Game: Metrico+
Release Date: January 20th, 2017
Platform: Xbox One
Developer/Publisher: Digital Dreams
A land of pie… Seems like a delicious idea, right? If you’re thinking apple or banana cream, I’m sorry wrong type of pie. What we are about to discuss is the indie title “Metrico+”. This game has been available on  Steam and PlayStation for some time now and is now coming to Xbox One.

So what is it? “Metrico+” is a chart and graph junkie’s Acid trip simulator in the form of a side scrolling puzzle platformer. Metrico+ takes place in a world of infographics that react to your every move. You play “The Silhouette”. Your avatar is a shadow either male or female that maneuvers through each puzzle progressively getting harder as you go along.

What does it do well? “Metrico+” Managed to force me to take a step back and think before progressing instead of memorizing the formula and speed running like “Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers”. With that said there is no way to tell how long this game will last for each person. It could last a few hours or a few days due to some simple brain farts and oh yeah I feel stupid moments you could easily be stuck on a one puzzle for over 30 mins or more. I for one have been stuck on a single puzzle for around 2 hours. However, once learned the controls are fairly simple and easy to get used to but here in brings me to the next section.

What can it improve upon? There are no instructions. You are left to figure out the game mechanics yourself. This wouldn’t be so bad besides for the fact that as the game progresses, more mechanics are added without being told of them. For example at one point when a new mechanic was introduced I was running side to side jumping for about 20 minutes before I accidently hit a button on my controller that activated the new mechanic. It was frustrating and discouraging to even continue.  I am not saying hold my hand but at least have an in game visual que or an optional tutorial to get my puzzle solving juices flowing. Load times are long for the simplistic design of the “game world”. Load times can be a real game killer when someone is finally getting into their flow and then they are on the hurry up a wait cycle. Here is to hoping a patch can be put out to assist with this issue.
My rating on a scale 1-10 “Metrico+” in the end left me a bit underwhelmed leaving me to give it a score of 2/10. Now if Digital Dreams addresses the no instruction and mainly the loading issues I could see me raising the score. My only other gripe is there is no rhyme or reason given for the transformation of a human silhouette to one of a machine. Perhaps if we had a sequence where we see ourselves asleep at a cubicle then the idea of becoming a machine just going through the motions would leave the player more fulfilled and thus put a nice bow on a clever title that just missed the mark with me.
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