S&S; Indie Review: 2012

Title: 2012
Format: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 16, 2012
Publisher: Gliese Games
Developer: Gliese Games
Price: $3
Rating: Violence 3/3, Sex 3/3, Mature Content 3/3

2012 is a game about the end of the world occurring on December 21, 2012. The game combines elements from classic Zelda and modern day story telling. Which overall makes for unmissable experience.

Story: 
The game takes place in Arenal, Guatemala where the end of the world is predicted to start on December 21, 2012. At midnight the screen shakes and there is plenty of yelling to go around, a few hours later the player wakes up in a stranger's house and decides to start looking for missing people who just all happen to be sacrifices in various temples around the map. It's too bad that the only other quest outside of uncovering the mystery and finding the missing people is finding dead bodies and taking identification off of them so their families could be notified, which also raises some interesting questions. If the end of world has already started is there really still a form of mail, are there still people alive outside of this town, and most importantly why are there still people living in the town where it all began? Unfortunately these questions are never answered so a player's suspension of disbelief must be there throughout the whole game.
Gameplay:
The game has a top down view with a mechanic that only lets the player shoot or move but neither at the same time. This invokes a nice sense of strategy in the combat against the countless zombies. There are five temples in the game and in many ways are similar to the original Zelda temples. In the way that almost each room is a challenging yet rewarding puzzle that must be solved in order to progress. The puzzles get harder with each temple and by the fifth and final temple gamers will be stunned at some of the difficulty required to finish just one puzzle. The game controls well which can be important for later puzzles and even uses the d-pad as hot keys for valuable items which is nice feature.
Final Thoughts:
While the game may contain a few plot holes that doesn't hold it back from being an experience no one should miss. The only problem throughout the game was that there are no checkpoints or autosaves so upon arriving at a temple save as soon as the player's feet step inside so if death does occur the long walk back to the temple won't have to occur. The puzzles are great head scratchers and reward players with statsifction when done correctly.
S&S Rating: 8.5/10 @natehubes