John Rochard, Space Miner, at your service ma’am.
Rochard and his team have struggled for 3 years to find Turbinium, a valuable fuel resource; however they haven’t had much luck and are on the verge of being fired by Skyrig unless they can find some pronto. Just when things look like they’re turning around, it turns out that all is not as it seems and things get a bit dangerous.
After an intro cinematic with awesome music from Poets of the Fall (Grinder’s Blues) you are dropped into the game. Its side scrolling, puzzle solving, platforming fun with an attractive 2D rendered in 3D style.
The controls are straightforward enough and you are well guided as the key bindings to use are explained when you come across new areas. The mouse and keyboard controls make for accurate movement and aiming. Jumping around without gravity is more fun that I thought it would be and I often found myself just gliding through the air back and forth because it felt nice. I am aware that this was also released for the PlayStation 3 and though I haven’t tried it, I feel that the controls would struggle to be as accurate and smooth on a PS3 controller. I guess it depends on what you are used to.
From the start John Rochard carries around a G-Lifter which is used for picking up crates, pulling levers and much more. John also gets his hands on a Rock-Blaster and since we (as gamers) like to blast things there is much fun is to be had! With both weapons at your disposal you work your way through solving puzzles in order to advance and destroy enemies in your path. There are a range of collectibles hidden throughout the levels.
You can also toggle the gravity on and off in various places making it easier to jump to greater heights and move heavier objects. Quite often picking up crates and moving them around feels like you’ve got your companion cube all over again. We don’t mind though, we like cake, and that’s not a lie!
The puzzles throughout the game range from being really straightforward to requiring a bit of head scratching but that will vary from person to person. Sometimes I am not the sharpest tool in the box (Ed: Lies Eresin, you are a wee brain box!). There will be walls which don’t allow objects through, or walls that only let objects but not Rochard through forcing the user to think about how to manipulate their way through. The combat could be a little better as Rochard himself doesn’t take much to get killed making each confrontation a bit of a gamble, perhaps a side-effect of his….. um….. “stature”. No offence John but cut out the space pies.
What I really enjoyed about the game was the voice acting. It’s rare that I take much notice of it, but I have to say the laidback voice of John Rochard I found rather sexy.
Rochard is a nice puzzler with some action thrown but it finds time to be humorous too. It’s not going to blow you away but it’s a great game for the small price of £7.99
7 sexily voiced space miners out of 10