The Therapist Gamer

Matterfall

Matterfall was developed by Housemarque, who have developed exceptional twin-stick arcade shooters such as Resogun and Nex Machina.  Though some of their games have had minor hiccups, they have consistently produced highly refined games with tight and exciting gameplay.  Unfortunately, Matterfall is somewhat of a black sheep of the bunch - it's still a good game, but it's not as good as everything else they've made.  My guess is that Housemarque - the masters of the twin-stick arcade genre - wanted to expand their catalog and create a twin-stick arcade platformer.  For the most part they actually did a great job, but a few glaring issues just soil the whole experience.

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Like many of Housemarque's previous titles, Matterfall has just a few levels that are tightly designed and encourage replayability to perfect your gameplay.  Though the game uses polygons you only interact with things on a 2D plane - like the old Metroid games.  You run around with the left stick and shoot with the right stick.  There are various enemies and obstacles (like lasers to dash through), and the game progressively gets more tricky and more demanding of player skill.  By rescuing humans (in hidden areas) you can unlock different passive abilities and secondary weapons, and you can mix and match any three abilities you've unlocked.  Being able to combine any three skills gives the player the freedom to experiment with and choose their preferred play style, and it's a great game design choice.

You also unlock a "matter" gun that you fire at certain platforms.   Most platforms are solid, but some have their matter scattered about and the pieces are floating in the air - if you fire the matter gun at the pieces then they organize and becomes a platform for a few seconds before breaking apart again.  Graphically the effect is pretty cool, but ultimately I found this gameplay mechanic to be tedious.  The matter gun sounds good on paper and it seems like it could be used for some cool gameplay possibilities, but all you can do with it is create pre-set platforms.  It feels less like a cool gadget and more like something you just have to do in order to progress.

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Unfortunately my other issue with the game is a big one - the controls.  Probably the most important thing about a video game is being able to use the controller to do what you want to do.  Certain control schemes are better at this than others, and certain types of games are more amenable to straightforward controls.  In Matterfall, you jump with R1, dash with L1, shoot secondary weapons with R2, and shoot blue matter with L2.  The main problem here is that, in a platforming game, you jump with R1.  As I played I just found it really awkward.  The developers knew this would be an issue and even released a video stating that players would find it strange to jump with R1, but assured that after about 15 minutes it would no longer be an issue.  There is some truth to this and I did feel a bit more comfortable after I played for a little while.  However, the platforming sections became too intense and certain parts of the game were simply too difficult - all because of how much brain power was needed just to think through how to move around.  When you combine an awkward jump mechanic with a requirement to shoot at platforms to make them appear - all accomplished with the shoulder buttons - it was just too mentally taxing and annoying.  There are parts where you need to jump up, fire your matter cannon to create a platform, jump and dash to make it over there, quickly fire your matter cannon at another platform (before the platform you're standing on disappears), jump up there, etc., all while dodging projectiles and firing at enemies.  

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I can understand the developer's thought process, which is that they wanted the player to be able to move at all times and fire in any direction at all times.  If the jump button is X (or any other button on the front of the controller), the player would need to take their thumb off the right joystick in order to jump and thus wouldn't be able to fire their weapon.  So while making R1 jump wasn't the ideal choice, it makes the most sense if you want the player to always have control over their character and have the ability to fire their weapon at all times.  Thinking through the alternatives, it really was the most reasonable option.  Where I think they made an error, though, is the complexity the game demanded with regard to jumping around and platforming.  If they knew that virtually everyone would find it awkward to jump with R1 then they should have designed the game accordingly.  And by the way, there is no option to change the control scheme (except with the disability settings on the PS4 system itself).

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Like I said, I think Matterfall is a good game except for the two main issues taint it.  In trying to address the awkwardness of jumping with R1, the developers should have made the platforming sections very easy.  Maybe a couple of tricky parts toward the end, but on the whole they should have just made it a breeze to get through the levels with platforming that people could do even with the jump button mapped to R1.  One might argue that this would be compromising their vision for a twin-stick arcade platformer, but I suspect they weren't interested so much in making a game with the focus being the jumping aspects of platforming, but rather a side-view game where you control a character running around and freely shooting.  The other issue with the game is the matter cannon.  Honestly, it's just not fun.  It just makes the platforming issues worse.  My guess is that many employees spent a lot of time developing this mechanic and the team had a sense of loyalty to it since it gives the game some identity, but at some point someone should have had the guts to point out that it wasn't fun and that it needed either a drastic change or it needed to be cut from the game.

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Some reviewers have criticized the game for having sudden difficulty spikes (particularly the final boss), and I would agree.  However, I think it's mostly because of the complexities of the platforming controls and the necessity to use the matter cannon.  The final boss was so difficult that I simply gave up and had to turn the game down to easy, and even then I felt like I cheated by finding a place to cower and occasionally get a few shots in.  It was simply too difficult to jump around, dodge bullets, repeatedly create walls of matter, and fire back at the boss.

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I think Matterfall actually has a lot of potential.  If the platforming was easy and there was no matter cannon, I think the game would actually be much better and I'd find myself returning to it again and again.  As it stands, though, it's the only Hosuemarque game I've only played once.