Platypus Reclayed – PS5 Review

Platypus Reclayed is a horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em from UK-based studio Claymatic Games.  Why all the references to clay already?  Well, this game, itself a remake of the 2002 PC shoot ’em up Platypus, sports a rather unique look.  Everything in the game has been modelled in clay, captured and animated.

It’s a strange choice of game to bring back twenty years later.  Sure, PSP fans might remember the 2006 port of the original but whenever the PC is the lead format on something like a shoot ’em up, it’s usually going to be pretty obscure.  Still, the old Amiga shoot ’em up Apidya is getting a remaster soon, so all bets are off.  The original game was created by Anthony Flack, as much an animator/visual artist as he is a videogame creator and having re-bought the rights to the game in 2019, he’s now releasing this sequel on all major formats.

The original Platypus saw you defending the peaceful country of Mungola from Colossatropolis, their invasive bastard neighbours.  A sort of clay Russia if you will.  But there’s not much of a focus on story here.  Instead it’s really all about the action.

Where the original game saw you playing in one type of ship (the titular F-27 Platypus), you now have a choice of three which vary up the usual mix of speed, defence and firepower.  And once you take to the skies, the game is much like the original.  You’ll fly through five levels, each of which consists of five areas.  The only real sign of their grouping being the type of backdrop and then the big boss that punctuates each level.

And in terms of core gameplay mechanics, there’s not really much to say.  You’ve got your movement and your fire button and you fly towards the right as enemies come in from that side of the screen.  But what’s noticeable is that there are a lot of them and you’re not exactly all that powerful.  There are scoring bonuses for not trying to kill everyone but the real barrier to doing that is just how weak you feel and also how sporadic and quick some of the enemy movement is.

The original Platypus had a whole host of power-ups to use and that’s definitely the case here.  The game offers up all manner of temporary boosts and these can be a lot of fun to check out.  There’s all your usual spread, laser, shotgun, flame and missile weapons as you’d expect but then tons of other weird ones too.  If you fancy trying to take out an invasive military force with fish, this is the game for you.  It’s just a shame that these upgrades are time-limited as when you go back to your basic firepower, it can feel like when you’ve lost a life on R-Type and now have to take out the entire Bydo Empire with a peashooter.  Also, the game likes to give you lots of power-ups at once (even though they don’t stack) and then have long periods without one.

Of course, the real star of the show here is that lovely claymation and it really shines on PS5.  In 4K definition, this is maybe the most realistic-looking game on the system.  The clay models are cute, colourful and look like you could just pick them right off of the screen.  And combined with those power-ups, it’s so much fun to see them create the weapon effects in clay.  The fireball is sort of hilarious.  And even the way that enemies die is incredible as all the explosions are also done in claymation.  Everything is.  Even the score!

It’s such a brilliant and unique look that we just kind of wish the game was as good.  Look, Platypus Reclayed is a pretty good shooter but if you took the look away, it’d be quite ordinary.  The 25 stages all feel a bit samey.  There’s not really enough environmental hazards (we can only recall one) and so really the threat just comes from enemies and it means that the levels lack a bit of character.  You never really get a sense of anything changing.

And even the enemy formations feel a bit random.  They’re not random but there’s so many of them and all moving in various ways that it becomes unmemorisable for most players and instead you’re just surviving on skill and instinct.  Normally, that’s exactly what we want.  Memorising shoot ’em levels can be quite a drag for some players but here there is never a moment or hook to latch onto where you can root your memory in a stage, it’s just a solid, constant barrage and without any dynamics to it, it all begins to feel a bit one-note and makes recalling any of it very challenging.

The difficulty of the game is somewhat at odds with its cutesy image too.  Some of that is just from the sheer amount of enemies and the weakness of your firepower but also we did struggle with visibility a little (the clay thing is great but it can make readability a little bit of a problem) and the way enemies can just show up behind you.  There’s not enough warning that an enemy is approaching from behind and usually you’ve got just a whole mess of things to deal with in front, so focusing behind is tough.

Also, there’s a whole thing about collecting fruit for bonus points but they disappear out of view very quickly thanks to gravity and your bullets push them away from you.  And because there are so many enemies, you can’t really ever afford to stop firing.  So in the end you almost feel like you’re drowning under it all.

There are a few mitigations, such as a few difficulty settings (although none of them are particularly easy) and an option to unlock everything which at least lets you play the game’s later levels without having to unlock them by getting there.  But ultimately you just think this would be a much better game if they toned things down a bit and maybe shortened it.  25 levels of THE SAME THING starts to get a bit much.  And we say that having put 100s of hours into games like Brotato.

Ultimately, though this is a really unique game, even for a sequel.  There’s a lot of fun to be had just seeing how they’ve created all the visual effects and at £11.99, the price isn’t bad either.  And this is a good, competent shoot ’em up but we feel like the artistry of it, as impressive as it is, means that maybe the gameplay took a bit of a back seat.

PATCH 1.02 EDIT

God damn it!  So we wrote all of that and published the review today.  And then we turned on the PS5 and this game got a patch which feels like it has rebalanced the gameplay a lot.  You’re a bit more powerful and the enemies are less plentiful.  It’s a very beneficial change that has really smoothed out the game.  Also, you do pull in fruit pick-ups a little now also.

It’s still a bit too repetitive and arguably twenty minutes or so too long but at least it is enjoyable now.