Sega Nerds

Review: Crush (PSP)

by Graham on May 28th, 2007

After officially receiving a bit of a hand slapping, from Sega of America, here it is again - the Sega Nerds’ Crush review. It remains wholly untouched, but has been fermenting and is now 33 percent more dangerous. After reading, you probably shouldn’t operate a motor vehicle for at least 24 hours. If you do, Sega Nerds will not be held liable. You have been warned.

Over the past few months, we have been keeping a fairly close watch on the development of Crush, so hopefully many of you will already know, roughly, what the game is all about, and how it is a pretty unique game. But for those that don’t know I shall help you out.

You take on the role of Danny, a young man who has been suffering from insomnia. His condition becomes so bad that his work (as a chef) and life begin to suffer greatly, and he is hospitalised. It is here that he comes under the watchful (and potentially mad) eye of one Dr. Reubens.

Dr. Reubens has created a new machine, that he is convinced can help to solve the under-lying cause of Dannys sleepless nights. With the help of C.R.U.S.H, which stands for Cognitive Regression Utilizing pSychiatric Heuristics (yes we all know psychiatric begins with a P - they do actually mention that in one of the games cut-scenes. Where Danny comments it should really be called CRUPH), Dr. Reubens is able to place Danny into a hypnotic (sleeping) state. C.R.U.S.H can then help to process Danny’s thoughts into his own world, a world that Danny can manipulate into 2D and 3D, and negotiate the obstacles of his neuroses, and come to terms with the secrets of his past.

Confused? Don’t be - I’ll make it simpler for you …

When Danny is linked to C.R.U.S.H, you enter into an almost Matrix-esque world of Danny’s mind. But unlike the movie(s), you don’t run up walls and shoot while moving in slow motion. Each level is a small 3D world, made up of lots of platforms and blocks, and Danny has to “crush” the world between 3D and 2D to help navigate the levels and solve puzzles (I’ll go into more detail in a moment).

So you got the gist of the game, but how does it play?

You start the game being treated to a few very simple beginner levels, which show you exactly how Crush works. Now for anyone who usually skips training levels, I would urge you to do these. It’s not so much that the game is hard to control, but the training levels do give you great clues as to how the different blocks work and how changing the camera angles can affect any “crush” you make. These training levels are all pretty bland looking, with little detail and few puzzles to solve, but unlike many games, the training levels are all short, interesting and actually fun.

To complete a level, Danny must collect a certain amount of Marbles from around the level. You don’t have to collect them all, but it is better in the long run if you do. There are different coloured marbles, worth different amounts each. Collecting half the total sum of marbles will open up the exit and you can leave. There are also two bonus items to found on every level. A Trophy and a Puzzle Piece. Collecting the trophy will unlock that level in Trophy Mode and the puzzle piece adds a new image to your gallery.

Trophy Mode is a pretty tricky mode of play, you must complete the level within a certain amount of time, using only a limited number of crushes, collecting all the marbles and both the trophy and the puzzle piece. It took me ages to do the first level in this mode, you have to be accurate and quick with your fingers.

The gallery consists of concept artwork, game diagrams and even photos of the production team (and their cat). Nothing too amazing, but pretty cool nevertheless.

Each level is constructed in full 3D, with platforms of different sizes and heights, as well as some that are separated by large gaps. To solve any dilemma you can rotate the camera (90 degrees) in any direction, using the d-pad, including moving it to a directly overhead view. When you hit the “crush” button, the 3D level compresses into 2D toward the camera, depending on what angle you’re looking at it from.

This renders depth irrelevant, so platforms that are far apart suddenly become close together. If you’re using the overhead view when you crush, surfaces of different heights are suddenly on the same plane - making a flat walkway. You must switch between 2D and 3D in the levels to let you access new areas, and negotiate problems. Though the solution to any one obstacle isn’t always that obvious. After the first few levels you will no doubt find yourself grinding your teeth, because you cannot see how to get to a different part of the level. I ended up using the good old fashioned ‘trial and error’ tactic for many a level. This may sound infuriating, which it can be at times, but then again that shows that this is a decent puzzle game - if it were too easy, you would breeze through the levels and there would be no point. It also means that once you complete a particularly taxing level, you have that great sense of achievement.

But rather than trying to crush the level in order to see your next best options, you can enter a free look mode, where you can rotate the camera around the level, at any angle and see where any marbles are hidden or your next best route to take- this can be done in both 3D and 2D.

One thing you will hear any reviewer mention, a lot, in describing this game are the different ‘blocks’. To be honest, trying to explain each of them can be a tricky process, you will really need to play the game to fully understand - trust me when you actually play the game, it makes so much more sense. But to give you some help here is a quick run down of the blocks in the game;

Solid Blocks: Can be stood on, but not walked through. Danny cannot crush against solid blocks.
Hollow Blocks: Can be stood on and walked through. These are the only blocks Danny can cross in a top-down crush.
Ghost Blocks: Can’t be stood on but can be walked and fallen through. Ghost blocks will appear as holes through the ground in a top-down crush.
Moving Blocks: Very useful for helping to get to otherwise inaccessible parts of levels. Sometimes hidden switches will activate moving blocks, so Danny must keep an eye out for them.
Fragile Blocks: Will appear to be a cracked and pitted solid block, but will crumble away quickly if Danny puts any weight on it.

As well as these standard blocks you also get Boulders. Danny has the power to push Boulders around levels, and there are a variety of them: Balls, Rollers, Octaballs and Octorollers. The Rollers and Octorollers have ghost variations (a bit like the blocks above) and can be crushed to create 2D tunnels through solid objects. But at the start of the game you will only deal with the solid standard boulders, which, once pushed, will roll until they either hit a solid objject or fall off the edge of the level. Don’t worry, when/if they fall they will reappear on the level (where they started originally), but only if you switch back to 3D. The boulders can be moved in both 3D and 2D, but you can only push them forward, not pull them. They can also be used to gain access to higher platforms, by standing on them.

One other thing I forgot to mention is the inclusion of nightmares. Basically a nightmare is a creature that Danny fears … cockroaches. The cockroaches tend to wander around in a set area of the level, Danny must either avoid or kill them. Danny doesn’t have any attacking abilities, so he cannot attack them by himself, instead he can use one of two skills at his disposal. One is something you do throughout the game - Crush! The way some levels are setup, will allow Danny to literally “crush” the cockroaches against another block - leaving a lovely yellow stain on the level. The other way is the use of boulders. sometimes the cockroaches cannot be crushed in the first way, so Danny needs to push boulders around instead, and flatten/squish the nasty bugs that way instead. It’s very satisfying.

The last thing you really need to know about, is the Alarm clock. Think back to the classic (read: brilliant) NiGHTS into Dreams, and how, if you became Elliot or Claris, you were chased by an alarm clock, and if caught you would wake up, and the dream would be over. Well this is a very similar principle. Instead of the clocks chasing you around the level, however, they are stationary. Instead, once you get within a certain distance of them they become active. Once activated, they begin a count down, and you have to jump on the clock and break it, before the timer runs out and you wake up. It can be very tricky at times, as you have to quickly, yet calmly, crush the level in many ways in order to reach the clock most of the time.

I can tell you that as you are reading this, you will think the game is immensely complicated. I did too when I first read about the game and how it plays. However, that could not be further from the truth. When you are shown (in the training levels) just how the game works, you will be amazed by just how easy it is to play. The level designs are complex and the gameplay is deep, but controlling and physically playing the game becomes second nature within seconds (literally - it took me all of 30 seconds to work out how to play). Mastering the game takes a little more time, but that should be expected of any half decent game.

Once you start playing for real, you will see a great contrast in the size and detail of the levels. You have various worlds in which you play, all of them are meant to represent points of Danny’s life, which could have led to his insomnia. The first, and most pictured world in all the previews, is the City world. In this world the backdrop looks like a city skyline at night and some of the blocks you stand are are made to look like concrete. The same can be said for the other worlds - Seaside, Funfair and Nursery. They all have different themes (as the world name would suggest) so Seaside has a backdrop featuring sand, shells (general seaside items) including a giant crab.

Overall graphically, I don’t think Crush will amaze you. The graphics are good, and the artwork is very unique, and adds to the feel of the game. But really there is nothing that will make you stop and think “Woah, look at that.” One decent feature is the use of weather effects, mainly rain, but again this is nothing amazing - but it does add a little variety to the levels.

Although, the later levels do look better than the first few, but still not enough to make you jump for joy and thank the Lord for everything beautiful in this world…… what do you mean, you never do that?

Each world, also, has a different backing tune, to go along with the the scenery. The City levels have a very dark and moody theme, to go with the dark, drab night setting. The Seaside level, in contrast, has a very similar theme, but made a little more jaunty with the addition of an accordion (thats the weird instrument that you often see/hear in pirate movies) and more beach-like sounds.

Overall, the music is pretty chilling, in more ways than one. Chilling in a sense that it is very eerie and mysterious. But also chilling as in chillin - good old 90’s slang - which I mean to say, is that the music is quite relaxing, for the most part - there are some areas where it changes (like with the alarm clocks). But in general the music is pretty soothing and in a way helps you to take your time over the levels, rather than being fast and getting the adrenaline going - which would ultimately lead to many deaths and mistakes in the game (which would be bloody annoying). A good game comparison, for this, would be Evil Twin: Cyprien’s Chronicles, on the Dreamcast and PS2 - that game had an excellent musical score, which was also eerie, yet relaxing. It could be that they have the same composers, but I don’t know off the top of my head.

While I think that Tetris and Columns are both excellent games, and bring back many childhood memories, I am not a big fan of those types of puzzle games. The games where you have to think fast and match up coloured balls or piece together oddly shaped blocks only hold a few minutes of fun for me. I understand why people like them, but they are not for me. Instead I prefer my puzzle games to be more relaxing and challenge the mind more, rather than mainly relying on reflexes. And this is what Crush offers the gamer. A challenge of the mind, that makes the players think more before acting and give a great sense of accomplishment, once they have successfully worked their way past a problem

Summary:

With extra modes, some unlockables, and a difficulty setting that gets progressively harder throughout the game, Crush will certainly last the average player a good while. While it may not be the longest puzzle game ever, it is definitely one of the best I have played. It’s very unique style and gameplay make it worth a play alone, and the ‘Trophy Mode’ (mentioned near the start) is very challenging and will even cause problems for the most veteren of players.

If, however, you prefer your games to be full of blood and violence, you may want to skip Crush, it’s definitely not going to fill your gore quota - even with the satisfying bug squishing. And should you prefer your Tetris-, Loop- and Lumines-style puzzle games, then I would suggest you try this game before you buy it.

But if you like all sorts of games (like me) or much prefer a thinking man’s (or woman’s) game and want to play something new and interesting, then do yourselves a big favour and get Crush.

It’s innovative, simple to play, deep, (sometimes) infuriating and made of solid gold. Buy it.

Overall score: 8/10

Tags: Crush

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POSTED IN: G, Review, Sony PSP