This is largely a compliment your hands are treated to an array of subtle rattles and forceful resistance, the latter becoming a little tiring during extended sessions.
These were especially useful because Heavenly Bodies’ use of the DualSense haptics is indulgent, to say the least. You can also switch your trigger hands to a toggle instead of hold to give your fingers a rest, display prompts for things that can be grabbed and so on. Its brutal take on realism in zero-g was surprisingly engaging, playing nicely into the movement stuff I enjoyed most during the rest of my playthrough. Classic offers up a nice balancing act between ease of use and challenging, but replaying missions with Newtonian is where I had the most ‘fun’. This is less a commentary on the movement options than the stream of nonsense I was dealing with in the puzzles – I needed to move easier for my own sanity. My pride survived approximately two-and-a-half missions before switching to Assisted, in which you can essentially propel yourself in a direction without pushing off from a surface. There are three movement styles, Classic, Assisted and Newtonian – essentially standard, easy and nightmare modes. Heavenly Bodies is ultimately a difficult experience though, and it does its best to offset frustration with accessibility options. You can find yourself in a nice little flow state this way, Heavenly Bodies giving you all the tools for a rather meditative good time, if only briefly. Moment-to-moment navigation of these spaces was consistently serene, however, as the backing ambient track kicked in and I just had to focus on where to grab next. Heavenly Bodies is both of these experiences at once when playing alone and the resulting disparate moods it evokes gave me whiplash.
That equation also worked in the opposite direction though, plans falling into place as that endorphin rush hits like a truck when you know you’ve got the game’s number. Several times over I watched up to five minutes of careful work unravel in seconds, and in the absence of someone to laugh with I just found myself exasperated. This is ostensibly the appeal of the game, a gulf between intent and outcome to traverse, but playing alone makes this journey maddening at times. The rub presents itself when those tasks meet your capability as the game’s wacky-wavy-inflatable-arm-flailing-tube physics prevent you from carrying out simple steps. There is a decent assortment of tasks to complete in each mission, some more intuitive than others but all reasonably digestible. Propelling myself by building momentum worked a treat while pulling basic levers occasionally made me want to scream.Įach mission starts with printing out some instructions, complete with helpful step by step diagrams you keep in a scientific journal of sorts. The resulting play-feel is odd, producing moments of smooth cause and effect as often as perplexing standstills. Heavenly Bodies’ take on physics is somewhere between the cartoonish and the realistic, your arms flail wildly but your strength and subsequent impact on the environment seems fairly grounded. Initially, you’ll need to manoeuvre through small spaces, connecting a stray cable or opening a jammed door, but as the game wears on you’ll be expected to solve bigger problems with the same limited tool kit – two arms, two hands and a whole load of determination. It’s the kind of brilliant simplicity that can be continuously relied upon for engaging and escalating puzzle scenarios. These are your only means of movement, the rest is up to whatever God you’ve made a pact with and the zero-gravity environments around you. Your left and right arms are bound to the respective controller sticks, with each trigger controlling your hands and the bumpers offering a limited leg tuck and kick. In Heavenly Bodies, you play as a cosmonaut sent out into the void to perform a litany of tasks across a host of space stations. Though brief bouts of contemplative stillness and satisfaction permeated the experience, these were mere mental oases to be rested at briefly before I had to return to focusing on not punting my controller across the room. Its particular brand of quirky, emergent gameplay is ripe for streaming and co-op sessions with friends but was often a path to frustration when playing solo. A physics-based puzzle solving space jam, this Australian-made jaunt spent most of its run time either impressing or annoying me, often simultaneously. Heavenly Bodies is a very good game I’m not sure I like very much.