The Supra series is back. Supraland, one of the best 3D Metroidvanias in existence, was followed by a DLC and standalone expansion that were similarly high quality, so I’ve been waiting patiently for Supraworld to show up. The game will contain four acts and its Early Access launch features the first of these. The dev team has suggested that it will take about a year to a year-and-a-half for the game to be finished, but just this first act alone promises hours of content. The question still stands – is Supraworld worth it in Early Access, or would you be better off keeping an eye on it as development proceeds?
Supraworld‘s initial premise is simple. A kingdom’s princess has been locked away in a castle and a competition at a puzzling academy ensues to see who can solve the allotted puzzles and free her. As per usual with this series, there are multiple comedic twists along the way that left me laughing and I’m absolutely not going to spoil these. I consider the comedy in these games to be an integral part of the experience after all, and it doesn’t disappoint here, even in the game’s opening minutes. Once again, all the dialogue is amusing and interesting, leading to the same high level of quality we’ve learned to expect.
Just the first act of Supraworld promises 8-12 hours of content, which I’ve confirmed to be an accurate number with my time in the game. The structure will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s played the game’s predecessor – you find yourself in large areas packed with puzzles and secrets and it’s up to you to solve these puzzles to get new abilities that allow you to progress. For instance, the very first area tasks you with collecting new abilities from inside eggs in order to escape the starting zone. The puzzles are as creative as ever, with plenty of, “whoa, that’s so cool!” when figuring them out.
Much like Supraland‘s expansions, you don’t start out with the ability to easily defend yourself. At first you’re given an air gun that simply pushes enemies away, but you’ll soon be fighting with a combination of a dash and toothpick that allow you to effectively combo enemies. The air gun has multiple uses in puzzles. One of the main attractions of Supraworld is the exploration, though. Exploring these large, detailed and memorable areas is a pure joy that feels as rewarding as it is satisfying. There are simply a huge amount of puzzles and secrets to find. Naturally, as you explore you find yourself becoming more mobile, which makes it even easier to return to earlier areas to pick up anything you missed.
Secrets and extra puzzles will reward you with heart pieces to extend your health, improvements, coins (which you’ll once again use to make purchases,) and tips that you can read in your journal. Despite how large the areas are, there’s very little empty or wasted space in Supraworld, as there’s almost always something interesting or noteworthy to find (even if finding just a coin or two in some secret areas can be somewhat disappointing.) Speaking of disappointment, one of the few to be found here is that the game’s optimisation is quite rough, as the game is more demanding than one might expect.
Aside from that one issue, Supraworld is already an extremely worthy successor to Supraland that has everything I loved about the last game and more. The first included act alone is wonderful to play and I have absolutely no doubt that the finished product will be just as impressive. As such, Supraworld is absolutely already worth it in Early Access, as long as you don’t mind taking breaks here and there while the new content gets piped in piecemeal. Considering how much there is to find and puzzle over, even that’s not too big of an ask.
