A Collection of Bad Moments

I don't mean to alarm you, but you're stranded in space with no way to call for help. The radio towers have been destroyed and you're quickly running out of oxygen. Your only chance for survival is to repair those towers and scavenge for dropped air tanks before time runs out.

This is just one of six edge-of-your-seat scenarios found in A Collection of Bad Moments, the brand new escape room simulator from developer Sky Trail Ltd. It's a short but satisfying puzzler that sees you trying to get out of a whole bunch of sticky situations. If you've ever wanted to MacGyver your way out of a storm drain, then this is the game for you.

There's no story here, just a series of terrible scenarios you need to escape. These are small and bite-sized vignettes that always seem to put you just a few moments before death. The idea is to survey the area, pick up the items and then find the right order to solve the puzzles. If anything, this shares a lot in common with classic point and click adventure games, only this time you're in a 3D environment and death is mere seconds away.

Take the first level, for example. You play a man who just escaped a clandestine corporation headquarters and is being hunted by hostile agents. You've reached the roof, but there's nowhere to go. You have to think fast and block the door, grab the wrench out of the fan, destroy the drone, open the maintenance shed and maybe even get some useful information from an old newspaper. But don't take too long, because those gun-toting agents are itching to burst in and thwart your escape.

In another stage, you'll be dropped inside a virtual world that resembles those old Vectrex games. You'll befriend a voice in the well and need to repair an old clock tower. There's also a scenario where you're the captain of a flying boat that rests comfortably in the clouds. At least, it normally would be resting comfortably, but you're under attack from pirate ships. And don't forget about the outer space prison break where there's a chance you could win an Orbitek tee-shirt.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

Unfortunately, it's the most intriguing scenario that turns out to be the weakest link. You would think that being stranded on an asteroid would make for a tense battle for survival, but it ends up being a real drag. You spend most of the time just walking around the surface looking for hidden cubes that you'll use to repair the three towers. It's slow, tedious and incredibly boring. Worst of all, the items randomly generate, so you'll never be able to escape that sense of wandering around aimlessly for 15 minutes.

This is a game that is better in theory than execution. While I certainly enjoyed he puzzle solving aspects, all six scenarios are far too limited. In fact, once you know the solutions, you'll be able to speed through most of these stages in just a minute or two. There simply aren't enough puzzles to solve in each stage, and there were a few moments when I found myself asking, "is that it?"

It's also disappointing that A Collection of Bad Moments doesn't give you more freedom over getting out of the jam. This is the kind of game where every piece has its place. If you can interact with it, then it's going to come into play in your escape. Between the short stages and limited puzzles, the game ends up feeling a bit shallow. I felt good beating the stages, but deep down I knew that I would never want to play these levels again.

Click For the Full Picture Archive

What didn't feel good was realizing that the game doesn't save your progress. This wouldn't be so bad if it was just the four stages you get from the start, but there are two additional scenarios that you'll only unlock when complete the game. The problem is that these levels will disappear the moment you exit the game, so you're forced to beat all six stages in one sitting. I don't understand the purpose of this.

Visually, A Collection of Bad Moments is all over the place. I think the prison looks great and the futuristic world they paint in the first stage immediately sucked me in, but the asteroid level looks atrocious. It's a blurry mess where everything looks exactly the same. Same with the sky captain battle, where the environment is glitchy and the textures look incomplete. I applaud the effort of including so many different locations and art styles, but this game needed a little more time in the oven.

A Collection of Bad Moments has an interesting concept I would like to see expanded into a deeper and more involving game. I liked feeling like MacGyver as I used my surroundings to escape certain doom, but ultimately found the experience too rigid and the puzzles too simple. Many of the stages are only a few minutes long and the graphics are a mixed bag. I hate to say it, but in some ways A Collection of Bad Moments definitely lives up to its name.