With over 2.2 million apps to choose from on the App Store, trying to find a mobile game worth playing can be difficult for the enthusiast. For the gamer who seeks a great playing experience, Alto’s Odyssey is the diamond in the rough.
Odyssey is sequel to the critically acclaimed Alto’s Adventure, an arcade game where you play as a snowboarder who makes their way through a vast, infinite landscape by travelling through sand dunes, jumping over chasms and grinding on crumbled temples all while doing tricks to gain speed.
Odyssey achieves a top-notch gaming experience through having challenging, rewarding gameplay, simple controls and breathtaking visuals and audio.
The main goal of the game is to score points by doing trick combinations and completing quests while avoiding hazards such as rocks or falling into a chasm.
Trick combos are achieved by connecting tricks together. For example, players can backflip off a sand dune, grind on a rail and backflip off the rail. Landing combos will grant you a temporary speed boost which lets you soar through the sky.
The player can choose to ride safely and casually or fast, cool and risky, depending on how devil-may-care they are feeling. This simple to learn yet hard to master gameplay offers a rewarding experience when landing huge combos through the randomly generated environment.
Objective based quests gives the player an extra level of challenge during normal gameplay. Quests are completed by doing specific combos, collecting coins and etcetera.
By completing quests, you unlock new characters with different riding traits such as faster speed, faster back flipping and double jump. Particularly hard quests can be frustrating yet rewarding once completed.
The main interaction the player makes is using a simple touch to the screen. A tap will make Alto jump and a long press will make him do a backflip. Though this may seem too simple to be fun, it is an elegant solution to the usual, multi button, cluttered interface that usually plagues mobile games. This makes Odyssey very easy to pick up and start playing.
The hallmark of this game is in its unique art style and immersive audio effects. Characters travel through 3 different biomes in Odyssey, each with a different theme and feeling through the clever use of basic art principals and immersive soundtrack and sound design.
Odyssey layers visuals using the foreground, midground and background: a technique used by movie directors, painters and other fine artists. This, coupled with dynamic lighting, is a beautiful way to paint a scene. The art in this game is just as enjoyable as the gameplay. Each moment in Odyssey is a work of art.
Odyssey’s soundtrack is awesome.
Just as sound is as important as the frame in filmmaking, the audio experience in the game is the cherry on top of all the goodness. As you start the game, the music is slow and ominous. Once you start getting into it, the music picks up as if the tempo is connected to the character’s speed. This makes you truly feel like going through on an adventure.
Great game mechanics, simple controls and beautiful design combine into Odyssey having an extremely satisfying gameplay and keeps the player coming back in the car, at school, or on the toilet. It’s an unmatched mobile-gaming experience.
