Soft Body

Quick Score: 5/5

Notes: Severely underrated game. All aspects of the game are extremely polished and to my knowledge the gameplay itself is 1 of a kind. Difficulty gets decently high but never insane, and if you so desire there are assist options to help.

My only issue with the game is that I had a crashing issue upon beating hard mode which wouldn't let me progress to hard+, requiring me to manually wipe my save and playthrough it again. There is actually an option to instantly unlock all modes, though it said it disables "trophies" (achievements?) so i didnt want to risk it. Luckily, unlocking hard mode again only took about 20 minutes. Aside from that though I have no complaints.

An unique game. Control two dots to avoid hazard and maybe escort a ball to the end point. levels with rotating lines give a unique experience.

Amazingly unique game which will make your brain ache. Control two snakes at once as you dodge and maneuver through the levels, fulfilling the objectives. Very hard to explain how it works, but very intuitive to pick up and figure out what each level is asking of you. Check it out!

This game is a fucking masterpiece.
It may seem simple and boring but it was made with true craftsmanship.
An amazing sensory experience for the body and psyche.
True art. A hidden gem.

I got this game outside of steam for free and I bought it here just to write this review.

I did a little bit of snooping research and found out that most people who leave positive reviews here and write that they feel like "mental ninjas for controlling two snakes at a time" or whatever haven't actually completed the gamemode where they are supposed to do that. They say it's incredibly fun, spend 30 more minutes playing, fail completely and then never launch Soft Body again.

Why? Because this is the most challenging, but also the most tedious game I have ever laid my hands on. The developer asks you to literally change how your brain works in order to learn to control two things at the same time while dodging millions of projectiles – a daunting task that can take dozens of hours spent in agony and frustration – and what does he offer in return?

Nothing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There is no music whatsoever, only lacklustre sound effects – so much for the musical world promised on the Store Page. There are neither screenshots nor any artwork in the Community Hub, as you won't find anything even a tiny bit meaningful or interesting to look at while playing. And when you finally manage to beat Hard Game, you'll get your much-desired reward – a simple level you need to complete, now at glorious 5 frames per second. Yes, the FPS drops in Soft Body happen all the time – FPS drops in a top-down "snake" kind of game. Never thought I'd live to see it, but here we are.

So, people launch Soft Body, maybe complete Soft Game and a couple of Hard Game levels. In good spirits and full of bravado, our mental ninjas leave reviews and write that they feel like "LITERAL GODS" now – yes, it is a quote. They come back a bit later to try more levels and quickly realise how immense the challenge actually is and how much time they will need to invest to overcome it. Seeing that there is virtually no substance, nothing to keep them engaged, nothing to motivate them to press forward, they quickly give up – and that's the end of the story.

Don't get me wrong, I love challenging games – I climbed Bennett Foddy's mountain 50 times, for goodness' sake – but a game cannot be just a test of skills. If I give you a shovel and order to dig a giant hole in the ground for no reason, you will barely approach the task with enthusiasm. However, if we both know there's a pot of gold waiting for you somewhere below, if we play nice music and maybe have a deeply personal conversation along the way, then this hole-digging business suddenly won't seem so off-putting anymore. This is Soft Body and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy – both games were made by a single developer with an incredible challenge in mind, but only one of them did it right.

Amongst the many trends that have arisen alongside the massive proliferation of the indie market, simple visuals stands out as one of the most popular. Used properly, you can get something like Nidhogg, which is all about style and visual communication over detail or fidelity. Used improperly, you get something like Soft Body, which combines the simple look with colourful, vibrant visuals that look like an acid trip; one whose luminous stretches of pigment serve only to distract from how shallow and underdeveloped the game’s mechanics are.

The big hook is that we simultaneously control two snakes - one with each control stick on the controller. Each snake is able to influence different parts of the environment by touching them, and each level requires that certain tasks be completed. For instance, touching uncoloured parts of the environment with the left-stick snake colours them, and each uncoloured area needs to be coloured for the level to be finished. The right-stick snake, meanwhile, can destroy hostile entities and move balls along preset pathways, each of which needs to be completed to proceed. The visuals impede all of these tasks. Levels change between a variety of colours, so it’s inherently difficult to figure out what needs to be coloured to proceed. Levels are often punctuated by a variety of different-coloured lines which could equally be an enemy, a harmless piece of wall, or one of the aforementioned tracks.

The underlying concept is good. The snakes are fluid and responsive to control and expertly manipulating them to simultaneously keep both out of harm’s way really is a lot of fun. The problem is, the fun parts of Soft Body are far, far removed from what you actually have to do to progress. You only lose the game if the left snake is hit by a projectile, so why not just park that in the corner and do all the right-stick’s tasks first, then merge them back together to do the left-stick’s tasks? There’s no unity of design between the concept and the game, so whilst you can control two things at once, the game never really seems to require you to do so for any reason other than efficiency - efficiency which is moot in the face of how much harder the game becomes when you do this. It’s a promising idea that ultimately feels like another indie story of “I have a concept, now what?”, with the ‘what’ here being marketed as unrelenting difficulty that doesn’t actually have the balls to be that hard. Why control two things at once when only one of them matters?

As of this writing, I'm at level 16 in Hard Game, which about 1/3 through the game.

First off, this is not a puzzle game. At its core, this is an action game with a lot of depth and devilishly clever level design. The demo only scratches the surface.

Say, what's that one thing again, that people think they're good at but are actually universally terrible at?

Right, multitasking. And this game is a multitasking bullet hell. Let me rephrase that. This is a mild bullet hell that takes advantage of "finger dyslexia" to trip you up. The controls are impeccable, the level design is evil, and the difficulty is brutal.

This game is so damn good. The level design and controls are as smooth as an ice cold glass of Dr. Pepper on a summer day. It's not meant to be an easy game, and the difficulty curve of Soft Game leaves something to be desired, but Hard Game is definitely where Soft Body shines. Tasks that are infuriatingly difficult at first eventually lighten up, only to be stacked on top of one another in rapid succession. There's no feeling better than grinding out later-game levels and then returning to earlier ones just to find that you've become a LITERAL GOD all of a sudden. Add on to that the Halloween levels featuring not a single bullets, and multiple secrets I still haven't even discovered the meaning of yet, and you've got yourself a game that's worth far more than its asking price. 100% recommended buy.

While some of the 'interludes' just felt like they were wasting my time, the actual levels of Soft Body are excellently designed and great fun.

clunky controlls.
to expensiv for short gameplay. maybe worth 99 cents

This game is wonderful. If you like the look of it buy it. There's a demo. Just support an amazing indie game already so that more like this can be made.

A nice little game with real good mechanics and sound design. The main mode is not very long, but there are plenty of harder levels to enjoy. Those harder levels gave me no enjoyment, but they did snap my brain in half. Still, had fun.

This game makes you painfully aware of thje fact that you have two half-brains, and they're not always great at working together. The difficulty curve is very reasonable though, and eventually you'll be controlling two snakes completely independently of each other, and feeling like a mental ninja for it.

I've never had this kind of experience in a game before, and I highly recommend it.

its like patting your head and rubbing your stomach but also at the same time using your feet to pat your stomach and rub your head

A really clever puzzle game that is well paced and lots of fun

Soft Body is a hidden gem, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure why this title didn't get more attention as of this point (9/16). While the asking price seems steep, there is a ton of top-quality gameplay and fun to be had here.

Essentially, this is a wonderful mashup of the puzzle and bullet hell genres. While it works best with a controller, a keyboard is great too (no need for that mouse). The trailer doesn't do it justice. I had to play this to get that 'aha' moment of how smooth it is. The levels are very well designed, and the mechanic works really well. There are several different puzzle mechanisms that are revealed to you over time.

Pros:
+Wonderful fresh mechanic that comes out of mixing puzzle elements with bullet hell
+Controller or keyboard works great (no need for mouse)
+Learning curve ramps up at a very doable rate; I haven't rage quit, yet the puzzles are still quite rewarding to complete
+Music and atmosphere are really cool
+New Game+ features
+Definately addicting!

Cons:
-This is just my experience and I'm not sure if it is real or not, but it seems to play slightly slower on my gaming rig compared with my laptop, but to be honest, I'm ok with that ;)

I'm hooked. This is totally worth full price if you are a fan of bullet hell and puzzle games. Not only does it do something fresh, but it does it really well.

So I spent ~80$ in the Steam sales and the game I'm the most happy about having purchased so far is the one that didn't even have a discount. You know. That's how I roll.

Soft Body is fun and engaging and well-designed.

It's also quite difficult to describe. Its official website says the game is "a meditative action game where you control two beautiful, gooey snakes at the same time." I've seen people naming it a "bullet hell" multiple times. And technically, you could call it that; but for me, it doesn't feel right. I can't relate to the word "hell" when it comes to this game. This isn't hell. This is different.

The thing is: I'm occasionally bad at games, and always terrible at losing them. Seriously. I'm an awful loser. I get mad. I shout at the screen. I ragequit. I'm not proud of it, but most of the time, that's how it goes: it doesn't sit well with me when a game forces me to do the same thing all over again with little to no reward.

In Soft Body I enjoy getting hit and dying because that means I get to experience the level again from the beginning. I get so caught in the flow of each level I just wish I could experience it on loop mode, with enemies constantly respawning.

The order in which the levels are presented kind of feels arbitrary at first, and sometimes you may find yourself finishing a stage and wondering, "that's it?". But it's also key for the experience. Some of them are more organic - not necesarily easy, but more "natural" to play and move - and some of them are kind of merciless, forcing you to be in a constant state of tension. The juxtaposition of the "easy" levels and the harder levels is perfectly planned to equilibrate the moments when you're keeping your guard up, playing very quietly and carefuly, and the moments in which you're just relaxing and wandering, watching the two little snakes painting the world around you in vibrant colors.

It's the perfect game for those times when you don't want to think about anything, and the days you want to think about everything, too. I'm currently struggling a bit with the hard mode ♥

tldr; Really cool immersive artsy experience. I love it.

more at @roguequit

What right does this game have to call itself "meditative?" I certainly don't feel relaxed. I feel like my mind is strangling itself with a wire. The learning curve is not so much steep as it is endless. I have been playing for only about three hours and I feel like a two-year-old desperately fighting against his own undeveloped motor skills. My thumbs hurt. My hands hurt.

Anyway, you should buy this game.

- Learn to play the game
- got stuck at a level
- my 9 year old nieces want to try
- beat level on first try

10/10 would get rekt by 9 year old again!

A great game for anybody who likes any of the following: ambient music, bullet hells, a sense of whimsy and something differerent, cool shaders, and neat games.

The main game (soft game) was shorter than i expected, but there's still the soft game+ and the hard game modes if i want to do more.