ICEY review - you don't know Jack

Introduction

I have now played a not too old game for a change. A game I first heard about through The Co-optional Podcast, one that I got quite intrigued by when they described it. Totalbiscuit described the game as a result of mixing a brawler with The Stanley Parable, a great brawler at that. After I have played through the game and gotten all the achievements, I have to say that I absolutely agree with said description and that such a mix made for a rather enjoyable experience.

About/developer

ICEY is developed by the Chinese developer Shanghai FantaBlade Network Technology Co., Ltd. and published by X.D. Network inc. and was released 17th of November 2016 on steam. This means that it only got about three months old before I did a review for it, that’s a new record! ICEY is marketing itself to be a 2D-sidescrolling action game in addition to being a META game in disguise

Intro/beginning

The game sets off with a small cutscene of the character you will be playing, ICEY, an android with the sole purpose of killing the one who destroyed the world, Judas. You witness her awakening and get your first encounter with the fighting system. A moment later you get to choose your difficulty-setting through a series of questions, which I found rather appealing.  Throughout the intro you hear this voice that is leading you along, a narrator, whom you will listen to and interact with throughout the rest of the game. This is where the META aspect starts. Say that you walk towards a crossroad where the omnipresent narrator speaks that ICEY enters a village, you however may choose instead to go right, down or another available direction. If you decide to do this the narrator reacts to your choice, usually in a funny and enjoyable manner, although this can become a bit old after a while. You can of course also choose to just follow the narrator who is leading you directly-ish to your goal of defeating Judas.

Story

Because of the META narrative ICEY doesn’t have just one story to tell, there is also an underlying story which made for a much more engaging experience. The main story of simply going through the bosses to defeat Judas might not be the most interesting story ever, but it is by no means pointless either as you do get some intriguing information, especially this one thing. Something that happens after the final bossfight, something that I to this day have no idea what means!. Regardless of this however what you get out of this “main” story is fairly limited and can be beaten in a rather short amount of time, I will get back to game length later. But by defying the narrator and exploring the underlying storyline, which is the one I would call the actual main story, you can get an understanding about who the different characters are, where they came from, and what happened to the world. There is also what I would call a third storyline, kind of. This is not an important one per say, more of like a funny one as it is about the narrator. It doesn’t add anything to the actual story of the game but I found it enjoyable enough, and in some aspects it can help to get an understanding of a developer's point of view. Take this last one with a grain of salt however as this storyline contains several parodies of modern game design, which I found amusing.

Gameplay

During my time with ICEY I found a brilliant brawler with plenty of combos to learn and master. In the beginning since I have not played too many combo focused games before I often ended up relying on just mashing the buttons as I saw fit, the buttons here being light- and heavy attack. I soon came to the conclusion that making an effort to learning some combos would make for a more efficient and enjoyable experience, and boy was I correct in that assumption! The different combos quickly came in handy when fighting the several bosses throughout the story. Note that one combo or strategy that works great on one boss might be useless against another, which as a result greatly increases the combat’s depth and strategy. Trying to find figure out what combos was viable on the different bosses set me up for a time with a lot of trial and error, but an immensely enjoyable time at that. On one of the bosses, I will not tell you which one though, I sat for about an hour and a half before I managed to beat it! Of course I got annoyed and frustrated, but the moment that healthbar dropped to zero all the frustration was instantly replaced with pure joy!

Controls

Being a brawler it is important to know how the game controls. Firstly I would recommend using a controller as that felt more intuitive and easier to use considering the fast changes in direction. I myself used an Xbox One S controller which I would definitely recommend, a controller that I might write a small article about in the future. Secondly I found the controls to be both responsive and satisfying to use. Additionally the controls themselves are not that complex so it is easy to learn, and at the same time hard to master.  

Aesthetic

ICEY would not be as good of a game had it not had the looks to compliment the gameplay, but it is safe to say that they pulled that off. The backgrounds have this nice hand painted look to them, that unfortunately also can make them look a bit bland and flat. That is not all bad though as it helps to highlight the colorful and flashy effects when attacking and dodging through your enemies. Although the selection of enemies to fight are fairly limited they all have their own unique and interesting designs, especially the bosses. As a result of both the aesthetic and gameplay I wanted to keep going deeper into the game and exploring all of the different levels.

Game length

Now as for game length I have seen that some people is criticising it for being too short. I can agree with this to some extent, but because of the META narrative and underlying story I ended up getting a lot of enjoyment out of the 8 hours of play. I guess the problem comes if you were to rush through the main story and if you know what and where every secret are. Additionally it absolutely depends on how good you are at the game. If you are not as awful as I am you might not need to spend an hour and a half on one single boss, and thereby completing it way faster than me. Also bear in mind that if you are to complete all the achievements you will spend quite a lot of time standing around listening to the narrator.

Conclusion

Well then, I’m quite sure that this review has gone on for long enough so let us, in a qlichè manner, get to a conclusion. What ICEY brings to the table is a fantastic 2D side scrolling brawler together with a deep META narrative and a great looking aesthetic. Imagine the quick responsive controls and beautiful visuals from Dust: An Elysian Tale tied together with the narrative from The Stanley Parable and you’ve got ICEY in a nutshell. As a result you are presented with several different story aspects to explore, and some great fun doing it because of the many distinct bosses and plenty of combos the learn and master. Each boss also has their own small bits of story to explore, who they are and where they are coming from, usually told by the narrator. The narrative, which is one of the core aspects of the entire game, can get a bit old after a while but usually I found it enjoyable and interesting, which in turn brings some joy to exploring the world. albeit a world with a fairly limited selection of enemies. Either way  during my eight hours on the game, despite its flaws, I had a blast which leads me to the score:

8/10 - Very good

Something worth mentioning is the fact that after I played it the devs have updated the game with both additional content and an English voiceover. I have not had the time to check this out yet, but hey it’s free! No downsides!