Players will need to hold both up and right arrow to accelerate, but also use the right arrow alone to steer. The most jarring are vehicle sections, which lock the camera in a diagonal view that prevent one from seeing oncoming enemies and hazards.
Checkpoints are completely inconsistent, with the protagonist sometimes reviving where they fell, cut scenes fully replaying, or an entire level starting from the beginning. Oftentimes these sequences occur without setup, leading to almost immediate death. Unfortunately, large portions of The Plane Effect revolve around fast platforming or quickly dodging obstacles and enemies. Another option is to plug in an Xbox 360 controller which will yield a somewhat more intuitive control layout. This leads to most gameplay sequences feeling incredibly awkward to maneuver. This is further exacerbated by the controls, which cannot be changed: moving is done either with arrow keys or WASD, camera tilts with the number pad (though the rotation range is limited), jump with the spacebar, dash with left shift, and slow down with left control. However, as a humble office worker, all of these movements are sluggish and unresponsive. The protagonist can move, jump, dash, or decelerate. The game never commits to all the possibilities it throws out and winds up a watered-down jumble. There are vague clues that the main character may have gone insane from guilt, within a virtual training facility, trapped in purgatory, or imagining everything due to societal pressures. His only concern is commuting back home even if that involves non-sequitur events like deep-sea diving, eating radioactive mushrooms, or being spirit-guided through a Dune-style sandworm. Cataclysmic changes in weather, flora, or terrain also don’t seem to faze him at all. The city is shown to be overrun with alien monsters, authoritarian robots, and ghostly aberrations, yet the protagonist reacts as if they are annoyances or everyday hooligans rather than otherworldly threats. The Plane Effect is an art-house project screaming “aesthetic!” from on high, that for whatever reason happens to be a video game with an unclear genre (leaning somewhat towards adventure).Īll of these vibrant scenes try to build a vast world but don’t wind up having much cohesion or linking narrative. Most of this aims to create a sense of dread, longing, or mystery. All the while, the game makes sure to show off its lush water effects, lighting design, minimalistic characters, and use of color contrast. The main character moves from one quirky cinematic set piece to the next. The Plane Effect is clearly about visuals first and gameplay second. But, with the absence of narrative text and very little spoken dialogue, it is left to the player to decide what is happening. The game quickly hints that this may be a cosmic horror, dystopian world, glitched simulation, hallucination, or nightmare. However, as the man looks out a window, an ominous red entity appears in the sky. The Plane Effect made by Studio Kiku and published by PQube follows an office worker on his way home to reunite with his wife and daughter the latter of whom loves making paper planes.
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