I had earlier mentioned wanting to do a review of Iji, Daniel Remar’s excellent free independent game, even though it had been released quite a while ago. However, a new version was released yesterday, so I’m going to use that opportunity and pretend that this is a review of the new version. Yeah.
Iji tells a story that on its surface seems familiar – Earth is invaded by aliens called the Tasen, who use their Alpha Strike weapon to destroy almost all life on the planet. It’s up to your character, Iji, a girl enhanced with experimental nanotechnology that gives her superhuman abilities, to get through the Tasen army, discover the true extent of her powers, and act as the final voice of humanity. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, right? But yet it’s so much more than that. Iji is not a trained soldier or bounty hunter, but simply a normal girl caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her objective is not to mindlessly slaughter all the Tasen in a fit of revenge, but to convince them to leave so humanity can rebuild in peace. And the Tasen, as despicable as their actions were, might not be the bloodthirsty aggressors they first seem. The story, told through cut scenes, character dialogs, and in-game logbooks, turns out to be much deeper than you anticipate.
What blows me away about Iji is the sheer variety of things to do. The game features a familiar experience system; picking up “nanofields” scattered around the levels or left over from dead enemies gives you experience points, and when you go up a level, you obtain a skill point that can go into one of seven skills, including maximum health, the ability to handle more powerful weapons, and the skill to hack into locked doors and crates of bonus items. This means there are so many ways to take on the challenges that Iji throws at you; for instance, in one level, Iji must hack into two computers to open a security door, each one guarded by an Elite soldier who is strong enough to absorb almost anything that Iji throws at him, and packs the most powerful weapon in the game to boot. However, with the right weaponry, these Elite soldiers may be relatively easy to defeat. Or, if Iji’s skill in kicking is high enough, she can kick down a separate door and skip this sequence entirely. Additionally, the game constantly tracks your actions, especially how many enemies you kill, and has characters and logbooks respond differently. There are a few bonuses in store for players who avoid killing, which is an interesting tradeoff since it’s harder to get nanofields. It’s even possible to make it through the game without killing anyone at all (with its own bonus, of course), but the twist is that forsaking weapons entirely is not the way to do this.
Iji packs an almost uncountable number of secrets into its fantastically designed levels. Each level contains at least three cleverly hidden secret items which require you to explore the level and know a bit more about Iji’s abilities and weaponry than the average player. In addition to the 8 normal weapons in the game, and the 8 upgraded weapons which you get by hacking the normal weapons, there are at least 3 secret weapons. There are two secret sectors, and a secret miniboss who gives you an absolutely hysterical item that you have to see to believe. This is in addition to the large number of item caches which are only accessible with the right weapons and skills, and the incalculably vast number of little Easter eggs, in-jokes, and funny logbook messages. Top this with the wide array of possible playing styles and the four difficulty levels, each with their own rewards, and you’ll find something new every time you play it. Daniel Remar is also still updating the game, even adding a few new secrets with each version (although at this point it’s done except for major bugfixes). It’s like he’s daring you to just play this game once and leave it alone. I guarantee you won’t be able to.
Iji’s graphics are a throwback to the days of 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, as is common among independent games. Yet they are clearly lovingly detailed and crafted, not simply drawn in MS Paint in five minutes. I only have two complaints about the graphics: first, it’s sometimes difficult to tell which enemy type is which until you get familiar with them, a problem which arises full-force later in the game. Secondly, characters often only have one animation for each action. It gets distracting when you knock down three Soldiers at once, only to see them all perform the exact same animation to fly backwards, hit the ground, and pull themselves up, perfectly synchronized down to the pixel. Iji also features a gripping, powerful original soundtrack which is almost worth a download on its own. In particular, the music for boss fights makes them all a transcendental, heart-pounding experience, despite their flaws (which I’ll get into later).
I do have to say that Iji’s combat feels a bit dissatisfying. Fighting in Iji essentially takes place in one dimension; almost all of your weapons and your enemies’ weapons only shoot directly in front of you. Iji also cannot aim upwards or shoot while in the air or ducking. While this makes it easier for pacifists to escape from enemy fire more easily, it’s somewhat dissatisfying to take the effort to obtain all the weapons, only to still be unable to hit an enemy six feet above you, or to attack an enemy without getting exposed yourself. It does make fighting more strategic, but there’s a feeling that two-dimensional combat along the lines of Mega Man might’ve been more exciting, especially given the number of large multi-screen rooms in the game. Additionally, a lot of the bosses, especially towards the end of the game, force you to rely on puzzles and gimmicks rather than firepower to defeat them. While this mechanic makes sense given the wide variety of paths in the game – after all, the bosses have to be beatable no matter what skills Iji has, including if she’s only able to use the most basic weapons – it is carried too far. The last two bosses are essentially unbeatable without gimmicks, and the game actually rewards you with a secret powerup for defeating one boss without using the gimmick. (Why do so many of these high-ranking aliens insist on putting convenient deathtraps in their lairs, anyway?) I also didn’t think the character of Iji was that well-written, at least for the “killer” path.
All in all though, Iji is a great example of why indie games are so great. Why would you spend several hundred dollars on a modern game console or a high-powered gaming computer and accessories, then another fifty or sixty for a new game that just seems like a flashier retread of an existing game, when you can find so many more interesting and innovative things for free or cheap? The advent of the Internet and of powerful tools such as Game Maker and Flash allows young, aspiring game designers to put together truly new experiences in a fraction of the time of a mainstream game, and make them available to a wide audience just as easily. It’s good for everyone, so check it out!