Helium Review

Venture off onto planet Gliese 86b where as a space explorer, study and see the lay of the land. Like all things, chaos ensues and a new creature starts killing off the explorers. It is your job to survive this planet and to get off as soon as possible. Regardless of how you feel about space travel, this is one trip you will definitely want to skip out on.

Helium Review

INTRODUCTION

Helium is a first person action platformer game developed by rocketship. You will play as a space explorer on a planet filled with creatures unknown.If you like boring and repetitive games then this will be up your alley.

You can purchase this game on Steam for $5.

STORY

A couple of space explorers found out that there is a signal coming from a planet called Gliese 86b and they want to go explore it. Of course, nothing goes right and they crash onto the planet with everyone dying except you. It's your job to get out of this place.

Helium Review - Story

GAMEPLAY

Helium is a first person action platformer game that will require the player to deal with tedious gameplay and platforming sections that are more ridiculous than they are fun. Let's start by talking about the shooting mechanic of this game which is oddly different than other shooters I have played. For starters, when you want to zoom in with your weapon, the reticle goes to the right more than actually going straight like it should be. This is a minor annoyance but I question the developer as to why it does that. There is no reason or purpose for it.

Helium Review - Notice how the reticle isn't straight
You also run out of ammo way too quickly which makes for some awkward melee encounters with your enemies and it becomes really chaotic so quickly. That's the problem with Helium, that is my main concern is that sometimes you will have enough ammo for situational encounters and then others you won't at all, there was never an eternal balance with this. Plus, if you accidentally reload by habit you lose that entire clip which can be very frustrating. The gunplay just felt very sluggish in this game, not very impactful and nothing to make it stand out from other games, it was quite repetitive. 

The enemies in this game can also be quite annoying, there is one main enemy type that you can fight that when you kill them they automatically respawn again but immediately to your right and when fighting a bunch at a time you will see so many respawning enemies it gets out of control, especially if you don't have ammo.

Helium Review - Respawning enemy
I didn't think I would have to talk about this aspect of the game but it's prevalent in the amount of abundance it is in this game and that's the platforming sections. Let me start off by saying it doesn't work at all in a game like this, there should have never been a platforming system at all. There were times in this game where you will have to jump to get onto another piece of land to progress to the next place and if you fall off, its game over and you have to start right back to the last check point again. The jumping mechanic didn't feel good and there was even one portion of the game where you ride on this motorcycle of sorts and you had platforming sections with it. It was ugly, the screen kept shaking a lot and it did not feel fun at all.

Graphics / Sound

This game literally looks terrible and it gives me a headache because of the same gray ugly tone you see throughout the game. The main aspect I didn't like about the graphics is that everything looks too much of the same which makes it hard to see things to help you further your progress. Sometimes I would walk around saying to myself where do I go next or what do I do until I find a switch that blended into the background, so you practically run around like a chicken without its head not knowing what to do. I had some performance issues here and there but it was nothing game breaking, the game ran smoothly for the most part.

Audio is not really something that is this games biggest strength. There is some background noise while you play but it's never something memorable nor is it chilling to listen to. You would think in a game like this especially with its dark tone that they would have produced something creepy or at least chilling to listen to. There was just nothing here that was memorable in the audio department which is a shame because this game could have really used it.

Helium Review - Get use to seeing the same usual gray colors

Conclusion

In conclusion, Helium is a boring first person shooter that has no fun value whatsoever. There is nothing here that could possibly be mentioned as a positive because I dreaded my entire playthrough of this generic game. For $5 you will be getting repetitive gameplay, boring visuals, bland story, and a game that's trying to be so much that it ultimately fails as a game in general. Please do consider in not buying or supporting this game at all as there are far better games out there that your wallet deserves.

PROS CONS
+ No Pro's – Repetitive gameplay
– Bland story
– Boring visuals
1
Horrendous

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