I just finished: Webbed!
I'm a big fan of 2D platformers that try something new, even though sidescrollers are so simple there's so much possible that hasn't been explored - partially because they haven't been mainstream since maybe the 90s and technology has improved since. This game has the cool new idea of being a gay spider that shoots lasers, which peaks my interest immediately and allows for some really cool ideas.
A lot of the platforming in the game is through the web slinging mechanics, like a Spider-Man game but your just a spider now. These are obviously fun and every game designer knows right now that grappling mechanics are the hot thing you can put in anything to make people excited, or to redeem a stagnant IP (e.g. Halo Infinite) but the really unique stuff comes when you build webs. Right clicking (and let me tell you this is available on other platforms but I cannot imagine playing this without keyboard and mouse) on most surfaces and then dragging to another will shoot a permanent web that goes between those two slots. This allows you to walk over the webs, shoot over webs off of them to connect another surface to the web, or to manipulate objects in your environment. This makes up a lot of the gameplay allowing for all kinds of physics puzzles and such. For instance, you have to build the webs that hold the parts of this air balloon together:
Various collectables are strewn throughout the game, one that's really cool is the flies you can catch, like an actual spider would:
Now this is all great, and I liked all this quite a lot, all though moving objects in the environment with webs (and lasers a bit) can be frustrating at times, which is heavily required for part of the game. It's also the part that soft locked my game and required me to edit the save file to progress.
One of the legs of the big mech-ant that you have to help build disappeared for me. Looking online others seem to have this issue, so it's not unique to me. If you do play this be very careful around the above section. Other than this the game performs absolutely fine, but it's been a while since launch so I don't know if this will be patched.
Grade: C - Soft locking is a pretty serious issue, luckily I managed to continue but I might not have continued playing if I had to start from the beginning again.
Significance: 2/3 - Haven't seen much like it. The fly thing really impressed me, though it's a small thing and a small part of the game.
