What would you do if your best friends disappeared without a trace? Would you simply make new ones (I would in most cases), or would you go on a Taken-ish adventure for justice? The latter is the premise of the recently released Where Are My Friends? Kind of. Okay not really, since there is no Liam Neeson, or guns, or terrorists for that manner.

While you won’t find any of the more action oriented themes mentioned previously, the title offers some pretty solid platforming mechanics in addition to runner gameplay that you may recognize from mobile games, coupled with a very unique protagonist. Our hero is a Cyclops named Wheye that appears to have been mounted on a unicycle. The opening ship area of the game plays out much like a more complex platformer from the Genesis era, similar to the Beavis and Butthead game from the early 90s. With little to go on, outside of the vague symbols decorating the different areas and consoles, it will be up to the player to progress through the level. While not overly difficult, a tutorial may have been helpful.

Once the initial level is completed, you’ll be able to proceed on your journey to find your missing mates. Jumping into the next level I was taken aback, as the game panned out quite a bit and began a segment where you are required to constantly move forward, evading hazards and enemies (a runner segment). With no form of offense, your only option will be to jump over the hazards as they appear. While not overly difficult, the game throws new obstacles at you regularly, which resulted in me dying often when new enemies or hazards were introduced. There are frequent checkpoints, but often times they appear right after a new enemy or trap is introduced, which kind of feels like having the carrot yanked right out of your grasp at the last second. It’s not overly frustrating at first, but it does run on a thin line between the desire to move on or to give up.

Adding insult to injury, the game does not permit the player to save the game mid-level at the most recent checkpoint, which I found out the hard way after spending a great deal of time on the first level due to multiple deaths. The levels are fairly short if you are able to complete them flawlessly, though many of them were much longer than they needed to be. The game takes platforming difficulty to a whole new level. This becomes prevalent when the viewpoint changes between levels, switching from a side scrolling game to a top down viewpoint. In these levels, it becomes extremely difficult to time your jumps as the animation is a bit awkward and hard to get accustomed too. The developers did a great job of making the alien appear to be a bit larger than when on the ground, adding the illusion of perspective, but from a technical standpoint it does not work well.

The visuals are by far the highpoint. I quickly fell in love with the mixed media approach, with some areas appearing to be cel-shaded and others having the unique textures one would get using crayons or colored pencils on paper. This makes certain objects pop in a way that is not only visually interesting, but makes the path forward very clear, even on the levels featuring the bird’s eye view. While this wouldn’t work on every game, it does suit this one well. The characters are also designed well, which appear to be inspired by the likes of Toe Jam and Earl.

Despite the extreme challenge being a bit much for my tastes, Where Are My Friends? is a unique platformer that deserves the attention of anyone up for a game that breaks the mold visually and mechanically, even if all of the mechanics do not work well all of the time.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Unique Visual Style
• Fun Cast of Characters
• Very Challenging

Cons

• Cheap Deaths Due to Changing Mechanics
• Very Challenging

Where Are My Friends? was developed by Beard Games Studios and published by Sometimes You. It was released on PC October 10th, 2017 and March 21st, 2018 for PS4 and X1. The game was provided to us for review on X1 and PS4. If you’d like to see more of Where Are My Friends?, check out the developer’s official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.