Silver Grapple

A fun adventure with a unique rope swinging mechanic. I found this because I loved the Umihara Kawase series, and while I would say this plays very differently, it was still a lot of fun. It's difficult though, and it's an unusual form of platforming gameplay, but if you're up for that I think it's a good time.

dont know how more people havent played this but if you have the opportunity to get the game then please get it.
its like super meat boy with a grapple and with a little bit of metroidvania exploring.
10/10

After playing this game, I never want to see another grappling hook again in my entire life. Other than that, this game was really something special! The music was phenomenal, the story was interesting, and the satisfaction of finally beating the final level brought me to tears! I mean seriously! The length of the game isn't that long, but the number of deaths I reached was in the THOUSANDS! Frustratingly great game!

I believe Silver Grappler deserves way more hype than it got. The small amount of reviews and one total walkthrough online do not reflect the game’s quality. In silver grapple, you play as a janitor in a scientific research building where an earthquake occurs. it’s your job to round up any other survivors and make your way out of the building. The main mechanic is the grappling hook, which allows you to swing on certain walls. The momentum of this feels amazing, playing this game makes you really feel like Spider-Man. This game reminds me a lot of Celeste. One very simple concept, but used in many very clever ways with new mechanics in each area. It’s also really hard (I died like 4500 times over the whole game), but you restart at the beginning of each area like Celeste, allowing you to get right back into the action. What silver grapple does differently, is that it’s a metrodivania. There is a big focus on exploration, and gaining upgrades to use in previous areas. A lot of the game is fairly linear platforming, but unlocking things and having to go back made me feel smart. I really liked getting a new upgrade, getting to experiment with the controls of the new mechanic, and then go back to where I remembered needing it earlier. It keeps the game fresh, but still keeps the focus on the grappling hook. On the other hand, this brings in one of my gripes with the game: there’s no way to mark the map. Many times I found things to go back to, but I had no way to remember where they were. This made me heavily reliant on the one walkthrough that exists. Another thing that made exploration difficult is that sometimes it’s hard to tell if certain elements are in the background or not. More than once, I consulted the walkthrough only to find out the next place I had to go was a door in a room I had already explored but didn’t see because it was a black door over a black background. Also the map is incredibly expansive, which makes backtracking tricky. But overall, these issues were minor compared to my enjoyment throughout the rest of the play though. The game also has a pretty interesting story (at least for what it needs to be, it does take a backseat to the gameplay.) There’s an interesting twist, two different endings, and even a side romance. You get to learn a lot more about what’s going on with the plethora of notebooks you can collect, which are a fun distraction. All this together, makes me really sad for the creator. Because it’s clear he put a lot of love into this game, but it didn’t get a lot of attention. Apparently I have 16 hours logged into the game, but some of that might have been when I left the game on to look up a walkthrough. If you like Celeste or even just tough platformers I would highly suggest it.

Also, here’s how to get the good ending because I found that no one discloses that information and you’d have to play the entire game over again if you wanted to get it: When Zach says he needs to go and find someone, you need to save the person he goes to find
If you would like to know where that is, look here: In the hospital, you go into the door with the cross above it. Then you go into the room with the elevator and take it down. You’ll need the red, yellow, and blue keycards to open doors, and then you’ll come across that character.

Ratings:
[table]
[tr]
[td]Story[/td]
[td]8/10[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Gameplay[/td]
[td]8.5/10[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Music[/td]
[td]8/10[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Exploration[/td]
[td]6/10[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Overall[/td]
[td]8/10[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

it's all fun and games until you find out this platformer is hella difficult and that you know the fact that hard platformers are not your specialty and oh god that's a lot of deaths

Excellent platformer that requires quick reflexes. The precision platforming reminds me of Celeste. Very much enjoyed this game.

overall a really fun platformer, great art and music too,,,;
there were a few really frustrating parts (especially closer to the end) but it's still absolutely worth itttttttt

First of, I want to point out that it really pains me to click the thumbs-down button on this game. I really wanted to like it and I did enjoy it for quite some time. The Cave Story like graphics and story telling, my unfounded love for Grappling Hooks. It seemed like the perfect game for me! Unfortunately, it soon turns into a massive exercise in frustration. Obviously you want your game to get more challenging as time goes on, but there's hard platforming and there's actively spiting your player.

The camera is too close to your character, which makes it hard to judge where you're falling, where you're grappling and most importantly, when you have to grapple. As an example, the game makes you jump very high on a jump pad, so you falling back down can build up momentum. It then expects you, as you're falling down at full speed and can't see where exactly you're going, to grapple on to a one or two tile high wall and release the grapple button after the exact amount of milliseconds to not either smash against the ceiling (and lose all your momentum in the process) or slingshot yourself at a downwards angle which also results in your death.

Thankfully, the checkpoints are placed reasonably fairly, so retrying the jump isn't awful. However, there's only so many times I want to bang my head against the wall (in this game, sometimes literally) before I get tired and frustrated with something. Later on, the game requires you to make multi part jumps. Build up momentum, slingshot yourself upwards without losing too much momentum, grapple onto the next thing and so on and so forth. You get the idea. After retrying the first part of the jump 20 times, I'm so surprised to finally make it through that first part that I completely fumble or miss the next part, making me start the whole ordeal from the beginning.

After about 100 tries I finally manage to chain all the required parts together and make it through the room. There's definitely a feeling of elation and happiness when you finally make it but for me, it was more relief to finally be done with that crap than anything else. If you ask me to redo that room again, it'll probably take me another 100 tries. I never feel like I get better or learn anything, it more or less feels like chance and luck to finally make it through a room.

I'm currently stuck on a room where two lasers overlap and I seriously have no clue whatsoever what I'm doing wrong or what to do to get past it. And frankly, at this point I've lost almost all motivation to try.

If you have an extremely high tolerance for frustration and don't mind retrying things up to 100+ times, feel free to get this game. If you don't, I'd stay away.

Edit: I also want to mention that the lack of resources or help for this game don't do it any favors whatsoever. This is obviously not the developers fault at all, but there's hardly any discussion in the Steam Forums, there's no YouTube videos (except for a couple of speedruns that skip like half the game) and there's no Community Guides either. Just looking up how to get through a room is next to impossible so unless you figure stuff out yourself, you are completely and utterly SOL.

An overlooked gem. Challenging but fair platforming with tight controls and liberal checkpoints to minimize frustration, similar to Celeste. Metroidvania-flavored level design and upgrades, storytelling and presentation reminiscent of Cave Story. And a really good grappling hook.

A seriously underated game with tight controls and great use of physics. Also I really like games with grapple mechanics (Umihara Kawase) so I might be a bit biased.

This game definitely is a hidden gem in my Steam Library as of now. I was absolutely floored by the sheer amount of content in this game made, pretty much by a single guy. As others have pointed out, the game feels very inspired by Cave Story, but it is also all in its own.

The grappling mechanic feels great, and whever you finish a tricky section it feels good, because the controls are extremely tight and work well with the physics the developer worked out.

The story is nuanced and told through journal entries, which is really cool and adds another layer of depth to the game, trying to collect them all, because some are in out of the way, hard to reach spots.

The music is spot fucking on and every area worked well in both aesthetic and music, and the melody pretty much being somewhere in all of the tracks added a lot of cohesion

The difficulty is not for the faint of heart, this game is not easy. As another reviewer said, while being very trial and error-y, it's also about having inputs that sync up right to make everything flow.

Overall this game is really, really, really good, and definitely worth looking into. I know I'm gonna be speedrunning this, so, take that as you will.

Awesome game! The rope swinging is so satisfying, and it feels great to land those difficult jumps. If you liked cavestory you will love the art style, music and mood. Really enjoyable so far, cant wait to finish it.

More game than you're expecting to get, hard in an intriguing and fun way. Excellent checkpointing, though note that you'll NEED it for some of the challenges (much like VVVVVV, there's a few really tough rooms / challenges you'll need to get the good ending).

If you ever wanted more Bionic Commando out of Bionic Commando, this is your game.

Goodness, where do I begin?

Grappling in Silver Grapple is as fun as it looks. The controls are tight and polished, allowing you to a large amount of control over your character's position and speed.

The level design in Silver Grapple is equally excellent. Paired with tight controls and satisfying grappling physics, the levels test both your skill and knowledge of game the physics. The levels are always fair to the player. Instantaneous respawns, generous checkpoints, and the ability to warp back to your checkpoint if death is inevitable all help keep the game pace very fast. Deaths are not punishing, but expect to fail repeatedly. When levels are properly executed, at it's best Silver Grapple makes you feel like a proffesional acrobat.

The story and lore in the game were deep enough to get me invested, although are completely optional and secondary to the gameplay. The ost in Silver Grapple is also worth mentioning, as the chiptune soundtrack accompanying the gameplay was very pleasing to listen to. On a visual standpoint, the game environments aren't the flashiest or most well developed. However, I don't believe this to take much from game enjoyability, as the player animations are smooth and satisfying to watch again and again.

Silver Grapple is the most suprising indie game I've seen released this year. If you enjoy difficult yet rewarding platforms like Super Meat Boy, or if the trailer interests you in any way, I certainly reccomend the purchase.

A great little puzzle-platformer, akin to Portal where half the challenge is figuring out HOW to traverse the area and the other half is having the reflexes to do so.

A downside to the retro/simplistic art style is several areas in the beginning stages look so alike that it’s easy to get lost or accidentally retread places and puzzles you don’t need to.

If you’re into hard as balls Puzzle Platformers and/or pretending to be Spider-man this is worth a buy.

This game needs more appreciation and love. This game is absolutely amazing. This game came right out of nowhere for me and blew each and every one of my expectations away. This game is a masterpiece on all fronts. The controls feel so tight and the environments are beautiful. The characters have personality and even the music does too. Exploration and success is rewarding, and the story is intriguing. The level design is so well put together and all of the little helpful tools in a platformer that didn't NEED to be in the game are in the game to generally improve the player's experience and reduce backtracking & visibility errors (graphical and level design-al). There are so many cool mechanics that are introduced using a nice difficulty curve. Was totally worth my $15. 9.5/10

If you like challenging platformers with good momentum and puzzles I would highly recommend this game!

The grappling hook is a lot of fun to use, there is a good sense of flow and momentum which is very satisfying. The dificulty curve is quite spikey, there are a hanful of sections I got stuck on and had to perservere for a while. You die a lot and restart fast which reminds me of games like VVVVVV and Super Meat Boy. The world is interconnected like a metroidvania where you access new areas that can be teleported back later on. You unlock new abilities which compound with the grappling hook to create variety in puzzles and challenges which keep you on your toes, learning new tricks at a steady pace. Even at the end after you've got all the skills most of the screens are based around the grappling hook since most of the abilities are context based.

Very good game, interesting concept and gameplay mechanics. One criticism is that there are no key changeable key binders, but other than that the game is very fun.

Such a disappointment. The game starts really cool with that Cave Story vibe thanks to the graphics and some really nice music. I was enjoying till the gameplay started. First of all the grapple dosnt work very good with the keys i was expecting using the mouse; but anyway thats not an important problem at least to me ( i beat The End is Nigh at 152%... i mean im good at platform games ). The REAL problem: camera is too close to the character for this kind of gameplay. You cant see where you are going to grapple or where you are going to fall, so its basically trial and error. I thought using the map will help but its really hard to calculate distances with it and even if it was useful thats not the kind of gameplay im looking for.

I am usually a person who waits for reviews before i take the plunge on a new game but this looked like a lot of fun so i decided to try my luck, and to me it was well worth it.

Love the music, the art is, as someone already aptly pointed out, reminicent of Cave Story, and the Gameplay is really quite fun.
Bottom line is this: If you are like me and enjoy fluid platfromers that think outside of the usual run and leap that our Italian Plumber found so succesful, then you willl like this.
The movement of walking and jumping themseleves are a bit sluggish but that disapears the moment you begin to swing and slide.
It IS on the difficult side but i find the placement of the respawn spots and how quickly you do so, to mitigate the inevitable irratation that comes from dying hundreds of times.
On the technical side of things, I have a pretty weak gaming rig and have yet to find any serious problems.

So yes pick it up and be the best hooker you can be!
(couldnt resist making this reveiw without at least one such comment)


EDIT:

So after sitting down and really devoting some time to this Ive decided to add a few things:

One: This is not a spiderman, or flinthook type game. You will not be easily swinging back and forth like Tarzan on speed. You will die alot. Then you will probably die some more, and finally to top it all off, you will yell in anguished rage, cursing in tongues you never knew existed, as you die many many more times after that.

This is a game of Planning and Reflexes.
There is no RNGeebus here, so be sure that when you die, it will be all your fault.

Two: I want to issue a warning to anyone thinking of picking this up: the video you see showcasing the gameplay is someone having a GREAT PLAYTHROUGH.
At times you will be fighting for small sections at a time, and you will be playing the same part at times over and over again .

But therein lies the reward: Accomplishment.....the feeling that you actually overcame something challenging.

This game doesnt give out participation medals, it doesnt hold your hand and remind you how much Mommy loves you. Its a tough but fair game, and players who like games Like They Bleed Pixels, or 1001 Spikes would feel right at home here.