Bolt of Whalington is a new upcoming Metroidvania game by Orca Studio, with its first demo releasing today. However, ahead of this release, the team at Orca Studio was gracious enough to give us here at Netto's Game Room early access. So, after playing it all the way through, I wanted to take a little time to share my thoughts.
A Small Taste of the Story:
The story in Bolt of Whalington is one I didn't expect to love as much as I did. The demo doesn't cover a lot of it, but what was on display, I couldn't help but simply love.
The titular Bolt is a mechanic atop the Whalington, a giant ship that gets attacked and struck down by a giant robot out of nowhere. He ends up falling off the ship and needs to find a way back home while navigating hostile areas. However, Bolt is some sort of game within a game, and the fourth wall is broken every so often in ways that seem to hint that there's something bigger going on. The demo didn't get too much into that, but it definitely leaves me intrigued.
What I really loved about the story and writing however, is that the dialogue can get quite ridiculous. The game is not afraid to make fun of itself, and gets quite creative with how it goes about doing that. In fact, it made me laugh quite a bit. From the ridiculousness of one of the bosses literally putting on a fake "horse" before fighting you, to the quips the narrator makes all throughout, to the boss fights seeming to be livestreamed, to the fast travel railway system literally being popcorn rockets.
There's something deeper going on, with a disembodied voice talking to us at the start and end of the demo, hinting that not all is as it seems. Honestly, though, the nonsensical-humor-filled writing alone had me quite hooked.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is mostly the standard 2D Metroidvania fare—go around different areas, unlock different abilities, and use those abilities to reach more areas. Like other modern Metroidvanias, Bolt can also use a refillable resource to heal himself when times are tough. There are quite a few more unique mechanics, however:
The biggest one is the mech suit Bolt can use. The mech has the ability to create and use different weapons as well as grab different items and enemies, and its basic attack is stronger than Bolt's. Eventually, Bolt gets the ability to summon the mech on his own, but if the previous mech was hurt, that damage will be taken out of Bolt's maximum HP.
Another thing that is completely unique to this game—and is very much a play on the "game within a game" concept Bolt of Whalington has going for it—is this: throughout the map, you can find certain arcade machines. Activating them will let you play with certain aspects of the game, from replacing yourself with a mouse (which lets you enter narrower paths and talk to some hostile NPCs) to adding attributes to your weapons, among other fun things. You can also view the screen of any other machine you've turned on from whichever machine you're currently accessing.
However—and this is something the build I played doesn't really tell you—all of the effects and memory of which machines you turned on seem to only be available in the areas where the machines were activated. I honestly thought it was a bug at first, because I turned off the game right after moving areas, and reloading the save left me with no open machines or effects. I wish the game was clearer about that.
Bolt can also sleep in cardboard boxes scattered around the map, as well as fix his mech in certain places. I have small qualms with these as well. When sleeping in a box, the game seems to, like in classic cartoons, focus an iris circle around Bolt before he's allowed to move on. It's cute the first two or three times, but afterward, when I simply wanted to heal and move on, it just became annoying. The mech healing was annoying in another way—when you stand on a pressure plate for a short duration, it fixes the mech after a short animation. However, it does so even if the mech has taken no damage at all; there were times when I didn't even notice I was standing on it before I had to watch that animation play out.
The game has some other unique quirks that play on its digital nature, but I don't want to give away too much. The demo is quite beefy, having taken me about 2.5 hours even though I didn't complete everything in it, and there's quite a bit to discover.
Final Thoughts:
Bolt of Whalington was, admittedly, not on my radar. I had only seen screenshots, and while it looked fine enough, it didn't really seem like something that would hold my attention all the way through. However, we received the offer for the demo, and I figured since I like these types of games well enough, I might as well play through it and share my thoughts.
I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did.
The writing and situations made me laugh out loud more than once, the gameplay was quite tight, and there were some genuinely intriguing takes on the game being digital and breaking its own fourth wall in ways I haven't seen other platformers do up to this point. The demo also features quite a lot of content, with a relatively large area to explore, four bosses to fight, and a nice small reward for making it all the way to the end.
It's free, it offers a big enough chunk of the game to let you know if you'll be interested in the full release, and it's honestly very unique. I can definitely recommend giving this one a try.
Available On: PC
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