Cosmo Tales is another cute and warm game that wants you to feel comfortable with it from the very first minute. The cheery music, colorful menus and bright presentation lul you into a cozy sense of security, whispering that this isn’t going to be some dark and serious space adventure. It wants to be playful, friendly and a little bit silly. From what we’ve seen so far from this early access title, it does a good job of getting that across.
Once you pick the first of the three tales, you’ll meet two over-the-top and beyond-cute robots who take you on your first adventure. They also aren’t shy about breaking the fourth wall and addressing you directly. The acting is deliberately exaggerated, with plenty of vocal shifts and emphasized pronunciation, and we have to say that we loved it. Our nephews loved it even more. Their eyes practically lit up and they were instantly glued to the screen.
Yes, kids would probably appreciate Cosmo Tales more than we did, but hey, there’s a kid in all of us.
The game is built as a family-friendly roguelite, but it doesn’t feel like it is trying to explain every little thing to you with long tutorials.
Taking the Space Car for a Spin
You’re in a car. A space car, to be more precise. We can’t emphasize enough how natural the controls feel with a controller. If you have one, make sure you use it. Flying around the different areas is simple, but there’s enough movement involved to make getting from one place to another enjoyable rather than feeling like you’re simply travelling between combat encounters.
There are rocks floating around that you can avoid or smash through with your vehicle. You can also use your lasers to clear them out. Before you have too much time to simply enjoy flying around and destroying things, though, a robot will appear and start giving you moving targets to deal with.
You can aim your weapons at enemies while also dashing and dodging attacks sideways. The movement is quick enough to keep you busy without making the controls difficult to understand. The animations help a lot here too, because the whole thing often feels like you’re playing through a cartoon.
Once you clear a sector, pressing a button will almost instantly take you to the next one, where another encounter or surprise is waiting.
The sectors themselves are small chunks of space where you move around, fight enemies and explore. Speaking of exploring, there are also giant tapes to find, which give us more insight into Cosmo, one of the two cute robots that welcome us into this world. These tapes are basically short musings about the universe you’re travelling through, giving you little pieces of its story without stopping the action for too long.
Changes of the World
One of the coolest things you can do in Cosmo Tales is enter Veil dimensions. It does pretty much what the name suggests. You can shift away from the cheerful world around you and enter a much darker, noir-like version of it. Even the soundtrack changes slightly, giving the whole thing a different feel.
But this isn’t just a visual trick.
Entering this dimension also gives you a shield that recharges over time. That can be extremely useful when tougher enemies start showing up and you need some extra protection while trying to figure out how to deal with them.
Manage to defeat the enemies and you’ll collect a Tweak, a fancy name for a familiar roguelite mechanic where you’re given three random abilities to choose from, and these can change how you approach the next part of your run. You might increase your chances of getting healing orbs after defeating enemies, unleash lightning, fire extra lasers or rockets whenever you dash, or upgrade an ability you’ve already unlocked.
We chose lasers, for example, and then had the chance to make them more powerful.
It’s a simple system, but it works. It did give us a reason to pay attention to what we’re building instead of just mindlessly shooting whatever is in front of you.
One World Isn’t Enough
The Veil dimension isn’t the only reality you can jump into.
There’s also the Rush dimension, and it changes the feel of the game again. As the name suggests, you’re much faster here, while your dash becomes considerably more powerful. The visual style changes as well, replacing the darker tones with a neon-like purplish palette.
Jumping between these dimensions is one of the best parts of Cosmo Tales.
You’re jumping from one version to another, switching between different sets of abilities and ways of approaching combat. Moving from a more defensive setup to something more offensive can change the pace of a fight and you quickly get the feeling that you’re part of this fast-paced, adrenaline-filled action rollercoaster.
Little Extras
The game also starts introducing one-use items that can open up new possibilities during a run. Decoys, for example, can give you another way to deal with a difficult situation instead of simply relying on your weapons and movement. These little additions help keep the combat from becoming nothing more than “fly around and shoot everything.”
There is also a nice bit of customization waiting for you between runs. You can tinker with your vehicles, change their colors and add stickers. It’s nothing that changes the gameplay, but it fits the overall tone of the game and gives you another small reason to make the vehicle feel like yours.
Considering how much personality Cosmo Tales puts into its characters and presentation, those cosmetic touches feel right at home.
Space Away?
Cosmo Tales is cute, colorful and very easy to get into, but calling it just a kids’ game would be selling it short.
Yes, our nephews were probably more excited about the talking robots than we were. That’s fine. We still had plenty of fun flying around, smashing rocks, dodging attacks, switching dimensions and experimenting with different Tweaks.
For now, though, Cosmo Tales feels like a pleasant Early Access surprise. It’s accessible enough for younger players, but there is enough going on with the combat and builds to keep older players interested too.
Game: Cosmo Tales
Developer/Publisher: Bohemia Interactive
Genre: Family-friendly Roguelite Adventure
Platform: PC
Status: Early Access
Players: Single-player
Review version: Early Access
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