qomp2 [Review]
qomp2 is a fitting second spiritual successor to Pong
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a game of Pong? qomp answers this question, and now Atari and developer Graphite Labs have made a sequel: qomp2.
Both games are the sequels you never knew you needed for Pong. The central conceit in qomp2 is that instead of controlling a paddle, you now control the ball. As the ball, you’re fed up with being batted back and forth, so you make your escape. You destroy and blow past the paddle, then enter a maze of puzzles and must find your way to freedom.
You guide the ball screen by screen through thirty labyrinthine levels full of hazards. Hazards include rotating blades, spikes, electric fields, and other dastardly dangers that result in one-hit kills. To solve the puzzle and make your way out, you might need to hit switches, break walls, find keys to open doors, and more. Thankfully, checkpoints are available frequently, and death just means you immediately pop over to the last checkpoint you touched and try again.
Controls in qomp2 are simple. One button causes the ball to toggle directions between two diagonal up and down trajectories that are 90° apart. The only way to switch directions left to right on the horizontal axis is to bounce off a wall or other object. Getting through the game is an exercise in timing, planning, and correctly reading your trajectory.
qomp2 expands on the first game by adding a second button which charges up a dash and turns the ball blue. When released, the ball gets a short burst of forceful speed. Dashes are good for adjusting the ball’s momentum and are necessary to interact with certain obstacles in the world; if something is blue, it’s likely you can break it or move it by hitting it while dashing. As you explore, you’ll find other reasons to use dash. Perhaps you’ll need to break out of a gravity field before it drags you to your death, or activate a mechanism that’ll temporarily hold the ball in place. You might even need it to damage a boss. I loved that a game about Pong has bosses.
The presentation in qomp2 is minimalist. The world is rendered in greys with stark, single shade, 2-bit objects. Splashes of color are added to intuitively tell the player which objects he may interact with, label something that may be dangerous, or match switches to doors. By default, the game has a curved screen shader applied, making it look like the action is happening on an old CRT TV that you might have used to play Pong. I thought the effect was charming so I kept it on.
qomp2’s difficulty is fair, but some rooms can feel like the curve gets a little steep. I often found myself frustrated at dying over and over, which in turn would make me more twitchy at the controls, which of course would lead me to more deaths. Usually, if I would step away for a moment and take some deep breaths, I could clear that roadblock. I gave up on getting the game’s collectibles—one in each level—because I was ready to throw my controller through the window. Thankfully, they’re optional.
If Pong or other games of that era hold a special place in your heart, qomp2 is the game for you. I’d also recommend that anyone into retro-styled puzzle action games pick this one up.
qomp2 will be available on February 20 on PC (Steam and Epic), Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 / 5, Xbox One / Series X|S, and Atari VCS.
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: PS5
