NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits Member Review for the PC

The Good: Challenging platforming/puzzle combo, uniquely uses both the keyboard and mouse, some novel level ideas

The Bad: Floaty physics, no upgraded visuals, gets repetitive about 3 levels in, doesn't get better until the end, paper thin story

You are Nyx who is a winged goddess that falls in love with Icarus, but the sun-god Helios releases rage upon the Gods and burns the Earth into a fiery apocalypse, but you insist on defying the Gods to save Icarus. While the story isn't very deep there is one there and you do want to see what happens to Icarus at the end. Not very often will you run into "cut scenes" that have just some text across the screen and gibberish being spoken. This is an indie game after all so you are probably coming for the unique game play.

While originally designed for the Wii it works well on a mouse and keyboard. You control Nyx's power with your mouse and her with the keyboard. You can jump up to five times and also glide for about 8 seconds and these are key to game play. Jumping around is the main part of the game and you must time everything carefully. The game is not a breeze and even the platforming is tricky thanks to the game making you multi-task. With the mouse you can move certain blocks around, shoot lightning, move fireballs, and pull around pillars. There is a lot to the game play so you have to really play it to understand how deep it is. You have to be able to move Nyx around while also manipulating the environment with the mouse or you will never get anywhere.

While the unique combo works well it does get very difficult at points. The first couple of levels are novel and neat, but then the game quickly feels repetitive and tiresome until you start learning new powers later on in the game. While the game play is unique and deep it's really the same thing over and over again. Jump around 50 platforms and move this block or pillar around. Each level looks the same, and the art style has a Greek mythology theme to it, but the textures are flat and no visual upgrades were given for the PC version. I also felt the physics were a little floaty because everything moved like there was little gravity.

The checkpoints are a little unfair because they are put at weird spots. Instead of sticking them right before a really hard section you have to go through an easy section to get back to where you died. There are also only a couple of boss fights and they are fairly easy due to the better accuracy of a mouse over the Wiimote. Overall NyxQuest is a fun little indie game that really challenges your multi-tasking skills.