1000 Deaths, which released yesterday, primarily pitches itself as a 3D platformer with some tricksy plays on gravity – but the running and jumping only demands half your attention at most. The other half is dedicated to shaping the lives of four variously maladjusted losers (who, like the rest of their surroundings, resemble a child’s crayon drawings made flesh), the platforming challenges being punctuated by destiny-altering decisions to make on their behalf. Hints of VVVVVV, but with stronger notes of a Telltale adventure that’s been left in a microwave.
I’m only an hour and a bit in, so ix-nay on the eview-ray, yet I’ve already dragged two of these oddballs from unsatisfied youth to miserable adulthood, and am seemingly well on the way to shattering the dreams of a third. That probably sounds like I’m intentionally being a bastard with my story choices, and/or that the game delights in the misery of its flopping, lumpy-bodied cast. Neither is the case, though. 1000 Deaths is cynical, not sadistic, so while its story doesn’t always branch out in ways you’d expect, it does manage to ground the choice options in surprisingly relatable terms.
Do you stay comfortable in familiar surroundings, or embrace a change? Play safe with the backing of a group, or take the risk of working independently? Step back to let a friend shine, or tilt the scales towards your own success? That cynicism does seep through in most of the outcomes – even the more considerate protagonists can warp into conceited arseholes, given enough life achievements. All the same, I’ve a certain respect for how 1000 Deaths rejects both good vs. evil grandstanding and the temptation to wrap up the consequences of your decisions with neat, little happily-ever-after bows.
First, though, each possibility must be unlocked within the mind of your troubled bozo, which somehow requires you to nudge a legged television through various stages of brain-twanging platforming challenges. The gimmick here is that gravity is oriented to the specific surface you’re standing on: follow a right-angled curve or a pivoting platform and that wall becomes the new floor, but you’ll need to get your surfaces lined up before making a jump, lest you smash screen-first into unfavourably angled geometry and plummet into the void.
Thankfully, it doesn’t actually demand VVVVVV levels of precision, though I have found myself needing to stop and think more often than I remember doing in the 90’s and early 2000’s platformers that 1000 Deaths is visibly inspired by. And it’s rather clever how being able to clamber over multiple sides of the same structure – widely possible, with enough orientation-switching – makes the playable spaces feel bigger and more intricate than they physically are.
I’m liking it, basically, even if my particular choices tend to produce far more pain and/or dickhead behaviour than I’d originally intended. It’s out now on Steam, with 10% off for a few days.
