The French independent studio Patang invited us to discover Starflint The BlackHole Prophecy, its first game. It goes without saying that we accepted with joy. Now is the time to ask yourself, objectively, is this game worth the candle? or is it a cosmic flop? Answer a little further down.
Graphics & atmosphere
With a fairly nice style that will give the impression of being in a cartoon at times, we end up with clean and well-worked environments. If we can however regret a certain "rigidity" on certain actions (the shooting of Flynn's blaster a bit too mechanical or like the first boss who does not really move, the whole is fluid and remains really pleasant.
We are also dealing with a quality French dubbing with a number of well-known personalities (Fred and Seb from JDG, Zerator, Benzaie, Bob Lenon, etc... they are too numerous to be fully quoted!). In addition to the characters who have nice voices, we are confronted with a number of references such as the "CHABAT protocol" which launches a line: "you are bluffing Martoni". I admit that I laughed a lot in front of that, in addition to all the others that I have noted in passing.
On the inspiration side, there are pickaxes a little here and there, like the duo reminiscent of Valerian and Laureline, a bit of Star Trek (the black hole and travel in deferred time), etc... We feel all that, without it being sickening fan service. Positive note on the outspokenness of the characters, even if Flynn has aspects of Michael Scott.
History
After passing through a black hole, you find yourself in your stolen trash... in your ship, completely lost. You discover traces of civilization and inevitably some problems arise... like mass slavery, completely bent humans oppressing the people, and all that kind of fun. But the solution to all this may not be so far away, and your destiny may be brighter than you think...
Gameplay
The game consists of several phases which are quite simple in themselves: the phases in space, which take us from one planet to another, the phases of entering or exiting a planet with a ship maze, and ground phases. Each has its own style, but the phases in space are the simplest: just go from point A to point B by breaking obstacles with your lasers. Then come the mazes which will require a lot of skill to get to the finish while avoiding being destroyed.
For this you will have to move along the lines trying not to end up in front of a ship, knowing that you can destroy them from behind or from the sides. You will move simultaneously, blow by blow. Quite complicated at times, these phases will make you think hard to find a sometimes very tricky solution. Then the ground phases and there you will have the choice between sometimes Flynn, sometimes Trixie, with their very different gameplay.
Where Flynn can use a blaster and classic actions, Trixie employs double jump, teleport and slides. Different gameplay and methods. The goal is often to find items by going to areas/bases and going through the boards to get there. Jumps, passages where you will have to avoid lasers and puzzle phases will punctuate everything, and will often require you to have a maddening timing.
You will come across soldiers with weapons, but they will not be really dangerous, because the real dangers and enemies of this game are the lasers and the lack of explanation here and there. For example, I thought for a long time that I didn't understand how to achieve a certain goal, so I did my trick... only to realize that in fact, it was just a bug. Complicated when you know that sometimes the game is quite tricky. Apart from these kinds of small flaws, the platform phases, the puzzles to reach your destination and the various sometimes obscure actions will require you to work your brains out to find the tips. Apart from that, I enjoyed this game which ends in 8 or 9 hours if you don't fail too often.
Summary
In short, without saying that this game is an excellence, far from it, it nevertheless offers a good experience and deserves attention to capture its essence. For a first game, we are on something specific, which will be able to touch its public. However, if you like nervous battles and hyperspeed platforms, go your way. For others, you have to try for yourself, it's still the best way to form your idea, and in my opinion, it's something you might like.
Precision of the studio: "We have reworked the whole beginning of the game so that the problems of the first 2 planets are no longer there! The main story does not change of course. We have also fixed many bugs which had been uploaded to the game's Discord."
