Test your reflexes and problem-solving speed in ‘Sprinter’

We all regret certain things from our past. Whether it’s something as small as a choosing the wrong extracurricular, or something as mammoth as neglecting a particular relationship, it seems that we are all running from something. This is the premise for Sprinter, a new indie release by developer Light Step Games.

You’re pushed into the shoes of three seemingly-normal individuals: Emily, Lyle, and Rosie. Each character has their own demons from the past, which are eerily emulated via a comic strip as you progress through the story. There are no words, no voices — nothing to express the hidden storyline other than some well-drawn panels. It can be difficult to understand the story sometimes, and honestly, I would consider the storyline to be one of the weaker aspects to Sprinter, although it does attempt to add a little interest and depth as you progress through each level. Still, lacking storyline aside, there are some very enjoyable elements to Sprinter, specifically on the fronts of visual design, creative gameplay, and audio.

Sprinter features a top down view and minimalistic graphics. Your character is represented by a plain set of geometric shapes, loosely resembling the human form. Subtle colored lines represent the corridors that you will navigate. Traps, cameras, and a variety of other obstacles feature the same simplistic and generalized shapes, giving Sprinter the appearance that it was plainly drawn on a sheet of stark white paper. As you progress throughout the release, your surroundings exude different colors and you’ll eventually find yourself enveloped in a simplistic world that swaps color schemes on the fly. All of this is aided by a beautifully crafted soundtrack that works in perfect unison with subtle sound effects.

Color-changing is a huge part of Sprinter, and you’ll need to master which colors to change to as the game progresses. In the beginning, you’ll only be forced to deal with a few simple traps and obstacles. As you progress, things will get increasingly more difficult and you may find yourself in an endless state of dying. This is normal, and you’ll need to learn from past mistakes to get a solid grip on when and where to avoid certain doom. You may find yourself easily gliding through the starting stages, but it’s important to note that Sprinter features a very steep uptick in difficulty. It won’t take long before you end up barreling into traps and obstacles without very much time to react.

You’ll have plenty of time to get acquainted with Sprinter‘s control scheme. This is an Indie release and contains around 30 levels. That may not seem like much, but the process of endlessly re-doing each level helps to increase the overall length of the release. Those of you looking for replayability will find aggravation abound in your attempts to perfectly pass each level. Perfection takes serious focus, and it can be incredibly hard to perfect some of the later levels.

If you’re interested in getting more information about Sprinter be sure to check out the dedicated website here. You can grab this release right now on Steam, and I would definitely recommend it to those of you out there that are looking for a quick-reflex challenge.