Spear Review (Xbox Series X/S & PC)

“The most broken game… an absolute disaster,” and most intentional by indie Italian developer Andrea Cavuoto and publisher Polyhedric Studio. Spear does look good, with its cute and vibrant aesthetic. In the game, you control a voiceless NPC, wielding a makeshift spear strapped to his back. With it, you fight glitches, solve puzzles, and action-platform your way through a series of challenging levels. 

But is it a must-play? The idea behind entering a broken game as the Default NPC to fix its bugs and issues definitely intrigues me. Corrupted code in the game has erased the protagonist and spawned exploding bugs and ‘fatal error’ glitches. This leaves the Default NPC with the job of eradicating the mess using nothing else than a makeshift spear. Andrea Cavuoto gives us story, puzzles, and action-platforming. But does he nail the execution? Let’s find out in our Spear review below.

Bug Troubles

Programs are probably the one thing that can still fail you, even after they’re complete. You’ll launch them to a group of beta testers, and they give feedback full of negative experiences. It doesn’t even have to be about whether the game is good or bad. But the simple fact that it’s full of bugs and is practically unplayable is enough to ditch the whole project altogether. 

This is the dilemma the programmer for Spear finds themselves in. Not the actual developer, Andrea Cavuoto, but the fictional one who’s developed a cute little puzzle platform game. But just when they’re about to launch the game, a fatal error springs up that erases the protagonist completely from the server. 

Frustrated, the developer storms out to grab a bite, leaving the NPCs fraught with fear of losing the essence of their existence for good. So, they come up with a plan. A backup plan, where an NPC called Default, whose role was never to dance in the spotlight be the one to fix the bugs and any issues stopping the game from existing long enough to launch on gaming platforms. 

It’s a pretty neat story, although not too deep or profound to significantly impact your playthrough. It’s more like a side piece to your experience, injecting little bits of humor and lighthearted themes here and there. But that alone is enough to squeeze out a few laughs from you. The fun perspectives of NPCs about the developing process and the gaming world are certainly refreshing, even when subtle and unraveled in short bursts at a time.

Depressed NPCs

I wouldn’t say the NPC you control, or the ones you meet, have any peculiar or unique personalities. They’re portrayed as “depressed” at the possibility of their program getting deleted, and their existence coming to an end. To help them cope, the Default NPC has to relocate specific objects for them throughout the Spear universe.

And hence, the developer adds a collectible gameplay element, where players have to search the world for certain items. While some are optional and can serve as additional content for multiple playthroughs, others are mandatory to proceed through future levels. This leaves you with no choice but to comb every nook and cranny, looking for the hidden items.

It can be fun tracking down hidden items, given that levels can have multiple pathways. Plus, they’re relatively semi-open areas, providing room to wander about. Still, the structure remains a 2D sidescrolling platformer, with Default moving left, right, up, and down. Worth noting is that some hidden items can be difficult to locate, and some of it has to do with the level design.

Perhaps intentional, but some of the environmental design can make it particularly difficult to spot some tucked-away objects. And because you’re often backtracking, you might be caught up with other side missions and quests that you even forget what you were tracking down in the first place. Further, returning to the NPC doesn’t help either, as they don’t repeat collectible quests to you.

Spear Master

But that’s all easily straightened out by the fun and varied gameplay design. You start off with Default running and jumping, with fluid and responsive movement. Soon after, the Spear is introduced, which looks like a broom taped to a mouse cursor arrowhead. This will be your main weapon, used to fight the glitches and bugs in the broken game. 

At first, the Spear mechanics are simple enough. Throwing it cuts through enemies with ease. But gradually, you unlock new mechanics, all at a steady pace. It’s not too difficult to learn the mechanics, with the tutorial simple enough for newbies to grasp. And by adding new mechanics, you’re often enjoying a refreshing journey across the levels. 

Soon, you’ll be able to throw the Spear and retrieve it back in your hands with your mind. You’ll be able to throw it at switches to activate levers or lifts, and solve the myriad puzzles the game has to offer. Still, the Spear can be thrown before you and used as a platform, allowing you to reach higher places. And even farther out, you can use it to glide, practically cruising through the air. 

All of these feel smooth and responsive, with tight controls. They allow you to make accurate aims and enjoy precise platforming across chasms and moving platforms. And yet, the controls aren’t always perfect, with a few scenarios when you’d miss a jump by a small shot and end up falling to your death. 

Frantic Energy

Although the scenarios when the game isn’t smooth or responsive are few and far between, they can be frustrating given how fast and frantic Spear is designed to be. Default moves pretty fast from platform to platform. And when you consider that you’re fighting enemies and evading hazards as well, it can get a little tricky to cruise through all the levels. 

I’d say Spear is fun but definitely challenging. So, any casual gamer looking for a slow and deliberate platformer can struggle a bit to adjust to the pacing. You’ll often need to react quickly to events. While at the same time, put some thought into the puzzles you come by. This can wear down anyone without quick reflexes, as the difficulty spikes are another added challenge to watch out for.

Suddenly, the difficulty in Spear can throw you off your game. You might have an easy run through a level, only to be completely stuck in the next one, searching for a hidden item, or unable to accurately time your spear throws. This results in a decent amount of trial-and-error, which can be addictive at times to try and beat the stage. But certainly not for the impatient player who’s not willing to experiment.

Yet, Spear remains stunning, with its quiet but impactful art style. It uses colors and detail in a minimalistic way, but still manages to hit home. You’ll definitely be soaked in through the levels, enjoying the ambient music playing in the background. You’ll enjoy the attention to detail of the environments you traverse, with varied themes for new levels. Overall, Spear looks polished, runs smoothly, and despite its “corrupted code” narrative, winds up rolling the curtains with a clean finish. 

Verdict

In the end, Default comes through, saving the NPCs of Spear from getting wiped out. Even though he wasn’t the original hero, he steps into his new role, reluctantly, and ends up filling the initial protagonist’s shoes pretty well. This meta-narrative story wraps up the Spear experience with a bow, reminding us that heroes are made. It adds light touches of humor and reprieve, ensuring that even through relatively challenging puzzles and obstacles, you are still enjoying a lighthearted experience.

Yet, Spear remains imperfect. The story is brief and only serviceable to a game that ends in about two hours. You can certainly squeeze out more hours of playthrough by chasing down optional missions and quests. There are a lot of secrets, which reward you with costume changes and even new filters for the game itself. It’s Spear’s saving grace that the puzzle-platforming is genuinely fun, perhaps even addictive. You constantly discover new mechanics, adding tons of use cases for your makeshift spear.

Whether combat, traversal, or puzzle-solving, your spear is the winning star of the show. Even when it looks like a broom with a cursor arrowhead, it still plays smoothly and responsively. And when there are technical issues with the accuracy or timing of your throws, they occur minimally and barely take away from the overall rewarding and fast-paced action puzzle platforming experience. If this is the by-product of one person’s beautiful and polished work, I can’t wait to see what the developer comes up with next.