Blackhole: Complete Edition

Blackhole for PC, PS4 and XONE is a conventional 2D platformer set in a science-fiction world and developed by an independent Czech studio FiolaSoft. It is the team's first larger project - the game offers colorful visuals and puzzles based on the laws of gravity.

Plot

The plot revolves around the adventures of crew-members aboard a spaceship named Endera. The craft crashes on a planet-like object known as Entity - it is located inside the titular black hole. Using an advanced AI, the first of the survivors has to both fix the damages caused by the collision and save their fellow crew-members, apart from destroying the black hole from within, as it poses a threat to the planet Earth.

Mechanics

Mechanics-wise, Blackhole for PC, PS4 and XONE is not much different from classic platformers. The game breaks with the convention only in terms of what the puzzles are based on - depending on the manner in which the player rotates the game world, they can reach different parts of the map. The levels are usually relatively short, though solving certain puzzles does provide a challenge. If the player falls into trouble, Auriel can give them a hand - it is a talkative AI that remains at the player's side throughout the adventure.

Polished audiovisuals are what constitutes one of the game's distinctive features. Both the levels and animations were painted manually and the graphic style itself is very colorful and filled with hilarity. Designs of particular levels are fairly diverse - on Entity, the player visits forests and caves full of intriguing plants, as well as ruins of ancient cities. As mentioned, the audio is also high-quality in this game - the soundtrack combines electronic and symphonic elements together, created by two Czech composers.

Blackhole gives quite a lot of PvP-competition opportunities - the levels are filled with additional content, and thanks to an included stopwatch, the players can share their results with others in the game's community.

Misc.

The Complete Edition came out for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One two years after the game's debut on PCs. This console edition was enriched mainly with a digital artbook, the original soundtrack, all the free updates, including an expansion pack Testing Laboratory and the game's prototype. The PC players on Steam can update the original version (2015) to this newer, Complete Edition.

Last updated on 10 August 2017