PixelJunk Eden is a game which seems to suffer from multiple personality disorder. On one hand, we have a game with some unique features and peaceful visuals, leading one to relax and play a game in an artistic environment where our worry isn’t “Who can I kill?”, but “How high can I push myself while interacting with the environment around me?” On the other, we have a game hellbent on making you panic and curse at your screen due to a timer or one missed jump.
The game is really unlike any other, though. The best way to describe it would be to say it’s a mixture of Bionic Commando’s swinging and Crackdown’s orb gathering missions. You control a tiny figure (a Grimp) and swing around and stick to various growths and lines, all in an effort to collect Spectra. It sounds a little stupid, but it’s a nice mix of classic and new gameplay.
That’s where the confusion sets in.
As you swing around, learn how to grip things, and begin collecting Spectras, it’s a blast. It’s a nice, quick, old-school game with new-school vibe, and it’s an extremely nice change of pace from games where graphics are greater than the gameplay. Then, before you know it, you’re scrambling because time is running out, and you have to ignore everything you’ve been doing and make desperate swing and jump after desperate swing and jump in an attempt to prolong your Grimp’s existence so you can enjoy the game some more.
After collecting enough Spectras, you advance to the next garden which serves as the world. (Each garden has a set number of unique Spectra available on it, and each time you collect one your next task is to collect two, then three, then four…) As the number of gardens grows, so does the frustration and difficulty. By the end of the game, I was cursing more at Pixeljunk Eden than I ever did playing games online against friends.
To truly enjoy Pixeljunk Eden, you have to be willing to put up with the countless hours of frustration it will cause. If you can survive the frustrating moments, you’ll find a game unlike any other which can offer a tremendous experience completely its own. If you can’t, you’ll probably make it to the second or third garden before you get so pissed off you stop playing the game for a month. Just do yourself a favor, and before you load up your PS3 to play it make sure you didn’t leave any sharp objects within reach.
