Have you ever clonked your partner in the head with a spanner which you were also using to propel yourself? No? Well firstly, your weekends sound very boring and two, now you can! In Heavenly Bodies you and a friend are old school astronauts, engaging in various space-related hijinks whilst working with worse controls than notorious finger-twisting running game QWOP.
Despite all other games with space settings trying to tell me otherwise, maneuvering yourself through space without a magic jetpack is incredibly hard. I learned that fact both fast and hard after about the fiftieth time I slammed my head, hard, into the wall of the station in Heavenly Bodies.
In order to traverse the gorgeous retro-themed levels you must use physics to your advantage, in the demo I played at PAX AUS, I had to use a crowbar to pry doors apart, requiring me to actually gain and use leverage. This is something which is very hard when you are just floating about desperately trying to grab onto something. These physics, while slightly hacked to allow you to not get stuck floating with nothing to grab onto (maybe it’s flatulence?) is pretty realistic, with inertia and everything, which is nice. Working your way through progressively crazier scenarios, Heavenly Bodies looks real grand, and I can’t wait to play more of it.
Heavenly Bodies is currently in development, with a lightly planned release date for beyond 2020. Wishlist it below.
