Environmental Station Alpha

Over the years i heard many good things about this game. They were right. It's an awesome metroidvania.

If you are playing it on Linux. You have to turn on Steam input and pick the official Controller setting. Otherwise it will have some issues.

It's been a great time, I played this once a long time ago without diving into the post game, but after the C++ port, I dove deep into it, and man, for every layer I uncovered, there was two more. This is one of my favorite games up there with, funny enough, Baba is You and Noita. Extremely excited for ESA 2, I've been following Hempuli's blogs, I'm very excited to see what he makes
nearly 200%, but still haven't figured out what's up with the 8 pillars outside the Temple? It didn't have letters on it before. Haven't been able to figure this one out...

there were two reasons why i was excited to play this game, the metroidvania aspect (i.e. good exploration) and the cryptic puzzle aspect (i.e. stuff like fez, tunic, etc) you're promised to see in the post game.

to get the good stuff out of the way, the art, music, and overall atmosphere are great. many players pointed out that the style sometimes makes it hard to tell apart background from foreground or what's breakable or not, but i don't think it's a deal-breaker and if you play the game for long enough you get used to it. boss fights are good *sometimes*

now for the bad stuff. unfortunately this game has a bit of a problem with bullshit, or as i like to call it, "abysmal dogshit". the exploration isn't good, or rather the game heavily discourages it. the progression is entirely linear, and any time you pick up an ability and decide to backtrack to the few gates for it you've seen before, chances are there is going to be another gate AFTER it for an ability you don't yet have. that's abysmal dogshit. i loved the first two or so hours but after that pretty much every new area made me feel miserable and want to put down the game, as it would either have enemies upon enemies that deal triple damage (which was completely disproportionate to the health and abilities i had), that take a bajillion hits to kill and yet respawn when you leave the room, or literally the most obnoxious precision platforming. that's abysmal dogshit. then there are the bosses, which i mostly have positive feelings about. but the game isn't always generous enough to give you a save right before the boss room, so with most bosses every time you die you need to deal with the aforementioned abysmal dogshit enemies or do more abysmal dogshit parkour while backtracking, and sometimes even wait for the animations of the boss itself to finish, before you can actually try again. that's abysmal dogshit. the final boss (for the first ending) is probably by far the worst offender, it's not even that hard of a fight but the fact that i have to go through 40~ seconds of what i can only call padding to retry it really turned me off. another boss in the game DOES have a save right before it, but there's no way to return from it, so you have to beat it, and if you're under-equipped, well, fuck you i guess. i've seen one person online say this made them quit the game because they just couldn't beat it and were effectively soft-locked.

at some point i began questioning why i'm even doing this to myself. perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel was the post game. but here's the thing: to keep it relatively short and spoiler free, a good chunk of it so far consisted of having to scour the map which is obviously not fun. furthermore, after looking up a guide (after a few days i got sort of stuck with no idea what to do next), it seems like i actually put the game in an inconsistent state (by being too smart?) which leads me to believe the post-game is just poorly designed. finally, as i've learned from that same guide, the next step in the post game was actually even more abysmal dogshit platforming, the abysmalest of dogshits in the entire game by far, in a location that i was very desperate to avoid this entire time, which made me want and ultimately decide to put down the game for good.

a lot of these criticisms make me think that perhaps the game just hasn't aged well. i can't help but feel that "it's just like these other, newer games i've played, but worse". you know, it's like that popular metroidvania everyone glazes but without the good exploration, with only abysmal dogshit platforming and enemy design left. it's like that other "metroidbrainia" that came out may last year, just with infinitely more map scouring and infinitely less rewards for doing so.

i can only recommend environmental station alpha if you're a masochist.

Environmental Station Alpha excels as a classic metroidvania but has even more to offer to dedicated players.

Visually, ESA has very appealing 8-bit style retro graphics. They mostly work well, except for some spots with visual clutter that should have been more readable.

The soundtrack is one of the game's highs. It invokes the 32-bit PSX vibes, is very memorable, and creates a thick, mysterious atmosphere. Highlights include the cave theme and the jungle theme.

The story is rather basic but enough to engage the player. The endings are probably not what you'd expect. None of them.

As per gameplay, there are two distinct aspects to ESA. At surface level, it is a great metroidvania inspired by the original Super Metroid featuring elaborate level design, clever if predictable powerups, distinct enemies, well-integrated speedrunning skips and challenging boss fights - a lot of them. It is not perfect but crafted with a lot of care and attention to detail.

Then, there is an expansive late game that elevates ESA to a metatroid / metroidbrainia status. It is not the most mind-blowing thing ever, nor will it cater to every player. Still, it has some inventive puzzle design sure to tickle your FEZ / Animal Well receptors. Most importantly, barring some of the final challenges, ESA does a decent job at conveying its logic to the player. Some reviewers criticize the need to poke every wall for secrets, completely missing the point that the game explicitly reveals the location of all hidden rooms at certain points. Very few puzzles are community-level ARG stuff, so the game is almost perfectly solvable on your own.

Completion-wise, there is some padding involved, such as the challenge mode and the boss rush. These don't add anything fun to the game, so I didn't care about them. Those are not covered by achievements, unlike the speedrun which I could do without. At least speedrunning the game involves some fun sequence breaking, so it was a net positive even if it meant the game had slightly overstayed its welcome.

Highly recommended for both metroid abd metatroid lovers. Hope for a sequel some day.

Final score: 8,1

This game simply isn't fun. Exhibit A: Only 6.5% of its players have cleared the first boss.

There's A LOT of online hype among the "games being pointlessly hard means they're GOOD!" crew, but what none of these fanboys will tell that next to nothing in the playthrough will be joyful or bring accomplishment: It'll just be a chore, through and through.

Consider yourself warned: I too was warned and ignored it because "I'M A BIG BOY GAMER!", thus throwing my time and money away.

Incredible atmosphere, incredible vibes. The soundtrack IS AMAZING. buy it now

Phenomenal game with one of the best cryptic puzzle/arg adjacent experiences i've seen. The metroidvania part of it is really fun, it really emulates the brutal yet fair difficulty of older metroid games and even pumps it up a notch or two. The more mystery/puzzle part of it is also really interesting and fun, and surprisingly approachable too! Ive played games that got too complex too quickly in those meta-puzzle aspects (like animal well) that ended up pushing me away from the game dissatisfied rather than help me enjoy it but ESα manages to use them at just the right moment in just the right way to make the exploration deeply enjoyable.
If youre looking for a good, decently long metroidvania to sink your teeth in this is a great game to buy on sale. If you want an experience of unearthing something dead, buried and lost to time (like in animal well, tunic or even fez) then this game is a must play.

Completed in January of 2025. Normal difficulty, 1st ending, all upgrades, health expansions, and diskettes, 99% file. There are additional endings & a cryptic postgame (reminds me of the anti-cube half of Fez or of the crazier stuff in Animal Well).

As a longtime Metroidvania fan, loved it.

Cohesive visual style, great atmosphere, sustained tension, excellent soundtrack, superb & challenging bossfights, intricate brain-bending map design, fundamentally solid yet slightly unorthodox movement & navigation... and ultimately, impressive follow-through on the premise. Perfect on the SteamDeck.

Arvi Teikari (Baba is You) really is an extraordinary developer. Here's a link a personal tierlist I maintain for 2D Metroidvania (the point is not to get too obsessive about the rankings but to help curious genre newcomers find good games)

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198318795999/images/?appid=767

Note: ESA is more pre-occupied with exploration and world-design than it is with flashy combat or character customization. If you play Metroidvania games for a feeling of downhill snowballing (getting overwhelmingly powerful by finding all the upgrades), consider playing on the Easy difficulty, which is less intense but far from a cakewalk.

Game good

I really wanted to like this game since I love metroidvanias but I'd have to say after getting about 2/3s of the way through it, I wasn't enjoying it. It was more tedious than fun. I feel that in the almost decade since this game was released, the formula has really been improved upon and the flaws of this game really show. It just has so many small things that make the game frustrating and annoying. It commits the cardinal sin of adding useless platforming challenges before bosses and if you die you have to do them again. It's fine the first few times but after a while it gets boring. Also, although I love the pixel graphics, it isn't easy to understand what you can and can't walkthrough / destroy. Also the lack of progression really felt strong. What I love in this genre is to see something blocking my path and then realising later I now have the tools to go attempt it. This game really blocks you out of that and when you try and backtrack some other thing blocks your path. That isn't fun, that's annoying. I want to feel clever to realise I can use ability X in room Y.

I've heard there is some good postgame content, but I can't be bothered to finish the game to see it. I didn't find the difficulty challenging but the small annoyances just added up to me having to look up walkthroughs which is a killer in this genre. Probably when it was released this was innovative but now in 2025, it looks quaint and unpolished.

My favorite metroidvania of the past decade. It's much closer to original Metroid than Hollow Knight. This game has great music, progression and movement. And very low resolution pixel art, maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but in my opinion it works great here.

Very nice soundtrack and atmosphere, I love sci-fi metroidvania games : )

Note: there is a known issue with this game constantly holding a vertical input when using a controller, which led to me procrastinating playing this game despite owning it for several years. There are community guides on how to get Steam to interpret your inputs differently for this game only. This might sound intimidating to people who aren't used to adjusting these settings, but it's pretty painless, and I think the game feels much better when played with a controller.

ESA is a gorgeous retro vania with immersive environments, fun powerups, and interesting boss fights. The love for Metroid on display here is very clear, and it will likely scratch a nostalgic itch for fans, but it doesn't prevent the game from standing on its own. Some parts can be very challenging but still quite achievable.

When Animal Well came out, a lot of aspects reminded me of this game, including the increasingly-challenging late-game secrets. So if you enjoy Animal Well but ALSO want a game where you shoot things, this is an easy recommendation.

The pixelart is stunning, the soundtrack is wonderful.

Propeller / 10

As a huge fan of the Metroid series, this game scratches the itch I've been having in such a good way. Highly recommend!

Better than Animal Well.
Лучше чем Animal Well.

This is my favourite metroidvania of all time. I played it 8 years ago, and only recently realized I had forgotten most of it, so I'm replaying it 'for the first time' again, and blown away by how deep it goes.

The movement is great, the bosses are fun, and the puzzles are really mind-bending. I recommend this game to every metroidvania player.

I tried really hard to like this game, but it frustrated me too many times. First, the hook shot is quite finicky, which sucks because you have to use it a LOT. Like, constantly. After falling during a very long hook shot sequence ten times in a row and having to start all over again, you start to get annoyed.

Second, the combat is brutal, and though there is a difficulty selector, you can't change it after creating your save file, so you'd better hope you guessed the correct difficulty before you started playing the game. I got soft locked when I saved my game at a point that forces you to fight the Plague Nest, and I couldn't beat him, so now I can't go anywhere.

Third, there just aren't enough pickups. A few paltry health upgrades here and there; after playing for five hours I'd only gone from 10 -> 20 health, and barely any weapon upgrades. Fixing this problem would probably also fix the combat brutality problem.

Lastly, I think this game blows right past "inspired by Super Metroid" and straight into "as close to a knockoff of Super Metroid as Nintendo's lawyers would allow". Many of the enemies, including some bosses, are complete copies of SM. Many of the areas have exactly the same themes and item requirements as SM. This game isn't a love letter to SM, it's a photograph of it. While it does add some of its own unique elements, it doesn't add enough -- certainly not enough to make up for the aforementioned problems.

quite frustrating combat

My favorite metroidvania and prolly one of my favorite games on steam. An actual pain in the ass to get the full completion% and once I did I trolled via triggering the normal ending and had to get it pretty much all over again but 0 regrets.

It is a monumental game that predicted climate change in advance. It's a shame I found out too late.

Nope. There are far better metroidvanias out there. This game was only good during a time where metroid fans were starved for something. Anything. This game may have a bunch of decent post-game stuff but holy hell this is a game made for people who refuse to grow with time and just wants a time machine to their childhood. Bad graphics, terrible level design, janky hook shot, bad boss designs... I can't think of a single redeeming quality for this trash.

Possibly the best Metroid-like I've played, and the soundtrack by Noby is really good. Lots of secrets and exploration

Super neat! Clever, generous, and tidy. Thx for deck compatibility.

a very good Metroidvania, and a even better cryptic puzzler. If you enjoyed Animal well or La-Mulana, you will enjoy this game.

Imagine Super Metroid, but more compact. Also the game has a pretty big postgame.

Hit the artery when it comes to metroidvania and 8 bit. Definetly a recommend!!

Its just a bit too punishing early on to make it feel worth playing. In a sea of metroivanias this game no longer stands out as something that needs to be played when you can have a much better time with a dozen others. I hear the secrets are worth it, and that you can grow more accustomed to the brutal difficulty and complete lack of pickups, and the hookshot is the best that I have seen implemented in any metroidvania, but still. Those are not enough to get me to want to finish a game when surviving the run back to a save point AFTER beating a boss is a challenge.

There are good things in this game, but after 9 years there are also better games.

edit: if anyone wants just an easier time, you can edit how much health you have in the save file with a plain text editor.

<3

I fucking LOVE the finish

this is a very tough (maybe cause im playing with keyboard lmao) and beautiful game, the controls are AMAZING and the soundtrack slaps, even though I havent beaten this game yet I love it to bits

One of the best. The atmosphere is unbeatable.

My most returned to modern release Metroidvania. There is just always more to find and more to improve at. I can't recommend this game enough for long time MV fans.

I liked it, but I really hate that the developer added achievements to a 9 year old game 1 week after I completed it and spent ages finding all secrets. It's a difficult game with a lot of repetition through areas and not something I want to repeat for years, if ever. Could have at least said you were adding achievements, why keep it a secret if you knew you were working on it...

exactly what i want in a metroidvania. good combat, but the exploration makes it great. aided by an atmospheric soundtrack, the graphical simplicity serves to amplify the specific metroidvania concepts that i find most enjoyable. highly recommend.

additionally, the recent updates make it great on the deck, which is how i prefer playing it.

Is it good in 2024 ?
Yes.

Banger

Does not respect your time.

Good game but not great.

this game is really great, its a bit rough especially with some of the bosses which are.... a bit too difficult for what its worth, but its a fun metroidvania. id compare it to regular metroid in difficulty as opposed to super metroid, so take that as you will

y

Great game with a ton of hidden stuff in the endgame. The graphics certainly aren't for everyone, and the sheer number of people on here complaining about not being able to tell if a wall is destructible or not really makes me curious as to how many Metroidvanias they've played. You're going to want to shoot EVERYTHING. There's even something that seems insignificant at first, but rewards you with 1% completion once you shoot it. Shoot. Everything.

Some of the power ups feel insignificant, but some of them feel incredible to get. The bosses in the main game are fair, if not a bit on the easy side, but the endgame bosses certainly provide a challenge.

THERE ARE SEQUENCE BREAKS. A couple of which you can do unintentionally, though it would take some real effort. Navigation starts out a little rough but about halfway through the game, backtracking gets significantly easier. Which is good, because you're going to miss things. There are hints that will pop up mentioning where to find things and you will realize that you have already been there before. Some of these will be frustrating, unfortunately.

TL;DR: Fun gameplay low res graphics that make things tricky sometimes. End game vvv good get all the endings.

i didn't expect there to be so much post-game content. 5 different endings, most of which are basically giant treasure hunts that span across the entire map. i admit i had to rely on guides a lot for the puzzles, but it was still fun to try and figure things out, if a little tedious just because of all the back and forths.

overall it's a great game, and i hope the sequel will come out eventually.

the only thing i truly didn't like is the outpost, a post-game area. there's a type of enemy there that punishes you for using charged shots and dashing, which at that point in the game feels incredibly frustrating and breaks the flow. the boss was genuinely awful. thankfully i only ever needed to go back there once for a secret.

Obviously this is a good game, a lot of people like it. But even with all those reviews I was on the fence as there were some people who had some valid critique that was holding me back. If this is you let me give you a clear picture.

My take is this:
This game is minimalistic and focuses on a very narrow experience. It feels like a mash of Metroid (1 on NES), Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Hear me out: Very minimalistic graphics, only 4 ways to point your blaster, limited movement options like Metroid (1), you do have a map, but you are definitely looking in every corner to find your way forward. Some parts you gotta keep your full ability pool in mind, I myself had to look up one or two times how to progress ( swing up into the ceiling hole ). Feels like Super Metroid. But the movement and combat is quite responsive and precise, like Metroid Fusion. The themes also feel very metroid like. Definitely an homage to the metroid franchise. The bosses are a standout. And the limited hp pool works well to keep every enemy a threat. You can only find hp upgrades to boost your maximum hp to 200% base value. In stark contrast with Metroid games where early enemies are no threat later in the game, and your hp pool is vast. I would say this game is definitely worth it if you want an homage to Metroid. If you are more interested in a newer metroidvania, I would wait for a sale. As this does feel proper oldschool, in gameplay and graphics.

Some counter to critiques I saw on other reviews:
- Foreground background hard to read:
Definitely true in some cases, where there are actual sprites that are even on top of your character, but never really that bad that it gets you stuck. It is used to hide some secret passages, so always try the corners of the screen.
- Entire game fully linear:
So the upgrade and the locks do have a "fixed" sequence. But having to find these places, as well as finding the optional items makes this game not feel that linear. The same as Super Metroid I would say. Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission were definitely more linear. But many items can be gotten earlier than intended. Maybe you cant break the game quite as much as Super Metroid. But to say its linear is a long stretch.
- Combat is not rewarding:
So combat is indeed not rewarding in the term of health or items/exp, but I think the experience is shaped around that. Every enemy is a threat to your health bar. The combat feels good. You just do not get actual rewards from killing enemies.

This game is basically a love letter to the original NES Metroid. It hews pretty closely to the idea of its inspiration without feeling like a retread. There are some parts that I found difficult but nothing felt unfair. Unlike Metroid, the game does provide hints about where you need to go to make progress.

The only negative thing I can say about this game is that the background graphics are extremely cluttered, to the point that I routinely have trouble distinguishing between foreground and background elements. Even so, I think it's a very good game and worth your time if the concept intrigues you.

This game really nails the atmosphere. The pixel art and music create this immersive, almost haunting vibe that just pulls you in. The bosses are a blast too—challenging but fun to figure out. A definitive yes.

Very boring and ugly in the extreme, there are actual Commodore 64 titles that look better than this game. Weird control scheme always seems to fk with my muscle memory in ways that feel stupid. (I start the game by pressing A on my controller, but in game X is the 'accept/ok' button except when using save points, then it's the B button. wtf who made this scheme?

I hear the post game is 'the shit' and is amazing, but the journey there is too boring to stomach.

Some games invoke the past, for stylistic reasons. I feel like this game is stuck in the past.

this is harder than elden ring

This game is a great pixel art Metroidivania . It really shows what is possible with such limited sprites . It took a sec to get used to distinguishing the visuals , but now I really love the style . Gameplay feels good and the bosses present a challenge , but are beatable .

It's better than Animal Well. There, I said it, if you don't like it, you can fucking fight me.

Seriously though, Environmental Station Alpha is a great little metroidvania. It may look and seem simple, with its low fidelity graphics, chip tunes and stripped down moveset, but there are surprising depths hidden within. There are platforming sections that more than rival Hollow Knight's path of pain and boss fights that can be teeth-grindingly tricky, but it manages to avoid feeling unfair most of the time. Save points are always close to a boss arena and without health pickups or ammo to manage, the management of your health is entirely down to playing well. ESA is one of the trickier metroidvanias I've played and there were more than a few instances of me swearing a lot and trying my best not to throw my controller out the window, but I don't feel as negatively looking back on those moments as I thought. It was always my fault, as cliched a defense as that may be.

ESA is structured pretty well too. Its early hours are paced brilliantly, as each powerup feels pretty monumental in how many new routes it opens up. The pace stumbles a bit in the middle, as the station's layout shifts in surprising but confusing ways, but the postgame more than makes up for it with great puzzles that avoid the trap of thinking more cryptic = more good. The world design is cracking too, iterating on the core concept of Metroid Fusion but making it flow better than that game (as fun as it was) ever did. Each area feels distinct and the music is fantastic, so navigation remains pretty easy. Each room has a memorable layout and individual vibe and it's the biggest thing that helps in finding all the hidden doohickeys.

I won't say much more for fear of spoiling some of ESA's hidden treats, but all in all it's a great example of the genre. You can really get out of it however much you like, either a great five hour micro-metroid, or a 25 hour puzzling behemoth that takes up three straight days of free time (me). Definitely a criminally hidden gem.

Don't like the platforming. Hook shot feels atrocious, and you're given zero clues how it actually works beyond "press button to do thing." The game also never clearly communicates which blocks can be broken by your weapon and which can't be; they all look identical. I'm sure some people would say that games shouldn't "hand-hold" players, and I agree, but there's a difference between not hand-holding and telling them absolutely nothing. Since I don't feel like looking up a Youtube video every 5 minutes, I'm throwing this game into my "couldn't finish" collection.

Finally found some friends!! Never thought I'd be so




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