Tearaway is a Whole New Kind of God Game - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 14 June 2013 / 3,467 Views
Even as a happy PS Vita owner I have to admit that the little handheld is having a rough go of it of late. I wish I could say there were some massively popular games coming soon that will save the platform, but at least I can say there are still some great games coming. Tearaway from Media Molecule is one of those games.
Tearaway is a world made of paper with a personified letter attempting to get a message to a very important person: you. The beginning of Tearaway starts with a quiz. The game asked me questions like my sex, if I’m left or right handed, and my eye/hair color. The importance of some of these was readily apparent through my demo as I used the back touch screen to push my fingers through the paper world of Tearaway and destroy some enemies before my little Iota character could advance. The fingers that popped up through the paper roughly matched my skin tone and were all obviously from the right hand even if I used my left, since I’d told Tearaway I was right handed.
Walking around in Iota’s little world is quite a strange experience, as the little paper plants seem to breathe inward and outward and roads unfurl before you. At first Iota has next to no abilities of his own, and he can only walk around and talk to other paper residents. Iota’s goal is to make it to the sun, which embodies the player and has your face plastered right in it thanks to the forward facing camera on the PSVita. On his way to the forest to try and find a high spot to reach the sun Iota was stopped by a squirrel who asked the paper man if his big friend (me) could make him a crown. So I set to work dragging and dropping different colored paper squares, cutting shapes out of them and dragging away the pieces of paper I didn’t want until I had a serviceable crown for the king of all squirrels. My artistic skills might be questionable but I was happy with how my creation ended up and the touch screen worked well once I’d experimented enough to get my bearings. Later the squirrel even asked for a picture of him in his new crown, and I happily obliged.
As mentioned before, at first Iota had no abilities other than talking and picking up objects. When enemies showed up I could dodge their attacks and then pick them up to throw and destroy them, but the first platform I came to was a complete conundrum since the X button did nothing. Iota had no jumping ability of his own. The only means of vertical locomotion were drums which would sound off when I tapped the back touch screen and send Iota soaring through the air. There were paper scraps and presents to collect that earned me decorations, which I assume will function in some way similar to the decorations in LittleBigPlanet titles.
The integration of touch screen mechanics was impressive, from the small things like opening presents to records that you could stop which would stop some platforms from moving (as well as the music). It all fit perfectly with the idea of controlling Iota while also being a character in the game yourself. Eventually Iota made it to a shrine which he was told would help him to get even higher than the highest point in the forest. The shrine was basically just a big X button and it propelled Iota towards the sun a tiny way but not nearly far enough. After that the NPC nearby told Iota that he couldn’t depend on my help forever and had to learn to use his own legs and suddenly Iota could jump by pressing the X button.
Obviously that was only the very beginning of Tearaway but I’m pretty excited to see more. The Sony representatives nearby reminded me that the message that Iota delivers will be unique for every person that plays it and I’ll be curious to see what decides that. Overall, Tearaway has a wonderful presentation both visually and aurally, with interesting gameplay ideas that actually make use of what makes the PSVita unique without seeming hackneyed. I’m extremely excited to see what else the game has in store. You’ll all have to let me know what your message ends up being when Tearaway releases on PSVita October 26th.
