The debut release of a one-man studio, Klang is an action/platformer/rhythm hybrid that shoots for the moon. Questionable choices on gameplay and software levels keep it from even reaching the stars—but at least it’s pretty fun to listen to.
Klang
Developer: Tinimations
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC (Steam, browser coming soon)
Klang needs little introduction, and it knows it: The plot is explained just enough to set players on the rails and get them rolling. The player character is a stylish DJ with a rebellious streak, on the run from a group of bombastic bosses who wield boomboxes like ballistics, and must bob and weave through their all-out aural assault to survive.
Like this guy, the Groove Guru… Grooveru… Guroove… Nevermind
Translation: dodge, block, and attack in time with the music to dispatch enemies and move to the next batch. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. The HUD is a bit ambiguous when it comes to timing your moves – sometimes attacks will come out faster or slower than expected, or even stagger awkwardly towards the player at different speeds, making it hard to react.
There are also segments where no rhythmic prompts are in place to help the player, but where timing is still a factor, such as jumping across vanishing platforms or moving in time with electrical hazards switching on and off. In these areas the music can actually be a hindrance, convincing players to jump before they should, or throwing off what would normally be easy timing.
Laser walls! Wallasers! …Wallsers?
This is made worse by not-infrequent issues with stuttering, freezing, and framerate dips. Klang doesn’t require a high-end PC, per se, but performance is everything in a game this precise, and veteran players of both rhythm and platforming games playing on less expensive rigs will find themselves frustrated quickly.
The game is divided into levels, each consisting of several rhythm battles broken up by some light platforming. Players can find secret rooms that will test their skills against waves of enemies or some timed platforming challenge, but mostly this is for bragging rights; it’s easy just to barrel through the levels if you want to.
As the player clears portions of a level, their performance will be rated on an F–A scale. Grading can be confusing; I sometimes gave what I felt was a C performance and still got an A, and other times received a B for a near-perfect run of an area. On the other hand, the way grades are split up into segments makes it easy to go back and aim for high scores in those segments later.
Everyone report to the dance floor, to the dance floor
Most levels introduce a theme or new mechanic to the mix, such as running through alternating wind turbines or crossing vanishing platforms. After clearing a handful of such challenges, usually one of the bosses from the opening cutscenes will show up for a fight; this amounts to a larger, more elaborate rhythm scenario using the same mechanics as the preceding levels.
Some of these mechanics are more fun than others. Often, failing a challenge results in instant death; turbines can knock the player into lava, platforms can dump them into the abyss, and later there are even spotlight lasers that fry the player on sight. The fact that many of these deaths can result from aforementioned issues with lagging and stuttering makes it all the more infuriating.
Granted, it does look pretty sweet when it works
For a rhythm game, music is one of the most important aspects. Klang’s soundtrack…isn’t bad. It has the misfortune of being compared to Furi’s, released only a few months ago, which is similar in style but arguably much stronger. Klang’s soundtrack does its job, and would probably be more enjoyable if it weren’t the background music to so many embarrassing missteps.
The real heroes here are the sound effects, full of satisfying bwoings and byongs—and, yes, klangs—that make the whole game sound like the inner workings of a sound system. The roar of a distant crowd follows most of the player’s moves, as though they’re performing for a whole stadium of adoring fans. And obnoxious though they are, those huge insta-death lasers come down with a jagged, cascading sound that’ll make your stomach curl the first few times.
What really brings the game down then, perhaps more than anything else, is the lack of customization. The controls are weird—they have to be, for a game like this. But they also can’t be changed. There are no alternate control schemes or key bindings for mouse/key or gamepad. In fact, there are barely any in-game settings at all, even for audio and video, which is a shame since they might be enough to fix those graphical hiccups.
The lack of in-game control and graphics settings is especially damning in a game as experimental as this. No matter how it’s designed to be played, the surest way to ensure players are comfortable with the experience is to let them choose their own control scheme—and a troubleshooting FAQ, no matter how helpful, is no replacement for proper game settings.
The Final Word
Klang is one of those unfortunate cases of a great idea that fumbles in execution. Its constituent parts fight each other instead of working together, resulting in a bumpy ride, and questionable design choices on the technical level put too many layers between the player and enjoyment of the game. If you’re not a rhythm fanatic with a high-end gaming PC, best hold out for a patch.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 2 out of 5 – Poor
