Slider Review

When you die in Slider, a cold computerized voice says, "This is your fault, it didn't have to be this way," or some other mocking accusation. The thing is though, it's right. Slider is so easy and empty there really is no excuse for dying. But when a game has all the excitement of unlocking a phone screen, that's a problem.

With its stark, mathematical visuals and emphasis on high scores, Slider might initially seem like a good way to scratch the old Geometry Wars itch. But instead of shooting, players simply drag their ship around and defeat enemies by passing through them. The problem is, at least for some time, that's basically it. Players can spend much of the game barely paying attention as they swipe their finger around clearing out the tensionless board. While discovering this on your own is neat since there is no tutorial, discovering that's all there is becomes much more deflating.

It's not necessarily poor design, but rather a poor difficulty curve. There are moments where Slider sincerely tries to ramp things up. Early enemies, if not taken care of, become ticking time bombs with explosions that damage players if they are nearby. However, this takes so long and the range is so short that the threat is never very pressing. Meanwhile, a pulsing line goes back and forth, upgrading remaining enemies and thereby encouraging players to keep the board nice and tidy.

Players might honestly want to wait though, since newer enemies actually have some interesting tricks like turrets with slow-moving projectiles or shields that force players to approach from different directions. Again, it’s rarely challenging enough to be exciting, but it is an attempt. Finally, the board itself slowly expands over time, and players are expected to map out complex, snaking routes to destroy foes as effectively as possible. But when constant quick strokes work just as well, albeit garnering fewer points, why bother? More often than not, death just comes from apathy-fueled carelessness instead of a grueling fight for survival.

Some spectacular visuals might have saved it, making the game more or less an interactive light show, but Slider‘s graphics similarly fail to excite. The clean, neon look is okay, and the retro music and sound effects work fine, but nothing pops in the way simple art styles have to in order to avoid looking plain.

And that's really Slider as a whole – full of ideas that may have popped ending up plain instead.