Syne

http://www.synegame.com/

Game: Syne
Developer/s: One Man Down

Basically, you control a spaceship? Of some kind. (It might be the superpowered soul of a fallen warrior that merely acts like a spaceship...) While the 'goal' of the game is to shoot down other enemies which attack you and collect their energy, Syne is far more about the experience than how quick or efficient you are.

(Indeed, one can pass the first two levels without actually killing anything and just sitting there getting beat up on. I do not think you can actually 'die' in Syne, which would make sense, since it seems to imply that you are already dead.)

The most ingenious aspect of this game, perhaps, is that the player 'makes' the soundtrack. Shooting bullets from your craft is the melody line, wheras being hit by an enemy can add in dischordant notes. The other enemies contribute harmonies as well, and by leaving them alone or shooting them down, and one's own bullet spray pattern, the soundtrack never is the same two games running. Each level also has it's own sound and artistic theme, as the game is based off of the five stages of grief.

(It is possible the game was originally meant to be five levels for the five stages, but the gold build of Syne only has three: Isolation, Anger, and Bargaining)

The theme of each level goes beyond merely art and sound. In isolation, the enemies and bullet spray patterns are simpler. In Anger, the enemies come at you in waves with insane spray patterns - I really did get mad at them ;) If only because unlike the first level which was rather calming the second I kept losing the pretty wings off my spaceship to the enemies fiendish plans :P Bargaining is the 'boss' level. It is the level I found perhaps easiest, if only because the enemy did not really move around and so all I had to avoid were the bullets.

Throughout the game, bookending each level, are introspective sayings and observations. They seem to give clues as to how the levels should be played - or perhaps that was me reading into things ;) But it certainly added to the game.

Syne is very short to play, and while very different from the genre of game I usually dabble with, I very much liked it. The addition of music and a storylike feeling to an otherwise arcade like game sets it apart.

On the downside, possibly, there is no sense of score or time whatsoever. I cannot compare one game to the next except perhaps by noting the strength of my spacecraft. Yet I am not sure if a game like Syne really needs scoring, or if the notion that 'A game has to have a score' is so ingrained into me that I am baffled by a game that you play -just to play-. For there certainly was a feeling of win/loss and progression as one played, even without a score or a way to 'die'. Syne is a game in which you take from it what you want - whether it be a few moments of contemplation and immersion in interactive music, or a few minutes of pulverizing your enemies for their energy orbs.