After a successful Steam Greenlight campaign, the small platformer Randall released officially on Windows 10. The game follows the same platforming concepts as games like Velocity 2X, another platformer that I loved. Randall is set in a far-flung dystopian future, where a large corporation has taken control of the population through technology. The leader of this corporation, a brilliant scientist, used these advances to brainwash the population to gain control over them.
After waking up from what seemed to have been a prior event that sent you into an amnesiac state, you’re confronted with an extremely hostile environment where all the authorities are attempting to arrest—or kill—you. As you traverse the world, you come into contact with several people who give you further information about the world and why you might be stuck in it, being your main goal as to escape this terrible place.
Much of the play style as I have mentioned isn’t very unique as it does remind me of games prior, mainly Velocity 2X. But unlike Velocity 2X, this game takes it slow and does not incentivise you to achieve a specific time or goal. The puzzles and challenges scattered around the world do offer some challenge if you were to look for that, but in the end, it doesn’t push the boundaries in any significant way.
For instance, many of the puzzles require specific movement abilities which you have to locate in the world to ‘learn’. These can be quite hard to find, and some are pretty well hidden. A lot of the game’s play time is spent looking for abilities to gain access to new areas so you can advance the plot. The game was quite enjoyable to play, barred for a few issues I had, but in the end, it felt rather empty, up to the point where you encounter another slew of armed forces.
Talking about the art direction for the game, it borrows heavily from games like Velocity, but with a few twists. The colourful and attractive world is inviting and makes you want to gain access to the next level so you can see where the story is headed. But as for the controls, this has been a mostly negative experience for me personally. I usually play my PC games using an Xbox One controller, and for the majority of games, it works quite well. Randall quickly responded to my inputs, however, for some reason certain controls and menus are only available using the keyboard. This might be an oversight by the developers, but with so many games on PC using Xbox controllers, I feel that they should have thought about having a decent key mapping integration so that using a gamepad wouldn’t be so cumbersome.
Using the controller also made combat quite a chore. When you encounter a guard or soldier, you’re met with a rather comical combination of attacks and moves that not only involve the movement sticks but both the D-pad and the main X-Y buttons. Being a person with two hands and ten fingers I have to admit they made sure that using a controller for gameplay was only relegated to those with more than two arms, maybe I should have used a foot in there too.
But for all the faults I have listed here, the game was exciting and interesting as an experience, of which it reminded me of one of my favourite games on consoles. Very few games get the gameplay experience so right, and even though the story aspect of Randall isn’t quite unique in ways, it was mostly outshined by the amazing game design and fun gameplay.
Even though I do say this of many Steam reviewed games, bar a few, I do hope that the developer will bring this title over to consoles because this game deserves a lot more coverage than it has received so far. A quick Google search only revealed quite the anaemic coverage from most gaming sites, and it’s a shame because I do see this developer pushing out some great games in the future, including this game.
Summary
Randall is a fast-paced platforming game that is set in a dystopian future where the population have been taken control of by a mad scientist and oddly familiar technology. You as the main protagonist wake up in this world and are confronted by not only a very hostile force but a fierce challenge to get outside of the city. Throughout the world, you encounter many unique characters that help you along the way and gain insight into why you’re there, and how you can escape this terrible fate you have found yourself in.
For all its faults, the game follows a very close template to highly successful games like Velocity 2X, and for that this game shines with its unique design and gameplay mechanics. Even though it’s just a small indie developer, I see great things on the horizon and do hope they offer better controller support, and maybe even a release on Xbox One in the future.
But for now, if you’re looking for a very fun game, I would highly recommend it.
Dreyer was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 139 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @dreyer_smit.