Backlog Spotlight: Iji

One of the most badass pieces of Iji fanart (by kardiyak at Deviantart). Iji is copyrighted Remar Games.

Instead of doing a regular old review, I am just going to cut right to the chase here. Iji (pronounced E-JEE) is a fantastic game. I would even say that Iji is one of the best free games I have ever played. Everything this game does it does right. When I think of a 'perfect' game, this is one of the titles that comes to mind.

Iji is a platformer done in the Metroidvania (warning, this link leads to tvtropes, do not click it if you value free time) style. There are RPG elements, with an extremely customizable character. Anything is possible to do and different character builds can lead to a completely different experience. Want to blast alien's faces off with high powered space missiles? Check. How about just forgetting about all those silly guns and kicking people in the face berserker style? Oh yeah. A stealth expert manipulating the environment and enemies to stumble blindly while you sneak past? Roger.

Despite the fantastic gameplay what really establishes Iji as an amazing game opposed to a great game is the plot. Iji stars... well Iji; a twenty year old girl who visits her fathers lab. She sees a strange light in the sky and next thing she knows it is six months later, aliens have taken over the facility, everyone in her family is dead except her brother, and her fathers fellow scientists have turned her into a solider using stolen alien nanotechnology. That is just the first five minutes. It is also what turns out in the long run to be the weakest part of the story, and brings me to my one major complaint with the game. The whole supersolider-against-an-army thing is really played out in video games. Iji does little to hide this flaw, and just pushes it on the player before moving on to the meat of the plot. Without spoiling anything deals with tragedy, coping, the meaning of humanity, and race relations. Heavy stuff in the long run, which is why it is such a shame that the story starts out so weak.

Iji also looks great. The style of the game is similar to the 1991 adventure game Out of This World (Another World in the USA). Where the graphics differ is where that game focused on a simplistic style to accent depth and scale, Iji focuses on movement and color difference. There are lots of cool little things in the world of Iji that come together to make a great looking game. Iji also has a love for explosions approaching Micheal Bay levels.

ka-BOOMFOSHWOSH

The final strong point that Iji has is the absolutely stupid amount of collectibles in the game. Every single corridor is packed with stuff to unlock. Combined with multiple endings depending on how one plays the game, Iji has an almost endless amount of things to do, shooting its replay value through the roof. One of the more interesting options is a pacifist runthrough. A strange option that some games contain but do not work into the story. Iji is different, pacifism is not only an option but recommended. I would go so far to say that pacifism is the most rewarding way to play Iji.

Iji really is a game that deserves to be played. I can't think of a single person that I would not recommend this game to. It really is just that good.