''Warp'' is a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by Trapdoor and published by
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
through it EA Partners program on
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
and
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
. The game allows the player to warp through doors and objects and cause creatures in the game world to explode. It was released on February 15, 2012 on
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...
as part of the second "Xbox Live Arcade House Party", with
PlayStation Network
PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...
and Microsoft Windows releases to follow on March 13, 2012.
Plot
The game opens from a first person view of the player being pulled out of what appears to be a cave by a group of
scientists
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...
. The player's character, "Zero", is confused and dazed as they take him to a military-grade secure facility. Zero fades in and out of consciousness, and eventually awakens to see two scientists performing
surgery
Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...
on him and extracting a disk-shaped object.
Soon after, a fellow
alien
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
contacts Zero through
telepathy
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...
and says that it can sense other aliens in the facility and that they should escape together. The scientists then put Zero through an obstacle course where Zero is reunited with the disk they extracted, giving him back his power to
teleport. After reabsorbing the disk, the player's goal is to escape the facility and help any fellow aliens on the way out.
The game has three endings:
Bad: Kill more than 170 humans. Zero heads outside in the rain, is depowered, and killed by a sniper.
Good: Kill fewer than 7 humans. Zero heading outside in the sun and running in victory, free at last.
Neutral: Kill more than 7 humans, but fewer than 170 humans. After escaping, Zero is ambushed by a small group of soldiers, but effortlessly slays them.
Gameplay
Despite being a
3D game, the gameplay remains similar to a
top-down
Top-down may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* " Top Down", a 2007 song by Swizz Beatz
* "Top Down", a song by Lil Yachty from ''Lil Boat 3''
* "Top Down", a song by Fifth Harmony from ''Reflection'' Science
* Top-down reading, is a part of ...
2D game that features
puzzle
A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
solving and
stealth.
The first power Zero acquires is the ability to teleport short distances, also known as the titular ''Warp''. Zero is able to warp through open spaces, through objects, into objects, and into living things. The speed between warps is dependent on whether Zero moves into an object or into open space. Moving into open space gives Zero a slight timed penalty before it can warp again. From inside an object (or person), Zero can move around vigorously and eventually make it explode. This is known as a Frag.
Guards, scientists, and turrets attempt to stop Zero's escape. Upon sight of Zero both turrets and guards will attempt to shoot, while scientists will cower and run away. Once spotted by one
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
they will most likely alert other humans of Zero's presence. Alarms that are activated can be turned off by destroying the alarm coil or moving it off the alarm pad.
Sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
and
sight
Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the ...
also play a prominent role in the game. Zero is about half the size of the average human and so is able to hide behind many objects that are scattered across the map without being seen. Sound will also alert the guards to Zero's presence. Footsteps, knocking into objects, and Zero's powers will create sounds audible to the human ears prompting an
investigation, though many of these sounds can be made inaudible through upgrades.
Upgrades can be purchased at stations throughout the game. Upgrades cost grub energy that has been collected throughout Zero's journey. Grubs are small parasite-like creatures that cling to objects and give off a purple glow. This glow makes them easier to spot, although many of these grubs are located in hard to reach places and require extra skill or more powers to reach. Once a grub is found, Zero consumes it and absorbs its energy.
Zero will come across puddles of
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
early on in the game and discovers that being exposed to small amounts of water will nullify his powers temporarily. This is indicated by Zero having a sudden loss of color and a different walking animation. Unfortunately for Zero, the scientists also discover this weakness. They exploit this weakness by creating a malleable water substance that they primarily use as a shield. Zero can't walk, warp, echo, or use a hologram to get past these shields. When exposed to large quantities of water, Zero will die. The facility is located underwater.
Throughout the game, Zero will find remains of other aliens and will be able to absorb their old powers in order to aid his escape. The second power Zero unlocks is a solid
hologram
Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...
, known as Echo. Zero's echo ghost will move independently from him, but Zero is unable to move when this power is activated. All enemies can see Zero's echo but they can't tell it apart from the real Zero. If Zero's echo is killed, it will
dissipate
In thermodynamics, dissipation is the result of an irreversible process that takes place in homogeneous thermodynamic systems. In a dissipative process, energy (internal, bulk flow kinetic, or system potential) transforms from an initial form to ...
. The hologram can pass through all objects and move across gaps but will also dissipate when it comes into contact with water. The echo's movement is restricted to within a certain radius around Zero's position. When Zero activates this power inside an object, the hologram will take on the image and properties of the object. Guards, scientists, and turrets will only notice the object if it is not stationary. When Zero activates this power inside a person, whether the human is alive or dead, the echo will be of that person walking and enemies won't notice anything wrong.
The third power is known as Swap. This power is an extension of the echo and allows Zero's echo to swap places with an object of the player's choice. The swap power can be used as an extended warp in many situations. The power will only work when the end destination is an object. If Zero is inside an object while swap is used, the destination object will be placed inside the original object. This causes the internal object to destroy the external object and take its place. This technique can be used to destroy objects/humans and create distractions.
The fourth power is known as Launch. Launch allows Zero to fire an object at a high
velocity
Velocity is the directional speed of an object in motion as an indication of its rate of change in position as observed from a particular frame of reference and as measured by a particular standard of time (e.g. northbound). Velocity is a ...
. The launched object won't be affected by
gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
during this time. Launch will only launch an object when Zero is already warped inside of it and will leave Zero in the position of where the object was launched from. This power is primarily used to destroy power generators to access different levels of the map. It can also be used to place objects strategically so Zero can use echo to cross large spaces that were previously unreachable.
Game modes
There are two game modes featured in ''Warp''. The first is the story mode where players spend their time solving puzzles and ultimately escaping from the facility. During the story, players can discover challenge orbs which can be activated by warping into them. Once Zero is warped into them, they are unlocked and accessible through the main menu.
The challenge mode places Zero in a training room and gives the player one objective. The rewards for completing these objectives are tiered: a bronze grub, a silver grub, and a gold grub. The bronze grub is always given for completing the objective and is the lowest tier of reward. The silver and gold grub is often given out in reward for completing the objective in shorter times respectively. These challenges are often placed in the story mode to help train the player for a new type of challenge/puzzle that is coming up. They often require critical thinking or advanced skills in order to attain the silver grub. The times that players complete the challenges are recorded and put up on a leader board to see how a player compares to others.
Reception
According to the review aggregator
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows versions of ''Warp'' received "generally favorable" reviews from publications upon release, while the Xbox 360 version received "mixed or average" reviews.
Daemon Hatfield of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
scored the game an 8.5 out of 10. Hatfield's review was mostly positive, with his only problems with the game being its lack of polish, which he pinned down to lower production values, and ending levels. Even though Hatfield particularly disliked the final boss fight for being the "opposite of fun", he said that the game's level design and core mechanics make up for it by being "so much damn fun". Hatfield also spoke positively of the premise of being an alien against humans, rather than a human against aliens, the humour, and the difficulty balance.
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
's Jeremiah Johnson was more critical of the game, summarizing his review by saying: "It's best to take ''Warp'' as the carefree fling it's likely meant to be, because anyone looking for a rewarding experience here will find only a charmingly warped vision of games we've seen many times before." Johnson praised the enjoyability of the puzzles, the "charming mix of gore and cuteness", the overall presentation, and the leaderboards. Johnson's main criticisms were concerning the controls and the "trial and error"-nature of some puzzles and encounters.
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
's Dan Ryckert also had mixed feelings, stating: "''Warp'' is charming at first, but the simple A.I. and basic puzzles aren’t enough to make it an XBLA standout. Completionists may find replay value in the collectible grubs, basic upgrade system, and challenge rooms, but anyone looking for deeper stealth or puzzle-based gameplay should look elsewhere." Ryckert scored the game a 6.75 out of 10.
Dan Whitehead for
Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
scored the game a 7/10 in his review and wrote: "The ideas at the heart of ''Warp'' are sound and, in general, the game is well paced and introduces its evolutions at just the right time. There's a looseness to the execution though, and it keeps the experience from becoming more than the sum of its parts. ''Warp'' is a pleasant enough diversion, but with patchwork design that remixes gameplay ideas and stylistic elements from sources as diverse as ''
Splosion Man'', ''
Metal Gear Solid
is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operat ...
'' and ''
Portal
Portal often refers to:
* Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel
Portal may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...
'', it never gels into anything particularly memorable."
References
External links
*{{cite web, url=http://www.ea.com/warp , title=Electronic Arts Inc. ''Warp'' Website, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003172027/http://www2.ea.com/warp , archivedate=2017-10-03
2012 video games
Electronic Arts games
PlayStation 3 games
PlayStation Network games
Puzzle video games
Stealth video games
Unreal Engine games
Video games developed in Canada
Windows games
Xbox 360 Live Arcade games