Exception Review
Fast Facts
Title: Exception
Developer: Traxmaster Software LLC
Publisher: Traxmaster Software LLC
Website: https://exceptiongame.com/
Genre: Adventure, Action, Platformer, Arcade
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Age Rating: PEGI 7
Release Date: 13/08/19
Price: £10.99 – Rapid Reviews was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.
Before I got a review copy for Exception, I looked at this game, and I thought “Wow, this game looks so nice and it seems like fun as well!” and so I decided to review this game for the site. I didn’t have big expectations either, except that this game was going to be fun. So did it hit that expectation? Did it completely miss? Or better yet, did it exceed my expectations? Let’s find out.
The story begins within a computer where threads live to store and send information across the system, and they also worship who they call “Alice34” like a god. Little do they know she is just this grandmom, just trying to email her grandchildren. However, she encounters this advertisement for free software, and even though her computer warned her that it could be dangerous, she downloads it anyway. Soon the system turns into chaos, and a bit later, this giant being comes out of the flames. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more of the story, and in my opinion, the story is surprisingly great. It has this nice comic book aesthetic as you read through it and it makes you think. Not one of the most complicated stories, though, but it is great.
I did enjoy the visuals for this game. The neon aesthetic used for this title pops for me, and one of my favourite things has to be getting hit. When you get damaged, the resolution also goes down, and while this might be distracting to others, I found it quite impressive. Sometimes I would get hit on purpose to see the downgraded visuals. It is also a reward to players who play their best not to get hit in order to see the excellent resolutions.
While I have been speaking positively about this game, it does fall pretty flat on one thing – the soundtrack. The music is mediocre to fine, it wasn’t something I liked listening to, and there were very few tracks in the game. However, the music is fitting for the game. After I got a good dose of the music, I decided to mute the game and listen to random videos and podcasts while playing.
As for the gameplay, it is simple but a lot of fun. Each level feels unique in its own way, and the controls are very fluid, as well as responsive, and you complete these levels by destroying control nodes found in every level. That being said, it has its drawbacks. The knockback can be annoying at times, and some blue chips you collect in the game called “Bytes” can also be very irritating. What are Bytes you say? Well Bytes are used for you to upgrade the skills you unlock as you play through the game. You get these skills by doing a level as fast as you can with four stars the max.
These skills also range from “cool” to “why is this a separate skill?” That was the question I asked a lot when I unlocked these skills. However, even then, I didn’t allow this to impact my experience with the game, and I still really enjoy going through these levels and seeing what tricks they had during them. There is also a lot of player choice in this game, in which you can adjust the damage you can take from 3 to 999, you can also skip the story sections if you want, but I don’t recommend you do so since the story is excellent.
Now finally, what are my closing thoughts are on the game? I 100% believe that this game exceeded my expectations. While the music and the skills you unlocked were a bit of a bummer, that still didn’t take away the great story, the beautiful visuals and the excellent level design. This game was a great ride, and I recommend everybody to play it if they are fans of platformers.
Rapid Reviews Rating
You can purchase Exception from the Nintendo eShop on the following link, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Exception-1611546.html#Overview
