Element4l

It's a good game. Simple and elegant. I like the music too.

worst sonic game

Easy gameplay. Great soundtrack and overall very entertaining.

insanely difficult, couldnt complete it yet but.. the music slaps and its veeery satisfying once you become one with the flow of the game

ive had this game for years, and always come back to it after a year or two while browsing my library. i downloaded the soundtrack separately even, because its such a perfect music scape for this game. enjoy!

A fun 2D platformer sort of game. The mechanics are simple but really effective, which is part of what makes the game fun.

Great Game with a very fresh and unique Gameplay Loved the Soundtrack. Was one of my first Indie games and since then I am hooked.

Even with all it has going for it, I was disappointed by Element4l and do not recommend buying it.

Pros:
The unique concept of the game is its biggest draw. You are an elemental, and your movement is entirely tied to the elemental form you pick at any given moment. Rock falls down, air goes up, fire goes to the right, ice falls slowly, but slides along the ground. It's pretty simple, and the art style and music are very cute and simplistic as well. It all ties together in a pretty little package. The game devs are an indie-development team, which is also a big deal. Supporting indie developers helps produce really unique games like this. These perks are deceiving, however.

Cons:
The game is very very short, basic, and has an extremely low margin for error. You die if you touch most surfaces while in the air or fire forms, but you need to maintain your momentum throughout the level or you'll get stuck and likely die as a result when you next change into them. This means that you frustratingly have to die over and over again trying to replicate exactly what the developers intended for you to do.

Respawning after you die starts you with no momentum: if you die on your first try through an obstacle, you are way less likely to make it through on any subsequent tries from the respawn location because you lack the needed speed to complete some obstacles. There is a ghost that will fly ahead of you and show you what you're supposed to do if you can't figure out the right key combinations, but it only serves to show you what you're not doing right, as there are almost no other ways of accomplishing what the ghost does at certain points. Your timing has to be so precise that clicking a transform button one too many times or just a second off can result in you dying. You also have a stamina bar that limits your ability to transform, capping the number of options and timing for your movements even further in an already restrictive game. It's like the platforming equivalent of being forced through a hedge maze made of barbed wire. I did not like it.

I rate Element4l a 2/5: a niche or below average purchase. For me it was both: niche and below average. The game does such a good job atmospherically, but it's biggest problem is inherent in its design: it's frustrating and has an extremely precise and unforgiving margin for error. It is also very short: most of the time I spent playing it was because of how many times I died repeating the same puzzles over and over, and doesn't represent the true length of the game. Unless you are fond of the art style and music of the game, or are of an extremely patient and determined disposition and enjoy running your head at walls, I wouldn't recommend buying it.

Peacefull and poetic yet challenging, great music, great ambiance, overall a great game.
Also the little comments that we enconter across our journey are pretty funny and fit well in the game !

While I like the aesthetics and the idea of the controls I just found it too brutally unfair. Don't let the lighthearted tone fool you, this is Super Meat Boy levels of rage. Watching the tutorial guy breeze through the levels at speeds and dexterity that are impossible to mimic was the most frustrating.

Still, unique gameplay, great soundtrack, I'll still recommend the game even if I did end it in a ragequit 3/4 through.

Beautiful game with a really nice atmosphere. Lovely soundtrack too. Can get a little frustrating at times but not so much that it makes you want to stop playing it.

This game is beautiful, original and has an awesome soundtrack. However it is hard.
Once you don't click into the flow of a level its just furstrating to repeat a specific sequence. And sometimes you cannot approach a problem with a different combination of elements but only with a good timing.

Unexpectedly hard.

This game is not recommended for a chilly weekend evening. I had to sweat a little.
Otherwise it is a really good indie.

This was an impulse purchase, but I'm glad I did. So, so good!

To begin with the art, it's striking yet mellow at the same time. The elements are so cute with their little eyes, I feel so bad when I kill them! Which I do a lot. The little text that appears occasionally is always witty and very in-keeping with the game's aesthetics and overall feel. The core mechanic itself is intruiging and new; I'm a big fan of the rare combination of unique idea and good physics engine.

The music might not be to everyone's taste, I personally love it, but just play other music. Element4l looks good enough to be played in silence or with alternate music.

It's like Bit.Trip Runner but you're not on the same sort of rail. It's as difficult and frustrating at points, but I love that in a game. The levels are huge, and there's quite a few of them to increase the replay value.

Please get it to support the great mind(s) behind this!

'Element4l' is an atmospheric puzzle platformer with four elements (ice, air, rock and fire).

Desc: You will get an introduction into the game which is really needed. First of all you have the element air, as second element you will get ice, next one is rock and at last fire. You will switch through the elements with the arrow keys. Every change will lower your endurance except the change to ice, which doesn't cost any endurance. The endurance will reload automatically over a short periode of time. If your endurance is too low you can't change into another element. You have always to use the environment around you to finish the level.

For example: You have to get through two half-pipes in front of you. Therefore you will change to rock to raise your fall speed and just before you hit the entrance of the first half-pipe you will change to ice to slide through it. After you exit the half-pipe you will change to air to fly above the second half-pipe to repeat the actions again. This means that you have to react often very very fast to get the right speed/timing to fly/roll/slide to the next objective.

There are calm passages like slowly floating as air over lava or wet passages like sliding as ice through water or rolling down a track in a minecart as rock or bouncing as fire from one lava pit to another.

Yeah, that's it.

Pros:
+ great game concept (like rock-paper-scissors)
+ well designed physic engine
+ tutorial available
+ lovely designed levels (with usage of the rock-paper-scissors principle)
+ non-frustrating autosave system
+ atmospheric style
+ good artwork and nice particle effects
+ awesome sound scenery with calm appropriate music
+ help system (never used)
+ funny text messages with referrals to other games/movies (like 'The Goonies', 'Harry Potter', 'Indiana Jones' or RPGs)
+ good chosen quotes (displayed at the beginning of each level)
(+ steam achievements)

Cons:
- some parts of some levels are hard as hell (in one level I needed over 100 respawns -.-)
- no story, not even an abstract story
(- no demo)

Recommended, even if it's not on sale, because it's an fantastic game concept, which was lovely designed into a really enjoyable calm atmosphere.

9/10

A shame this game doesn't get more attention. It's beautifully done in both gameplay and atmosphere. The soundtrack is bloody amazing and goes along really well with the game.

It's not really long, then again, it's just got the right length in my opinion ... it doesn't overstay its welcome. You control a character (or rather 4) which can switch between fire, water (ice), earth (stone) and air (bubble). You race the tracks/levels with your character and need to switch quickly between the 4 forms in order to gain speed (as an ice cube), jump over cliffs (as fire ball), ascend (as an air bubble) and roll down hills or destroy obstacles (as stone). Since some of the tracks are really fast paced you will have some tough passages to overcome. Thankfully the checkpoints are well placed. It's really like TRIALS but in cute, haha. But like in Trials you want to finish the track withouth 'dying' and reach the end in one go.

A relaxing piece of gaming entertainment with a great atmosphere. Fair price, especially since you get the OST with the purchase of the game as well. What I liked especially were the comments of the developer which pop up occasionally in the game. Movie references and overall fun comments.

10/10 control a cute Super-Skrull to rule the tracks

EDIT: I forgot to mention that besides its fluffy cute look, it's beastly hard and quite challenging at times. However, all the whining in certain reviews and therefore negative ratings don't do ELEMENT4L justice - it's very doable and a lot of fun.

I would recommend this game, but not to anybody.

Pros :
- I do like the little comments you can read throughout the journey
- Graphics and music are OK, in fact I thought the game was a relaxing one at the beginning
- the rules are simples : you move by changing yourself into another element, with arrow keys. It can be disturbing at the beginning, but then it's okay

Cons :
- Good game for rage quiting... The levels are far far too difficults, even in "easier" mode (aka "this is too difficult for me")
- Finding and getting losts soulsparks ? impossible !! as it can be difficult to reach the way out...
- this game requires strong agility skills : if you change yourself too early or too late... you'll die (or you'll be stuck)

Thus, I would recommend this game for those who do love challenging and difficult game.

This game has a very nice and beautiful atmosphere to it and is charming in quite a few ways, but it's rather difficult to see enjoyment in it when it is as challenging as it is. There are things about this game that I like, but I found myself getting rather frustrated at certain points that require more or less an exact number of button pushes at the most perfect time to be able to pass them. In other words, though I appreciate the themery of the game, it doesn't pair up well with the demands of how perfectly timed every single one of your button pushes have to be.

Came for the great music, stayed for the awesome, hard and charming gameplay.
Element4l is a platformer that has an incredible music and smooth gameplay, it takes some time to the gameplay, but it is worth it. Seeing as you seamlessly go with the flow of the stage is rewarding. The game will also make you smile at some moments, as Mr.Smooth says some funny things trough the game, which is something I rarely find in games.

The game itself can be rushed from the beggining to the credits in 4-6 hours but, where the game really shines is when you try to go for the gold medals and master the stages, this added to me possibly another 6-8 hours of fun. Also if you like collectables there are some in the game.

By the way, all the music from the game is good, and there are twelve of them!!!
The only bad thing I found in the game is that the one I loved the most (Mother Nature), was the least one played in :(. And also there where like two or three checkpoints that were bad placed as they made it difficult for you to continue trough the stage (Because they put you in a way that you did not have enough momentum for certain action).

Beside from that, this is a game that I really remember and will remember with special care.

So after I finally played through the game, nearly broke my keyboard and I have to say that this is not the fun I expected. Don't get me wrong, the design is great, music is nice, idea is fun. And at the beginning everything is fine with the game, but at some point you die and die and die and die. I love difficult games, I played through Meat boy and They will bleed pixels and died over and over again while having the time of my life. But somehow dying in Element4l is just no fun. You don't learn from death you just try till you beat the hard part. But oh wait, after this part there is another nearly impossible part that kills you 30 times. And so you suffer through the level until you finally reach the end.
Perhaps this is just not the game for me, but if you like hart platformers and think about buying this think twice about it.

Until Steam put in a "has potential" review rating, I'll give this game a yes rating (provided you can get it on sale). I like the art style, the music is lovely and it's a neat idea for a game. It is a little difficult, but that's intended and it's nowhere near as hard as Super Meat Boy.

However for me there seem to be some underlying game logic bugs that frustrated me through out. Collision detection is inconsistent (walls vs energy occur at different distances), momentum is randomly lost on element change and it appears to sometimes suffer from input lag. For a game relying on precision movement, sometimes it isn't slick enough.

When the game comes together it's very satisfying, I just wish I could trust it to do so.

Starts easy and gets harder each level. But if you have figured it out its realy fun to slide around and try to get maximum speed :)

This game's cute character, good music and quirky dialogue will put a smile on your face as you're playing. The whole game is just awesome.

Element4l lets you control the four elements in this little platform game. You can switch between rock, fire, ice and wind on the fly while moving through a level. A fun idea, but there are a lot of trial-and-error moments.

It frustrated me more than I had fun with it which isn't a good sign. But if you do finish a (part of the) level without messing things up it feels really satisfying.

Also, it doesn't look bad, a bit simplistic and minimalistic maybe, but I liked it anyway. And the music was actually quite good.

In other words: an average game, but with heart.

[Rating: 71/100]