Review: Orbitals

There is something uniquely enjoyable about playing a good co-op game with someone you know well. There is also something uniquely frustrating about playing one with someone who really would rather be doing anything else.

After playing It Takes Two, A Way Out and Split Fiction, I’ve learnt that the quality of a co-op game is only half the equation. The other half is your player two.

Orbitals is almost entirely built around that relationship. Shapefarm’s Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive is a two-player adventure designed from the ground up around asymmetric co-op, with Maki and Omura using different tools to solve puzzles, navigate environments and overcome obstacles together.

GAMEPLAY

The biggest strength of Orbitals is also its biggest limitation. When both players are engaged, the game can be genuinely satisfying.

You need to communicate, pay attention to what the other player is doing and understand how your respective tools fit together. The puzzles are generally built around this idea rather than simply giving both players the same abilities.

That creates some great moments, particularly when you suddenly figure out how two seemingly unrelated abilities work together. There is a rhythm to exploring, experimenting and eventually getting that “oh, that’s what we’re supposed to do” moment.

But this is not It Takes Two. That game constantly threw new mechanics, mini-games and spectacular set pieces at its players. Split Fiction went even further, changing its gameplay ideas at a ridiculous pace. Orbitals is more restrained, and that makes its co-op mechanics feel less inventive.

More importantly, your enjoyment depends heavily on your partner. I’ve played local co-op games with my wife before and no, I’m not throwing her under the bus, rather, I am throwing my kid under it as I was more invested in it than him.

Granted, I was incentivised more as I needed to review it and to be fair, he is really into Mario Maker 2 and the Pokopia DLC at the moment, but in a game where cooperation is not optional, it matters. I asked my wife to play some sections and she obliged out of duty, more than joy.

VISUALS

This is where Orbitals makes a solid first impression. The retro-anime aesthetic is easily its most distinctive feature. The hand-crafted cinematics, character designs and colourful science-fiction environments give the game a personality that separates it from the increasingly familiar modern co-op template.

It looks particularly good on a TV, which is also where we preferred playing it. Split-screen can make detailed environments harder to appreciate, but Orbitals generally keeps things readable while maintaining its visual identity. There are a number of cut scenes so it takes a while to get into it.

VALUE FOR MONEY

The game retails between R825 and R899 which isn’t cheap; however, you only need one copy between you and a friend. I still think it’s too much and would have preferred it come in at R499. It took us about 9 hours to finish and that too, because my kid isn’t that great at these types of games and I was practicing patience. A lot of patience.

Orbitals is a fairly decent co-op game that occasionally shows flashes of something much better. Its retro-anime presentation is lovely, its central co-op mechanics work, and there is genuine satisfaction in solving some of the puzzles.

The problem is that the game asks a lot from both of you. When both people are engaged, it works. When there’s asymmetry in skill, every puzzle feels like homework.

FINAL VERDICT

Having already played It Takes Two, A Way Out and Split Fiction, I’m probably coming to Orbitals with unusually high expectations for co-op. It doesn’t quite reach those heights. As I re-read this before submitting to my editor I realise I have purely framed this and compared it to other strictly co-op games and while I think its important to reiterate that I do feel its worth broadening the scope to single player games that have great co-op, like Gears of War or Borderlands 2. None of the strictly co-op games have come close to the joy of playing Borderlands 2 on local co-op so factor that in when considering whether to grab this.