Let's cut to the chase, dear readers. After all, the fact that you are reading this review implies that you all are, to some degree, interested to know whether the iOS / Android platformer known as Inertia: Escape Velocity is worth the price of admission. If you have gleaned enough information just from looking at the giant "71" near the top of the page (it really takes away the surprise, if you ask me), then good for you, but if you feel the need to know the details that justify the score, then come with me and I will show you why. 

Set in the cold, lonely vastness of space, Inertia stars Hermes, scavenger of abandoned space-junk. Through a little cutscene that can be accessed at any time from the options menu, we learn of Hermes' misfortune as his ship crashes in a massive space junkyard, leaving him with nothing but a special space suit.

Gameplay consist of nearly forty side-scrolling stages (neatly split into nine areas), which Hermes must navigate through while avoiding obstacles and gathering scrap scattered throughout (with which to repair his ship) to reach the goal located at the end. Medals are awarded if you clear each stage with all the scrap and in the allotted time. Every now and then, you will come across a bonus level where you are tasked with collecting as much scrap as possible within a thirty-second time span.

It's typical 2D platformer stuff, but you see,  Inertia: Escape Velocity comes with a twist. Known in-game as "Inertia", there is the ability to turn off gravity at any time, allowing you to move in any direction. For example, if you jump upwards, you can turn off the gravity and keep on going up. If you are running and activate it, you will be able to float across trap-laden pits you would not have been able to cross otherwise. Hit a wall, and you'll simply ricochet off. The ability to go zero-g is Inertia: Escape Velocity's central mechanic, and the levels are designed to take advantage of that, filling themselves to the brim with various obstacles to test your skill with Inertia. These obstacles range from force fields that pull you toward them or push you away to walls that'll speed you up, slow you down, or stop you completely if you bounce into them; sometimes there are barriers that can only be broken if you fly into them at a high speed. With all these obstacles in your path, it helps that the game also includes several checkpoints scattered throughout each stage, which keep you from having to continuously backtrack because you keep falling in the same trap.

With this neat twist to the 2D platformer, why then do I feel that a modest 71 is the proper score for this game? The first thing I noticed about Inertia that led to that score is the level design. After a while, I found the look of the levels tedious, and it began to become impossible to distinguish each one in my mind. Even though it's supposed to be a huge space dump, I still would have liked to have seen a bit of variety with the design.

More so than the level design, I found the gameplay itself lacking. Not that it doesn't work properly. It does, but as one who has played many a 2D platformer, there wasn't much about this game that was truly breathtaking, even with the neat zero-gravity hook. Mind you, I had fun playing  Inertia: Escape Velocity, but I just feel that the obstacles could have been a tad more creative, the levels less bland, and the gameplay a little more interesting. It also doesn't help matters much that the levels can be finished in about four minutes (sometimes less), making for a game that can be cleared in its entirety in a matter of hours. A pack of bonus levels is available, which can potentially double the length of the game, but this can only be accessed with an in-game purchase (which might not please some).

Maybe I'm just being harsh, I don't know. Maybe you would have a good amount of fun playing Inertia: Escape Velocity. The truth is, while I was far from annoyed by it, I still feel the developer could have taken the concepts at play here even further than they did. It is a shame, because the Inertia mechanic is very neat, but ultimately it's not enough to raise the game to the heights that the genre has reached.

GameDynamo's Score for Inertia: Escape Velocity (Mobile)

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