Mercury Hg Review
Publisher: UTV Ignition
Format: PS3 (reviewed), 360
Release Date: Out Now
Some games, be it through excellent story or clever event-driven plots are just plain difficult to put down. Mercury Hg does this through sheer addictive gameplay. The idea of navigating through levels through sheer physics is a game mechanic that has translated particularly well in recent years, especially since motion control has shown up, from the Wii and Kinect to smart phone accelerometers. The aim of the game is get liquid mercury to the end of the level by moving the levels themselves and letting gravity control the blob.
The levels are designed well and the game mechanics are cleverly implemented. Colour coded switches and the ability to split the mercury into several smaller blobs to activate multiple switches or, a personal favourite, combining colour coded lumps to give new colours. Each level has 4 “trophies” to be won on it, each representing a different challenge and requirement to the level. It’s a clever way to extend the longevity of the game and doesn’t feel like its cheapening the experience.
The first trophy is dedicated purely to completing the level and will be the one that people have the least trouble with. On each level there are a set of collectables which, if you collect them all, will give you your second trophy. After this it gets difficult. Each level will come with a target time to complete the level in. The first few levels will not present a problem for this particular task but on later levels that require an almost surgical level precision, this becomes almost frustratingly difficult. Particularly in the levels with sections that involve splitting the mercury into multiple blobs. The final trophy is dedicated to ensuring you keep 100% of the mercury throughout the level. This proves to be exceptionally difficult on some of the levels, including one which took me the guts of 2 hours to beat, thus labelling it the worst trophy to get, in my books anyway.
One of the nicest features in this is the ability to use the sixaxis controller to control the game. It’s not quite as sensitive and delicate as the analog sticks but it does make for good fun, as the 7 year old in our house found out. Another beautiful feature is the fact that you can customise the soundtrack to alter the behaviour of the background. My personal favourite for this was the Metal Gear Solid 2 theme music, mainly because when I tried Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah, I couldn’t keep up.
Mercury Hg is a solid game, a fun experience and a great way to kill a night or two. The only issues I had with it, is the fact that there isn’t a huge amount of substance to it. The game itself can be completed within a day, and all the trophies won’t extend that beyond an extra day or two. Now it is a few days of fun, but the problem is it’s only a few days. DLC is to be supplied as well but it would be better delivered to a game that can’t be beaten over a weekend to give it a bit of longevity.
Overall, Mercury Hg deserves the praise it’s been getting. Its great fun, and it’s taken a good formula and produced a quality title for a meagre sum of money. If you’re looking for a casual game, you could do a lot worse than Mercury Hg
Score: 7.5/10
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