Exo One

Thank you for making this game. It reminds me of my late father and some of the feelings I once had with him. It's important to me. Thank you.

In Exo One, you control an alien craft (built by humans), but it's closer to a rolling ball/flying glider simulator with no enemies. Emphasis is on exploring different planets and covering distance through the forces of gravity and momentum as your ship doesn't use fuel. You constantly alternate between making your ship heavier (4 times Earth's gravity) and lighter (Moon's gravity) to go faster. Later on, you can change the shape of the ship and glide, which is more fun than rolling and jumping, but you can't glide all the time. The controls are not initially intuitive, there's a learning curve and I'm still not sure how to keep max speed, but they're fairly simple with only three buttons used plus the analog sticks. The movements feel smooth and responsive, but the default turning is too slow.
The graphics are gorgeous, especially on the ocean planet where it's some of the best-looking water I've seen. I especially liked how you could "skip" your craft on water like a small stone. A few of the later planets, including the forest one, do not seem as good looking or graphically advanced. I wish they weren't often so empty and lacking in unique features. The story interludes are initially intriguing but they're few and far between with no narration during the levels, so you lose track a bit and become less invested. What's best is how the game makes you feel during exploration as you cover distances. It made me think a bit of the game Journey. I hated one of the last levels, Sojournous, where you lost total control except for gravity. Feels a bit expensive at normal price so get on sale if you're interested.

When I first started this game I had no idea what was going on and could not get the ship to do what I wanted. But I decided I'd come back to it and give it more time, and I am so glad I did, because it was much better than I expected. The story does not hold your hand, you'll have to piece the nebulous details together, but it really got to me. The physics were much more fun once I hit the water planet and really figured out how to go fast. After finishing the game, zipping around is still fun to see how extreme I can get, but the real gem for me was the story.

This game was introduced to me without any context. In what started as, what I thought to be, a tech demo became one of the most memorable games I think I'll ever play. I haven't experienced a game like this since Journey on the PS3 nearly 14 years ago.
Each planet was it's own puzzle and every new mechanic you either learned by doing or unlocking just added that much more wonder and curiosity to the game. I think going into it totally blind was the best way to play it.
Crank up the graphics, put headphones on, play alone at night and you're in for a one-of-a-kind experience as long as you're patient and have a curious mind.

A great game for anyone who loves flying their hand in the wind out the window of a moving car, or standing on a high point and imagining gliding down over and around the obstacles spread out below. Peaceful, relaxing, oddly addictive. Great to unwind and just, fly.

Steam only shows 5 hours on record for me but I know I've played many more hours than that.

Visually stunning and incredibly cool. Exo One is a very interesting game that's like a hybrid of flight games and physics platformers. Absolutely worth experiencing. There's not a whole lot to it, but I feel like that's kind of the point: use gravity to your advantage and zip around some crazy cool spacey environments.
It does leave me itching for more like this that is presented in a more gamey way though, but I haven't seen anything quite like it, and I don't even know how that would work as this definitely seemed like the right direction to go. The movement is good once you get used to it, and almost every planet is unique and memorable, though I didn't really like the one level with the smaller planets. Definitely recommend experiencing this one for something a bit different.

The plot of this game was completely incomprehensible to me, and the only reason I understand it even a little is because I read the Wikipedia page. But you know what? I don't care. Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, sliiiiiiiiide.