A double-edged copy, or maybe a perfect weapon? – review of the game “Happenlance”

What is this ego conqueror?

Happenlance, an adventure-platform 2D game with a large arcade element based on a creative level structure, which mostly forces us to solve logical field puzzles related to physics. It sounds trivial, but there are some elements that go beyond our reasoning, such as overcoming the spikes on the weapon itself, or the abstract possibility of climbing between two walls upwards. The contrast between logic and the fanciful creation of the hero’s system of behavior and his weapons often gives the illusion of impossibility to overcome a fancy obstacle. When we finally manage to understand the physics in the game and its elements such as momentum, gravity, force, recoil, etc., unfortunately it is only half the battle. Only now does the analysis of the terrain and all the items on the map begin,

Modest but tidy menu

When we start the game, we will surely be surprised by the inability to set the character control in the menu. I always change these settings at the very beginning, right after turning on the product, but the author of the game originally assigned this function to several different buttons. Starting with WSAD, switching to the ability to control arrows, only the mouse, or even, more specifically, control of numeric keys. Basically, it is worth adjusting the sensitivity of the mouse movement, I also recommend that you turn on the cursor at the start, which will inform us about the direction of the copy – it is very helpful in controlling the position of the weapon.

Before you set off, cool down and clear your mind from the unknown

This is where our incomprehensible adventure begins, when the protagonist falls into a cave of some kind. We don’t know why or what really happened before. We don’t actually get to know the story of our hero, who is probably a medieval knight. We end up in a 2D world with the foreground and the second, so often at the beginning we won’t be sure what actually interacts and what doesn’t. Distant background and sounds allow us to immerse ourselves immersed in the world. A huge plus is the fact that the game does not treat us with fast and aggressive, or slow and melancholic background music, which could effectively distract us when trying to beat the levels. Instead, we have tailored nature sounds, allowing us to focus on analyzing the obstacles in front of us.

Confident and invincible? I see you have a sense of humor

The game brutally throws us into deep water, without explaining the control or the principles of operation of the lance connected with the spear. Here I personally doubted when it turned out that the first challenge that introduces us to the game is the fight with the character controls. After a good ten minutes, I had some pretty good progress. Moving smoothly is really difficult and frustrating at times. Many times, we have to maintain the surgical precision and accuracy of the sniper when rotating the weapon, bouncing off it, or moving the moving elements that allow us to get to the higher levels of the map. Many times I bounced too weakly from the surface, or hit the wall with a sharp tool, which resulted in a disastrous bounce off it and a flight into the abyss or, worse, the previous sequences of the map.

Nothing will make you happier than seeing it

Fortunately, gray flags are salutary here, which, after contact with our character, turn white and save our progress in the game permanently at this stage, so we do not have to worry that something will go wrong and after dying we will start the game from the beginning of the level. In the event of leaving the game and returning to it, when we click “continue”, we will also start from the last crossed flag, and not from the beginning of the entire level. Glory to the producer!

I guess it’s still a little too easy, don’t you think?    

During the further carefree game we will meet nice opponents, such as knights and archers. Instead of helping us, they will at all costs “sweeten” our climbing attempts and try – as we can guess – to kill us, or at least force us to make a wrong move under pressure, so we will repeatedly fall into the abyss or at the beginning of an obstacle.

You have a gun after all, what are you waiting for?

Fortunately, we do not remain defenseless and passive in the face of the whole situation. We have the opportunity to repay our opponents by attacking them with weapons or all available infrastructure elements, throwing wooden boxes, rocks, fireballs on them. We also have the ability to deflect their arrows or parry a sword attack to effectively stop their fiery lust for murder.

Stick a spear at a friend or pick him up on her.

An additional surprise here is the possibility of playing PVP or cooperating with other people. Both players can start duels in which reflexes and speed will count, or help each other through the map sequences. After all, you can check with your friends who has the best reflexes and impeccable precision. However, I am not responsible for the stress and the accompanying nerves!

A game not for everyone, but extremely rewarding

The game is incredibly irritating to me, and also very motivating. If we manage to solve a more or less logical terrain puzzle, we get a dopamine boost, and in a moment the stress and a drop in humor reappear when it turns out that the next obstacle is even more difficult! Personally, I think the entry threshold and the selection of players are very high. It’s easy to get discouraged and get stuck for several dozen minutes in a sequence without any idea for further gameplay. It will also come as no surprise that we will have to have a better quality mouse with good sensitivity and smoothness of movements to be able to move the weapon as efficiently as possible.