ACQUIESCENCE

Gameplay

"Acquiescence" is a raw, old school run & gun 2D platformer. There's no exploration. No NPCs. No cutscenes. Not even an opening story in text format. You start the game and you're thrown head first into the action. Expect lots of shooting, jumping and platforming!

Controls

• I played this on keyboard. The controls were super smooth. No complaints.
• The player has a double jump by default which is very useful to jump across insta-kill hazards like spikes and such (which is what you'll be doing most of the time!).
•Player can shoot sideways, upwards, diagonally up & down and while crouching. He can also dash.
•The game lets you map your own keyboard layout which I felt was a big plus point.

Visuals

• The game's twitter page says it's inspired by the works of H.P.Lovecraft and surreal artists H.R. Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski and it subtly shows in the games artwork.
• It's got some nice pixel art backgrounds and tiles that really sell the idea of a dark and surreal world.
• Enemy sprites and animations are good.
• I felt that in some places, the background art pieces were somewhat inconsistent and a little "rough" around the edges.
• There is also a small issue with pixel scaling. In some levels, the background art was created at a smaller size and then scaled up. The result is that there are varying pixel sizes which is visually jarring.
• The artworks for most levels are monochromatic. Perhaps the level color palette could have used some contrasting colors.

Sound

• The background music tracks are very nicely done and they add to the dark atmosphere of the game.
• SFX is decent.

Enemy Design

• The game contains some very interesting and crazy creature designs. Some are human or humanoid, others are robotic, yet others are weird creatures that are not of this world.
• Some of the more memorable ones are as follows: Dudes in straightjackets who are also on fire. Human heads in jars with robotic legs. Tentacle monsters that summon swarms of flying eyeballs. A female boss whose lower half is a centipede! Clearly, a lot of creativity and effort has gone into enemy design.
• The bosses were interesting, but had very predictable attack patterns and were thus rather easy to defeat. In fact, I defeated most of them on the first try.
• Each level has like 3-4 unique enemies that are not repeated in other levels. While it helps make each level stand out, I think the game could have used more generic "cannon fodder" enemies that appeared across all levels. This could have broken up the monotony a bit.
• Some enemies spam lots of bullets at you non-stop, which I found rather annoying.

Level Design

• There are 7 HUGE levels set in various fantastical and nightmarish environments.
• If you beat a level, it is unlocked permanently, which gives the game some replay value.
• Savepoints are few and far between. And you lose your progress once you quit the level, which I don't think was a good game design decision.
• IMO, because of their sheer sizes, some levels felt rather repetitive and monotonous. At times, it felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. Perhaps, this could have been avoided if each of the 7 huge levels were split into smaller "stages", with their own layouts and enemy placements.

Weapons and Items

• You get ONE gun that fires a different projectile or energy depending on the ability (or ammo type) it's equipped with. Sort of like in the Contra and Megaman games.
• When a boss is killed, a new weapon ability is unlocked and can be accessed from the inventory.
• Enemies sometimes drop health and missiles. That's all you get. There are no health or ammo packs lying around (which is normally expected in platformer games).

Final Thoughts

Despite it's few, shortcomings I LIKED "Acquiescence" mainly for it's raw handmade feel and for it's freshness in terms of setting and presentation. Although the game was inspired by other media (as mentioned earlier), it still feels like an original game and is not something derivative or emulative, like a Metroidvania or a Megaman clone. "Acquiescence" is it's own thing and shines for what it is.
I'd also like to add that when I beat the game I was PLEASANTLY surprised at the unexpected ending and the way it was presented. I won't give away the ending, but I'll say this: it left me feeling rewarded for all my efforts towards completing the game.
Highly recommended for fans of the 2D platformer genre. Definitely "hidden gem" material.

(Posted: 03/08/25)

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See this game's Steam Page.

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