Picture: MATT MAKES GAMES - celestegame.com INTRODUCTION
You are Madeline, a young woman on the journey for the summit of Mount Celeste. Taking a break from live, out to get a clear head, to get yourself together and maybe even to find your true self.
Sounds Familiar? Don’t we all need a break from all our Problems some times? Not to run away but to get a better picture from another perspective? Well maybe Madeline also wants to prove herself that she is strong and can reach the summit of a Mountain without a problem. You will find out, that nothing is at it seems. On Mount Celeste things work differently Peoples inner Demons can become very real up here…
GAMEPLAY
When starting the game, Celeste feels like any other platformer but you’ll learn that you found something special here in the first minute of the game already. Madeline not only can jump and climb, she can also dash! This simple mechanic can be used in a multitude of ways and there is multiple techniques to master.
Every Level or Zone will introduce you to a new mechanic that it will teach you and then keeps building on your new knowledge resulting in one-room Platform puzzles, getting harder procedurally until you reach the end of the level. That way every new Zone is not necessarily harder than the previous one, but will always introduce another interesting tech to master always making you wanting to go on and get just one checkpoint farther, or just to finish that one zone. A vicious cycle of time sink quality.
Depending on how you want to play, there is three things to collect.
Strawberries (which are basically there to measure your progress through the level (and a measurement for you if you want to 100% the game). Strawberries are not without a use though and will slightly affect the ending. (Oh great, now you will try to get them all, right? )
A Blue Heart (which is hidden very well)
And the fabled B-Side Cassette tapes, which will unlock a twisted and harder version of the zone you did find them in. You can always access these levels from the main menu as well, so you don’t have to them right there. (some of them are really hard, so hard you would benefit from finishing the game first before doing them.)
Rumor has it, that there is a legendary C-Side Tape hidden in these as well…
Every B-Side level also has another heart to find in it which serves as the goal of the level.
When dying you won’t have to restart the whole section, you will be neatly teleported to where you entered the room so your flow is never interrupted and you can just go on and solve your current platform puzzle without worrying too much if you could do the previous one again.
Checkpoints throughout the level will save your progress, so make sure to get to one if you want to stop playing the game!
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
GRAPHICS
Celeste has beautiful 8-bit Graphics during its levels and a nice hand-drawn scene at the end of every level. Each Zone has its own distinct style, old city ruins, cloudy mountain ridges, castles, stormy outer parts and caves. It’s all there and it all looks so beautiful!
SOUND / MUSIC
The Sound and more specifically the music of Celeste is one of the most important parts of the game.
Every Zone has its own musical theme ranging from happy to dreamy and sometimes mysterious and melancholic styles. The Music has a lot of synth and chip tune elements with a driving beat beneath, that will just make you push on no matter how often you died already.
The Soundtrack for Celeste was composed by Lena Raine, which you may already know for her work on other indie titles and for Guild Wars 2. Celeste’s music for the first time in my life made me wanting to play a game just by myself. No interferences where allowed when playing celeste.
I think I am not alone saying, the sound track was what made me push on during these hard sections of the levels especially the last few checkpoints during the climb of the summit.
I am pretty sure, without Lena Raines musical talent, Celeste would not be the great game it is.
If that doesn’t tell you something about the quality of the Soundtrack, I don’t know what will.
CONCLUSION
Celeste is a game that does not only teach you platforming, it also tells you a thrilling and powerful story about overcoming your fears worries, making peace with your inner demons / bad sides and overcoming them to become a better person. You are in for a nice 10-hour ride (+ 100 of Hours B and C-SIDES, prepare to get salty though! ) for your first playthrough. The game can be speed run in under an hour if you are up to it which makes it replayable as well, for a quick run in between chores!
Celeste’s Story and interesting mechanics together with its Soundtrack make it a Gold Standard Platforming Title straight away. This one is a no-brainer! A must have in your collection and a great game to pass time! Celeste shows that you don’t need a million-dollar budget to make a great game!
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