PC
I should probably be a bit embarrassed about admitting quite how long it’s taken me to complete the first of It Consumes‘ three stages. On its lowest difficulty. But I’ve had so much fun not managing it.
There are perhaps a few too many games that make their primary feature darkness, but It Consumes makes this fascinating all over again, turning light into your most precious resource. The game takes place in a pitch-black arena, lit (at first) only by the slow pulses of red light emitted from a heart you clutch in your left hand. Sending out a growing circle of vision around you, this lights up (in eerie red glows) the enemies floating toward you, such that you can blast them into oblivion with your first-person weaponry and spells. But those pulses of light don’t last long, and the enemies are unrelenting, and the reality is you’re going to die pretty quickly.
However, everything you’re doing in It Consumes is working toward unlocking something new. In your attempts at surviving this first, lengthy ordeal, every pulse emitted, shot fired, spell cast and enemy killed is chipping away at a meter that will give you access to new tactics, weapons, secondary fires and most importantly of all, ways to emit your pulses of light. And on top of that, you’re also scoring points that can be spent on a growing list of bonus abilities that tweak your next run hopefully to your advantage. It’s all about chipping away at these targets, progressing to discover your perfect combination of arms and lighting, and seeing how much farther you can reach in each new attempt.
After the Heart pulser, you get the Clock, a diamond-shaped clockwork device that automatically emits pulses of light, just so long as you keep it wound up. Winding it is done by holding down Space, and you can do that at the same time as using your mouse buttons to fire at enemies and hitting Shift to dash from attacks, but there’s a brutal delay before the pulses start emitting again. It’s all about incredibly careful timing, or indeed figuring out a way to play in the dark. The latter proves essential, as getting enough kills this way is part of unlocking the next pulser, the throwable orb…
Then there’s your Primary Fire, which starts with a rapid-fire assault of low-damage blasts, but can soon be replaced by Single Shot, more accurate, reasonably powerful attacks, but fired one at a time. Complete enough of the tasks and you’ll find out what comes after that. These are joined by Secondary Fire, more powerful and interesting attacks that are only temporarily available once you’ve shot a silver crystal in a level (and in far more complicated ways as you unlock further features), and again, these gradually unlock new forms that dramatically alter your approach. Oh, and then there are Light and Heavy spells, before you even start thinking about your list of equipped Perks.
Then there’s a third screen of unlocks that make this already incredibly hard game harder, but in ways that perhaps could be to your advantage? They’ll certainly mean you earn more for your efforts. And these pages clicked through, you’re right back in for another attempt. And another. And another. And another.
It’s all gloriously compelling, and the red-and-black theme leans in hard to the demonic nature of your enemies and the foreboding atmosphere. In a game with so much darkness, sound is essential, and It Consumes nails this. Enemies rather generously growl or holler just before attacks, which makes things far scarier, but also much more manageable.
And manageable is key: This is a game about remembering to do stuff! In any run you’ve got to think about remembering to pulse every few seconds, all while being distracted by constant barrages of enemies, but not forgetting you have those two spells on hard to help, and then to dash to avoid exploding foes (while considering your stamina), and then among all this hitting E to level up each time you gather enough XP. It’s weirdly easy to forget the latter, and I think the game would benefit from a more prominent on-screen prompt. It’s crazy how often at least one of these routine tasks would slip as I tried to stay on top of the ever-growing volume of ever-larger and more dangerous enemies.
The next day
Hello, it’s a day later and I’ve since not only completed the first of the game’s three chapters, but also the second. This is because I am amazing. Also because the second section is certainly far too easy compared to the first. But I’m very pleased to report that the third is monstrously tough in a way that feels delightful, and will keep me going for a long while longer. Let alone before I’m brave enough to start bumping up the difficulty.
That all this is yours for only £7 is all the more amazing. What a tremendous thing.
- Sublexical
- Steam
- £6.40/$8/8€
- Official Site
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