Game Reviews

Don't Let Go review - An endless faller with real panache

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iOS
| Don't Let Go
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Don't Let Go review - An endless faller with real panache
|
iOS
| Don't Let Go

As video game settings go, what could be more panic-inducing than running through a dark zombie-filled forest or away from a giant boulder?

How about falling through an endless void? Yeah, that'll do it.

That's the premise of Don't Let Go, an endless runner (or rather, faller) of some poise and focus.

What a dive

As each round starts, your twin characters find themselves skydiving through space. Yep, there's another poor sucker along for the ride, and by joining hands you form a curious multi-jointed snake of sorts.

Holding the left-hand button causes your two-man team to rotate anti-clockwise, while holding the button the right spins you the other way. You'll need to do this, too, because there are a whole bunch of objects in your flightpath, from spiked balls to partially constructed sky platforms.

Occasionally you'll encounter a ring-shaped platform that can't be squeezed past by spinning alone. Here you need to hold both buttons, which will cause your skydivers to form up lean forwards.

The latter move saps some of your stamina bar, however, so you'll need to go easy - as well as recovering some of your energy in the form of floating pick-ups.

Head over heels

That's really all there is to Don't Let Go, but its appeal doesn't really lie in what you're doing. It's how you go about it.

This is a a well built game that really nails the tension and elation of hurtling through the sky. It's in the believably human animation and inertia of your skydivers, and the streaking particle effect that breaks up the blank void you're falling through.

Another thing that helps with this atmosphere is the sound - a low-key but perpetually driving techno track that plays over the sound of whistling wind and the odd plaintive piano phrase.

It really is very effective, and well worth plugging in a set of headphones for.

Don't Let Go doesn't reinvent the endless runner. It doesn't really do anything particularly new. But it approaches this familiar source material with a rare sense of style and a tactile control system. Sometimes that's enough.

Don't Let Go review - An endless faller with real panache

A stylish endless faller that makes up for a lack of anything particularly new with tactile controls and a pumping soundtrack
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.