For this week's #Demo Play Thursday i played the #PlayStation4 version of Through the Nightmares.
I'm not good at challenging platforming games but i do like to try them. l'm always hoping to find one that'll be difficult, but not necessarily punish me for finding it difficult. As the player, i'd like to feel that there's a chance i can improve. i think Through the Nightmares get's pretty close to this so even tho the demo got tough, i did actually finish it.
Through the Nightmares starts with a nice small level that serves as it's tutorial and i think it works great. not only did i learn what most of the buttons do, but i got a little taste of how the platforming sections may work. there was a decent sense of satisfaction from this little introduction stage. the second stage introduces an item. it's presented as some sort of checkpoint. but when you complete the level you realise there's a bonus for completing the level and not using it, so of course i tried the level again this time without dying. playing Through the Nightmares in this demo was a pleasant experience, but that's not to say it was an easy one.
The game says on it's PSN page that it's not an easy game, that there will be a challenge, and i certainly restarted plenty of times during this demo. what helped was the choice of using the checkpoint item and/or that restarting when you did die was very fast. using the checkpoint doesn't mean you haven't completed the level. thankfully, Through the Nightmares will let you continue if you haven't collected everything. all you need to do is complete the level to unlock the next.
Most of the challenging platforming felt fair. the game is smart to introduce a mechanic, let us try it out in the level, then let us try it out on something more challenging. the demo ends with us facing off against a boss and throughout the encounter we have to use all the skills we've learned so far. this felt like a fair encounter until the encounter changed it's gameplay style. then it felt a little cheap, like the margins for error were even tighter than before. but, again, with quick restarting and thankfully a little checkpointing from the game itself, rather than the item, it didn't take long to conquer the boss and finish the level.
I enjoyed my time with the Through the Nightmares DEMO and came away with it knowing that it's a tough game but also feeling that i could perhaps do it. so as a demo, i think this worked great. it'd be great to hear from you if you played the retail game and how difficult the later levels are. it also wasn't clear if our save carries over from demo to retail game. but i think the demo for Through the Nightmares is well worth checking out.
