Call me a masochist, but I love a precision platformer with tons of spikes. The more spikes, the better. Perfecting the timing of your actions and finally reaching the end of the level is always satisfying. If that sounds like your type of thing, you should know about Love Eternal, an upcoming 2D platformer with a neat gravity-flipping gimmick, which promises to challenge fans of the genre.
During PAX West 2024, we checked out Love Eternal developed by brlka -- a small studio comprising two siblings and one composer -- and published by Ysbyrd Games. This horror platformer is sure to frighten you in more ways than one, so check out our thoughts below.
Love Eternal is a Challenging and Slightly Disturbing Platformer
I'll cut to the chase -- Love Eternal is one of the most smooth, responsive platformers I've played in quite some time. Every action felt immediate and any mistake I made was not the fault of the game, but rather my own. There's nothing slippery or weird about how the character moves, it's just tuned to damn near perfection.
It's a game that eases you into platforming challenges. Spikes and laser gates bar the way forward, but you are an individual with the ability to change gravity. Therefore, you can flip yourself, but only once. Your feet have to hit solid ground to flip again, so that's where part of the challenge is.
Soon enough, you discover red gems within a level that will allow you to flip in the air a second time, which adds a whole new layer to the platforming. There's some momentum to the gravity flip, so do it too early (or too late) and you might hit some spikes, causing you to restart. Thankfully, restarts feel instantaneous, allowing for plenty of seamless trial and error.
Using the very air itself as your means to travel rather than focusing wholly on skills like wall-jumps makes this a bit more of a standout among its peers, though I'm sure there are many more obstacles to see. Despite the spikes and lasers, I took quickly to Love Eternal and entered a state of flow, only for my demo to end sooner than I'd hoped.
There's a bit more to Love Eternal than solid platforming. There's this horror element that I'm very intrigued by. I'm not the biggest horror fan, but I can't think of many examples that combine this with the platforming genre.
There are some narrative elements featuring our character -- Maya -- and her family, though they inexplicably disappear during what would otherwise be a normal family dinner. Emerging from a hallway to find her dining room abandoned, she ventures out into the world and finds an oppressive, cave-like environment instead.
The pixel art shows sketched lines and exudes an almost disturbing darkness to it. In one instance at the end of the demo, Maya finds her dad, only for him to sprout these horrific arms and legs, like some sort of nightmare. It's animated to perfection despite the character sprites being small compared to the rest of the game, so its look is executed very well, indeed.
Even when it comes to indies, I try to be aware of future releases that might become something big. Love Eternal has that formula, something that very well may rival the likes of Super Meat Boy and Celeste in popularity. I can't wait to see just what this small development team is made of.
Love Eternal was previewed during PAX West 2024.
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Austin cut his teeth writing various fan-fiction stories on the RuneScape forums when he was in elementary school. Later on, he developed a deep love for… More about Austin
