Putty Squad (PlayStation 4) Review

The little blue blob, Putty, slides his way through lots of different levels, with the idea being that he search for and absorb his red putty blob friends, whilst platforming, picking up collectibles, and dodging and bashing baddies. Putty's little party trick is the handy ability to stretch himself sideways and vertically, allowing him to craftily clamber onto platforms in a unique fashion. In a funny old way, it reminds of James Pond: Codename Robocod's memorable hero, who could stretch himself upwards to cling on to ceilings. Putty has the advantage of doing it in four directions, though—although only at a limited length.

Instead of all being simple left-to-right stages, Putty Squad forces players to go in all directions, sometimes starting the blob off in the middle of the stage and needing to search left and right, or climbing vertically-built levels that put the stretch ability to plenty of use. Enemies can be punched to get rid of, and crates destroyed to reveal health and items that can be used as weapons.

Unfortunately, everything gets pretty chaotic rather quickly, which is apparent in even the first few levels. Enemies can swarm around quickly, and all sorts of collision issues can occur. The controls themselves actually don't help much in situations where precision is paramount in performing jumps to other platforms, which is clearly a problem in a platforming game.

One of the main contributing issues is not being able to identify where actual platforms are, and what can be walked upon. The graphics are extremely vibrant, but the clarity between the background and platforms in the foreground that are allowed to be used is just not there. When enemies are closing in, and when finding out that what looks like a platform to climb onto is simply another part of the background after attempting to land on it, frustration creeps into play. It means jumping around constantly to try to find a real platform in many areas of a level, and worrying about whether a platform above a pit can be walked upon leads to risky jumps. Adding to this irritation, Putty Squad too quickly becomes a tedious endeavour, rendering it a game that is only going to appeal to a small group of people.