In a year where we saw an unfortunately big flop in the platforming genre, it’s good to know they are many more good platformers that are out and about.
Glyph is among the good ones. This indie 3D platformer by Bolverk Games was first released on the Nintendo Switch last year and is now available on PC.
This twist should get the ball running for the review, but if you just want a TL;DR version, let me state this: Glyph understands what makes a platformer good, so good that even with its small scope, emerges from the cocoon as a fantastic 3D platformer. Die-hards of the genre should check this out.
Presentation
But first, let’s talk about the audio-video experience. Glyph has you play as a mechanical ball that can morph into a gliding bug (or bird or drone) named Glyph. You and your beetle buddy emerged in the ruins of a past civilization, and by playing through the levels, slowly discover what led them perished in the sandy dunes.
Glyph is not a game for Anakin Skywalker. Most of the game you will be looking at a lot of sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere and all over. And lethal too. The sands are corrupted and now the sand, to you, is lava. A one-hit kill.
You’ll be spending a lot of time looking at similar rocks and dunes, though the devs try their best to vary up the scenery of the many levels. Expect colour hue changes, meticulously placed rocks and other nifty tricks that make use of limited assets to liven up the environments with various vibes.
Another cool bit of Glyph is the atmospheric soundtrack. Each level has music that starts slow, but dynamically evolves as you progress through each level, and resets back to the serene quietness should you mess up and have to restart. It’s a simple trick, and it’s not anything crazy (you pick one progression item and the music moves to the next, more elaborate stage), but it’s still effective and well done.
Also, the sound design is executed well too. The clinks and clanks of Glyph falling and hitting rocks feel satisfying as it is informing. The audible clues are also on point, informing you of a collectible collected, a boost is powered up and other gameplay-related cues.
UI elements are minimal but appear when only it needed to be. Plus, I appreciate the little circle that indicates where exactly Glyph will land if you point the camera downwards while in the air. It’s very handy.
Gameplay
Glyph is through and through a 3D platformer, with a collect-a-thon slant. After the extensive tutorial, you’ll be transported to an evolving hub world where you can pick and choose any level you wish, all done by physically rolling around.
The twist I alluded to earlier is that Glyph is for all intents and purposes, a ball. You’re rolling and jumping a ball through perilous platforms to finish these levels. Unlike a normal humanoid character, Glyph has the power of momentum on their side, for better or worse.
So, what seems to be a simple game about jumping on small rocks has now become mighty challenging. Can you estimate how far Glyph will bounce from one platform to another? Do you understand how ball trajectory works in a 3D space?
The game will test these, in a rather painful way. There are no checkpoints for each of Glyph’s short levels. So you either get each jump right, or you restart. The sand is lava and a one-shot kill.
You see, to complete a level in Glyph and keep all your collectibles, you need to finish it. And to finish a level, you’ll need to collect keys scattered throughout the level to open the exit portal. Gather them all, in one run, and hit the exit to complete a level. Fall down at any time and the keys (and the secret collectable for the level) will reset. Though other collectible remain until you properly finish. Quit the level mid-way and you get nothing.
Thankfully, the ball control is more like moving a golf ball or a basketball rather than like the Super Monkey Ball series where you tilt the map itself. So it’s much easier to get your head around it. Imagine giving a backspin to an airborne ball in a golf game, and that’s pretty much your aerial control you have- not much, but just enough.
But beware: thanks to the power of momentum it is ridiculously hard to course-correct a missed jump. You’ll better just eat sand. I hate sand, it’s course and all over.
Sorry.
Glyph’s move set is all available after finishing the tutorial. You can jump, double jump if you are charged with green energy, glide (and transform into a bug/bird/drone thing), and an immediate, momentum-killing downward smash (or a ground pound).
You better master the art of ground-pounding and immediately jumping and gliding. It’s how you perform high jumps in Glyph and very much essential to get across later levels.
Juggling between ground-pounding and jumping, like you’re dribbling a basketball, is an easy way to ensure Glyph stays in one place, and a good way to get yourself in the zone too.
You’d be ballin’ and high-flyin’ a lot in this game.
Having to play as a ball ups the skill floor for Glyph. If you’re a hardcore fan and has a penchant for speedrunning, that’s good news. There’s plenty of advanced techniques to discover. Thanks to the power of momentum, it’s possible that you can outright skip a huge chunk of the bite-sized levels. What would be a 5-minute session of a level can be cut by a huge amount if you know what you’re doing. Inputs are deterministic, and all your actions can be replicated with the same inputs, with the same outcome every time.
I would describe myself as an average 3D platformer enjoyer and it was so fun discovering shortcuts and techniques to keep Glyph ballin’ and rollin’ and flying high to the finish in record time. The more difficult (4-star and 5-star) levels are where I found it to be absolutely torturous.
Content
You’ll be amazed by how much content you’ll get in Glyph. There are 80+ levels for you to sink your teeth in, and plenty of hidden secrets to uncover, which unlocks cosmetics for your spherical orb hero.
Granted the levels are short and bite-sized, lasting less than 10 minutes if you rush them. But it can be longer if you’re thorough. Getting the secrets of each level is hard but also rewarding. It’s how you get to customise Glyph’s looks.
You don’t have to finish all the 80+ levels to beat the game. And you also don’t even need to bash your head on the harder levels to even do so. I reached the final level by mostly completing 2-star and a few 3-star difficulty levels. So newcomers or casual fans can still find some fun in the game still.
Glyph isn’t a long game. I see the credits roll in five hours. But should you dare be a completionist, and are totally up to master all the levels the game has to offer, you’ll definitely stretch the playtime longer.
Personal Enjoyment
I grew up playing way too many 3D platformers in my childhood, so personally, I feel I know how to sus out a good one from a not-so-good one.
Glyph absolutely nails what it is supposed to do for a game of its genre, in my opinion. Traversal is fun, and rewards you for understanding the intricacies of your moveset. Controls feel tight, responsive, predictable and leave no excuse for a botched jump being the game’s fault. And for a game about controlling a ball, that’s high praise.
I would have docked points on personal enjoyment because I personally have a negative bias against insectoids (U hate bugs, they’re coarse and all over etc. etc.), but thankfully you can dress Glyph in other non-buggy cosmetics found through secret challenges.
The level design, despite its limited art budget, is expressive and creative. They don’t just look nice, the challenges each level hides are brilliant enough to keep me hooked till the end. Even the finale ticks all the checkboxes of what I expected a 3D platformer should do.
The small margin of error is something to get used to since most modern platformers usually being on the lenient side. But overall, I highly enjoyed my time with the game.
Jumping and gliding across tiny rocks as a ball is hard, but with nothing except yourself being the barrier to success, overcoming the challenges is immensely rewarding.
Verdict
Glyph understands what it wants to be. It hits all the 3D platformer notes it should be hitting. And managed to do so while delivering its own neat twist to the formula.
The excellent controls and level design makes Glyph a must-play for 3D platforming fans. And for those curious about the genre, this is what the essence of a good platformer boils down to.
Played on PC. Review code provided by the publisher
Glyph (PC)
Glyph understands what it wants to be. It hits all the 3D platformer notes it should be hitting. And managed to do so while delivering its own neat twist to the formula.
- Presentation 7.5
- Gameplay 9
- Content 8
- Personal Enjoyment 9