When I first heard of Waveform, I’ll be honest; I thought it was a new piece of audio editing software that Steam was releasing for some reason. Though it would be neat for them to get into other types of software (like a recording program where you have to fight zombies to access your master tape or something), Waveform instead has turned out to be a fun and challenging action/arcade game.
It may not be apparent at first but the title “Waveform” does, in fact, deliver exactly what it promises. Using only your mouse (don’t worry, the touch pad on your laptop will work just fine for this game since you won’t need a terribly high level of precision like you would with an FPS) you can drag your light wave up and down and all around to form a glittering space path to pick up a smattering of glowing orbs. As the player, you can stretch and compress your wave to avoid chucks of dark matter and pick up bonus rings to multiply your high score.
The way you change the shape of you wave is surprisingly intuitive. Instead of creating a random path of ups and downs, there is already a basic wave set up for you to use. Your light wave can then be pulled around to fit the path of the orbs you need to grab for points. The pre-existing wave can be easily manipulated by grabbing it with your cursor and pulling it up and down or left to right. The wave reacts much like it would if you were physically stretching it with your hands (pulling up creates a vertical, close together wave pattern while pulling to the left or right will cause it to flatten out into more horizontal waves)
The crazy patterns you create in Waveform are all set against the backdrop of outer space with a psychedelic soundtrack to match. The wave itself is bright and shiny and the obstacles are well defined, making it easy to differentiate them from the background. Visually, Waveform doesn’t really bring anything too innovative to the table but it works for this game. It is apparent that time was taken to make all of the graphics clean and easy to see which is essential to the puzzle aspect of game play.
As you work your way through Waveform, the difficulty will increased and a number of obstacles will be introduced to your path through space. The game does a great job of introducing these challenges in a comprehensive and non-threatening way. Before each level, an instructional screen comes up explaining the new obstacles and the screen doesn’t automatically shut off when the level is done loading. Waveform instead gives you time to read through and fully understand what you will need to intersect or avoid. Waveform is a game that could have easily been designed in a frustrating way, with limited instruction and a lot of guess work on the part of the player, but by simply allowing you to take your time with the instructions, developer Eden Industries has side-stepped any confusion in the game play with this simple feature.
Instead,Edenhas created an experience worthy of repeating. On top of the need to replay each level, trying to obtain that just out of reach 100% completion ranking, there are multiple modes of play and achievements to unlock in almost every level. The possibilities are nearly endless, providing you with hours upon hours of game play as you move through each of the planets (which do, in fact, include Pluto).
In the end, Waveform provides a solid experience with infinite replay value. Fair warning, however, this game is best played in short bursts rather then trying to complete it in one sitting. No one can conquer the galaxy in just one day after all. Waveform is currently available for download in the Steam game store or visit Eden Industries Waveform page at http://edenindustries.ca/blog/?page_id=64.