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Aeon Driveis a 2D platformer from developer 2Awesome Studio about pep pill and menstruum , take after titles likeCelesteandDead Cells . Jack , Aeon Drive ’s admirer , has a fistful of mobility options that can put to work together in interesting ways to either bucket along up or slow down a run ; however , they do n’t always feel as tight or as fluid as they should . For the most part , Aeon Driveis a immediate and fun platformer that propose replayability and speedrunning potential drop , but its controls , story , and design occasionally present barrier to the player and their enjoyment .
Aeon Drive ’s story is more of a framing gimmick than it is an actual narrative . Jack and her robot fellow traveller VERA get away their proportion so as to flee from a galactic war and get in in " our " attribute . They get pulled into Earth ’s reach and clank - land in thecyberpunk cityof Neo Barcelona , which VERA quick realizes is close to demolition thanks to a chain reaction being induce by unstable dimensional drives . To spare the metropolis , they take to regain all six , but they only have 30 seconds before they go vital ; luckily VERA can create a little clip - air hole to extend that sentence .
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In gameplay , each phase has a 30 2nd timer in which to discharge it and Jack has plenty of tool to help her do just that . First and firstly , Jack is agile and has a blade which lets her quickly bump off machinelike foe , which are more of an obstruction than they are a terror . There are also small dimensional cause scattered across each level that will extend the time by 5 seconds for every four that are collected , which can often make the divergence between succeeder and failure . Her most important tool is VERA herself , as Jack can make her todifferent place and teleportto her , destroy enemies , and get around sure obstacle like optical maser wall .
Jack move well for the most part , but definitely has some hiccups here and there , such as discrepant detection which makes rampart - jumping a gamble at time . Throwing VERA is also just as thwarting as it is satisfying , as there are moments when Jack must throw VERA directly above her in lodge to get through a laser bulwark , but there is n’t enough hangtime after teleporting to comfortably avoid fall back down on said wall . However , using VERA for horizontal and diagonal motility feels great and , after a few successful teleports , will of course put players into a really substantial menstruation state .
In later stages , VERA is used in more interesting mode such assolving door and change over puzzle . While many of them are great , one variety of those puzzles presented a huge cephalalgia , which were change over mystifier that expect VERA to remain on the switch for a door to give - teleporting back to her would just reset the musician . While most stages had substitute route to keep this from get egregiously spoiled , one stage in the terminal level was unacceptable until , after play with the controls , the realization hit that there is an stimulation that can retrieve VERA rather than just teleport to her . This was particularly frustrative as this specific shop mechanic was never introduced in the tutorial but was absolutely necessary in decree to finish the last degree of the secret plan .
Aeon Driveis an otherwise solid experience with nuanced mechanics . The biggest areas where the plot struggles are , luckily , in the smaller inside information such as the want of hangtime and forgetting to let in a mechanic in the tutorial that , thankfully , did n’t obstruct the gameplay until the conclusion . With its comfortable three - minute playday , native speedrunning leaderboards , competitive mode , and magical personality , Aeon Driveis in spades worth arrest out .
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Aeon Drivereleases September 30 , 2021 for PC , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series S / X , & Nintendo Switch . Screen Rant was provided with a Steam download code for the aim of this review .
