Element4l

Element4l is an indie platform game with an emphasis on continuity, control and reaction. It blends boundless gameplay with a spectacular soundtrack matching the games sullen mood. Element4l is not for the easily distracted or flippant gamer. Prepare for a challenge that will test your patience and emotional health.

In Element4l players control four elements: earth, air, fire and ice. Control is obtained by using only four keys on the keyboard. This seems like a simple task, but quickly becomes a difficult exercise as movement in this platformer is not done in the typical way; right does not mean moving forward, left is not backwards, etc. Move the elements through the game using a combination of all: air for height, fire for motion, ice for sliding and earth for weight. Switch from one element to another without destroying it; consuming energy as you do and waiting for it to regenerate. Wrap your head around the elements and their actions, all while avoiding fiery lava, powerful waterfalls and a strange green goo. 

As players become comfortable with the game's unique controls they will find themselves reacting to the game's environment automatically with little thought. Your fingers will be trained to involuntarily respond nearly instantaneously to the stimuli's within Element4l. This response becomes extremely necessary as one progresses through each level.

Element4l offers two modes: regular and a "this is too hard for me" mode. Attempt the regular mode and quickly question if Element4l is indeed too hard. Coming to the conclusion that yes it is, moving onto the "this is too hard for me" mode is self-explanatory as it provides shorter checkpoints and a smaller wait for the elements recharge. 

The platformer's "this is too hard for me" mode will also be too hard. The repetitiveness of failure will become all too familiar and frustration will have you questioning your emotional stability. Screaming out in agony and the urge to physically harm your monitor will become rampant the more you play Element4l. Hearing the "POP!" of the air element and the "KABOOM!" of the fire element will have you hating the game yet somehow returning.

Walk away. Element4l is a difficult game and being so requires breaks between sessions. Playing the game for a lengthy amount without hours or days away just asks for a broken keyboard. But you'll come back and you'll love to hate it. The reward of completing a level will have you  jumping for joy. Even completing a small section of a level will have you bowing to the WASD keys. After all you did just spend 30 minutes trying to get your element over one little hill.

The difficulties faced throughout Element4l make for a game that will entertain for months and months. Not only does it allow for a lengthy amount of gameplay it also provides stunning visuals and a fantastic soundtrack. Watching Element4l's fire explode and ice melt is a simple sight and you may even purposely make a mistake to see such a view.

Mind Tree created the soundtrack for Element4l and mastered the game's mood through sounds of children playing, eerie whistling and the hypnosis of dubstep. Somewhere during the game the trill of a glockenspiel can be heard as you're floating through the air and questionable whispers cause spouting lava to feel all the more scary. Submerge an element underwater and the music becomes muffled as if you are the element. The soundtrack makes the game a bit less frustrating and is beautiful with or without the game.

Element4l is frustrating, time consuming and addicting all mashed together. A game veterans and noobs alike will find challenging and compelling. You don't know why but you'll come back. And if you ever make it to the end you won't make it again.
 

Megan Bethke, NoobFeed (@XboxBetty).