[Visible]III
[Visible]III is a platformer from PsyFlash Game Studios, and the finale of the series. You play a ninja, forced to run a series of gauntlets to escape a facility. Or possibly to break into one. The game's a bit hazy on the detail.
To complete the challenges in [Visible]III you need to make use of the two abilities you have - Skill and Invisibility. Skill is used to climb walls and ceilings, and Invisibility allows you to bypass certain traps. Each ability has a bar attached, and if this bar runs out, then you drop down or flicker back into reality respectively. In case this wasn't difficult enough, there is a reflection world, complete with its own traps and platforms. Naturally, hit a trap in either world, and you die. Checkpoints occur once every level, about half way through, but your deaths are recorded, so try to stay alive. Levels are short enough to keep you interested, and overall it's all about getting past one challenge at a time, which could be anywhere between jumping spikes or performing a perfectly choreographed series of climbs, jumps and invisibility to get to your objective. After completing the campaign mode, there is a series of much harder levels called 'Gauntlet', which make the campaign look like a practice mode!
While this does give a good balance of difficulty, some of the reflection world traps are cheap, with a single set of spikes inhabiting an otherwise clear run to the exit in either world killing you after making a series of jumps, dashes and drops that would make John Woo cry is very frustrating, especially as it accomplishes nothing. The reflection world seems to have very little purpose on some levels, and makes the gimmick feel rather rushed.
Overall, however, the game is very polished, and difficult without being just annoying.
And now, I must disappear!
