for everyone – it’s a tough game that rewards tenacity. But if you are looking for a challenge and aren’t afraid of a steep learning curve, you should definitely give it a go.

Cobalt is available now in the Xbox Store for Xbox One and Xbox 360, and on Steam, for £15.99.