Matterfall Reviews
Matterfall is a mechanically sound game but has very little to keep you coming back to chase high scores. As it stands, I enjoyed the handful of hours that I spent with it, but I can't see myself going back anytime soon. This greatly disappoints me since I have spent months if not years coming back to some of Housemarque's past ventures. While I like the new direction that Housemarque tried to go in with Matterfall, I'd be fine if we never ended up seeing a game in this same vein in the future.
Admittedly, the overall quality of Matterfall hurts more than usual because we've seen exactly what Housemarque can do. The core game is fun, but mediocre platforming holds back the game's strengths of dashing and shooting. Controls seem fine on paper, but the inability to map the buttons means that there's a learning curve to the game that will result in many deaths and wrong moves. It may look and sound pretty, but with a short game length and a punishing leaderboard system, consumers may want to wait for a price drop before jumping in.
Nowhere close to the arcade perfection of Resogun or Nex Machina, this undercooked action platformer lacks the precise controls and instant appeal of its stablemates.
PS4's Matterfall is a visually stunning yet uninspiring hybrid of Housemarque's past successes.
Matterfall brings back retro gameplay mechanics in a futurist set. However, it doen not bring anything new and becomes a little bit repetitive due to this.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Housemarque's understanding of arcade shooting mechanics is, as ever, strong with Matterfall, but it lacks the flair and bombast of the more thoroughbred members of its family. The core concepts carried over from Housemarque's previous efforts may be signature moves now, but they are starting to grow a little tired, more so when the game they feature in isn't among the best the developer has put out.
Matterfall contains some welcome formula tweaks and the usual level of Housemarque polish, but it's much less inspired than the Finnish studio's better shooters.
While I have to tip my hat to Housemarque for trying something different, Matterfall feels more like a side project than a proper release in the developer's esteemed lineage of twin-stick shooters. The controls lack the same level of slick polish, the main experience is short, and there's little to keep you coming back.
Unfortunately, Matterfall never quite comes together, despite its short runtime
If you can handle the uncomfortable controls, you'll be able to immerse yourself in some good old platformer shooting fun.
The augments are fun to collect, and the bosses are a decent challenge but there isn't much to make you want to go back for more, especially with all that unnecessary Smart Matter Paraphernalia. Take that away and you'll have a much more fun and intense shooter.
Matterfall is the first notable failure in Housemarque's career. There is not even a bright and technological graphics, which studio is famous for. This is faded, boring, artificially prolonged game with a bad save system and stupid enemies. Of course, you can spend three hours of your life on it, but it's better to just skip this project and pay attention to one of the much more attractive summer hits.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Housemarque widens its lens with a take on 90s run and gunners, resulting in an enjoyably chaotic if overly slight adventure.
So somebody plays around with matter as well as prototype warmachines – below one of the biggest cities in the solar system. Things really go awry when the matter decides to get self aware and having prototype war robots at the ready just makes for a bad blend. So in the midst of history's biggest evacuation, they are sending in specialists to try and tidy up all the mess. You're one of these specialists. Welcome to Matterfall.
Matterfall is a fireworks display of an arcade game: bright, bombastic, and ultimately hollow. But while it may not sit front-and-centre of Housemarque’s modern-day arcade, it’s a visual extravaganza that’s still well worth seeing one time through.