PERFECT 10
On the surface this platformer looks simple but it’s a gruelling fight for survival
TEN – Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds
(PEGI 16) PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Switch, PC
★★★★✩
IN THE grand scheme of things, 10 seconds is an infinitesimal amount of time.
But what would happen if you found yourself in a locked room packed with spinning buzzsaws and laser firing cannons, and to escape you had to stay alive for 10 seconds? Now that would feel like a lifetime.
And that’s exactly what this new platformer from indie developer The Bworg is all about.
On the surface, TEN – Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds looks like a simple game, its disarmingly basic looking one-bit inspired graphics lulling you into a false sense of security.
In reality, this brutal platformer does everything it can to kill off your character as it moves from room to room in what is essentially a murder factory.
The facility has 10 floors, each containing 10 rooms packed to the gills with hazards.
You have to navigate your character through these rooms, facing down a boss at the end of each grueling level, which sees you having to stay alive for 30 seconds in order to move up a floor.
There is a way to boost your chances of success though. Each room contains tokens which you can grab as you frantically jump, dash and climb your way around the space in a bid to stay alive.
These tokens can then be spent in the ‘safe room’ which appears at the start of each new floor. Here you can spend tokens by stepping into a ‘resting space’ where you can select the skills you want to upgrade, choosing between survivor (which gives you things like an extra life), explorer (which unlocks skills like being able to move faster), and challenger (which means you’ll get extra tokens in tricky spots, or magnets to attract tokens as you pass nearby).
Needless to say, in this game you can expect to die a lot, to the point of utter frustration, but you can learn from your failures.
Memorising the timings of falling objects, and learning the patterns and paths of spinning blades, can all go a long way to helping you survive longer on your second and third pass through a room.
The graphics also give you a visual clue, in that anything red can harm you, and that’s invaluable when you’re bouncing around a room, almost on instinct, trying to avoid the perilous obstacles.
If the frustration genuinely gets too much, you can dial things down a bit by switching to easy/casual mode which turns on invincibility.
Likewise, if you’re finding things too easy, there’s a Hell mode to feed your inner gaming masochist.
Believe it or not, there is a bit of a plotline here, although it’s the only simple thing about this whole game.
The only way I found to survive long enough to see the story all the way through was by throwing the game into easy mode, which allowed the adrenaline to leave my system and for me to appreciate the work that’s gone into this game.
What’s even better, as it’s been developed by an indie studio, TEN won’t break the bank, priced at just £4.99.
An absolute bargain you really can’t afford to miss.
Buy it: £4.99 at xbox.com, store. playstation.com, nintendo.co.uk or store.steampowered.com