Empowered: Game Review to Treat Insecurities Between Us

At first glance, a few simple words would suffice to describe Fueled Up: Overcooked, but in space. However, the perspective of spending some time together changes, and if the similarities to the headline set in the kitchen are obvious, Fueled Up has an audience of users who find it the perfect game to enjoy with friends.

Instead of making restaurant customers happy in the game he developed, Line of Fire Games You’ll take on the role of a space mechanic in charge of rescuing the spacecraft that broke down while traveling the universe. To do this you will have to purify the gas, replace the batteries, repair the hull and do many other small tasks, each one crazier than the next.

The view from above is an open invitation to play together, even if the experience is fun on its own. in this amplified review We’re going to talk about the little things that make this local multiplayer game a great alternative for when you and your friends don’t want to play Between Us anymore.

Originality and similarities

Like Overcooked, Fueled Up is also a race against time because your spaceship could explode at any moment. As a space mechanic, and as the name suggests, your primary goal is to keep a spaceship full of gas by repairing anything that might break down in the process. Each task takes time (displayed via a progress bar on the screen) and you’ll need to stand still at a certain point to complete it, so it’s important to learn how to prioritize. There will be pools of slime to fall into and die, sections of floors that appear and disappear, fires to put out, and “recipes” for more complex gasoline. There is no shortage of references to Overcooked.

The agency that hired you needs more and more members since the bad guys. cosmic octopuses They began attacking spaceships traveling from one part of the galaxy to another. If one of your engines fails and you can’t refuel in time, you too will be attacked by the evil giant cephalopod. Each Fueled Up level takes 2 to 3 minutes to solve, so even in the case of the nasty purple octopus, laughter almost always replaces frustration, especially if you’re playing in company.

Interesting level design

Your opponents at each level of Fueled Up will be the weather and the layout of the map. You will start with varying percentages of gasoline in your engines and will need to heal the fuel crystals to create real gasoline to keep them running. The process is pretty simple: A character takes the crystal from one room, takes it to another, tinkers with a car for a dozen seconds, and the refueling is ready to be thrown into the engine. However, spaceships that require your services, especially battered and each hides imperfections and vulnerabilities that you need to deal with to get to the workshop whole.

Among the many obstacles you’ll encounter are airlocks that have to replace batteries (if you don’t want to be launched into space), asteroids that leave a green slime that slows movements, fires, faulty generators ready to explode and much more. The Fire Line developers are dedicated to the realization of each level because rarely, when trying, have we had the feeling we’ve seen before. Some elements, like a rotating bridge, are repeated, but encountering them again never bothers, even with a previously encountered mechanic, it’s amazing how the experience manages to evolve.

rock one after another

this progression system Fueled Up is brutally linear: you have to complete the previous one to get to the next level. Each repaired spaceship will give you a numerical rating and a score between 1 and 3 stars, but these values ​​are not counted to unlock the next stage, as in Super Mario 64, for example. This system is very disappointing. can drain a party’s energy when a map is not working and playing 4. Fortunately, we always managed to get through a difficult level in 6 or 7 tries but it still required 25 minutes of explosions and fires for us. space ship.

Fueled Up describes itself as: couch co-op game and repairing spaceships together and personally is arguably the most rewarding experience. Screams for help, fires, and shipwreck asteroids carry another weight when your teammates are in elbow contact. The experience is just as fun as playing online, but the absence of matchmaking requires holding private sessions, which is always a difficult task when dealing with other people. Fortunately, Fueled Up can also be played alone: ​​you’ll have two characters you can command, one at a time, to complete your space save.

Galactic guide to mechanics

If its gameplay can make you smile, Fueled Up will attract fans with its humorous and playful atmosphere. If you like novel series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy You will feel at home in the corridors of spaceships in this game by Douglas Adams (or his movie of the same name). Due to copyright reasons, you won’t find posters that read “Dont’Panic”, but the silly, clumsy and noisy way in which the visual and sound effects are rendered is a great reference to the disorganized and meaningless space Adams has created.

The sensitive point of the artistic direction, musicIt’s certainly very repetitive and almost alienating. Especially when a level is particularly difficult, these synthesizers in the loop add a lot to the start of frustration. The increase in difficulty isn’t exactly linear, then, and has peaks of complexity and valleys of simplicity that are confusing, especially when playing solo.

However, where we find Fueled Up most lacking is tutorial screenshots those that precede levels where a new obstacle appears. They often lack instructions for solving a problem or do not explain the procedure to activate a system. It’s always nice to experience how a game works, but failing 4 times because nobody tells you how to put out a fire isn’t exactly a pleasant experience. All these flaws, or almost, are a shame given the potential of solo mode when playing in company and in person.