Metrico (PS Vita) Review

From the beginning of Metrico, the presentation is very apparent and is the most memorable quality of this game. Soft pastels and simple geometry give the world a very clean and sterile look. It is all very appropriate considering the theme of infographics and statistics, which makes it pretty novel for a platformer to use such an abstract style in today's market. Very fluid and crisp, Metrico at times can look like a very fancy power point presentation or an insurance commercial as the player's silhouetted male or female avatar dashes across the horizon. Interesting as the visuals may be, the stats that they represent aren't always very clear. Since the various graphs and charts are tied to the actions the player does, there can be quite a bit of trial and error at times. One thing worth mentioning is that the game is also prone to glitching, and a few game-ending bugs occurred that required a reboot.

Like Braid before it, Metrico is a type of puzzle platformer that requires precision. While satisfying to solve the first time, these kinds of puzzles have a diminishing return since they can only be solved one way, and makes repeated playthroughs very boring and generally uninteresting. There is one way to play the game only, and the player is not able to experiment, only fail should they stray from the designer's intent. The game design is at its most superficial when it begs the question, 'Why bother playing if the user is forced to only play one way and has no agency what so ever?' yet despite that, some of the puzzles are quite challenging and engaging.

Metrico tries to use every PS Vita feature packed into the device. Sometimes it works, most of the time it falls flat like a pigeon crashing into a window, flailing its wings about in confusion. It becomes tricky at times, wrestling with the PS Vita and its multiple functions like the camera and accelerometer simultaneously, and one wonders why there is no option to play Metrico without these features because, while being mobile, they make the game unplayable at times. It should also be worth mentioning that this game has pretty long load times between levels.

Despite the flaws of Metrico, it can be enjoyable at times, but one thing worth mentioning is the synth musical score, which can be best described as upbeat and kind of relaxing. Metrico is a reasonably lengthy title with about 60 puzzles to be played. With such arbitrary designed puzzles in the levels, however, repeated playthroughs are just not that interesting, and not really worth a replay unless trophies matter. This game relies on the developer's ingenuity for level and puzzle design, which does not have the replay value one would hope for.