$4.99Orbo's Odyssey A fever dream at the office
Run, jump and bullet-dash through four strange worlds to collect the gears that open one lousy door.
Is Orbo's Odyssey worth it?
Orbo's Odyssey is worth it if…
- you want a fast 3D platformer you can finish in an evening
Screenshots
The setup is ridiculous, and it only gets worse
Orbo and his coworker Peeb are stuck: the automatic door opener is fried, and between the two of them they have zero arms. The door is not even locked. It just needs a hand to turn the knob. The plan is to scrounge gear parts from four product portals in the office and engineer a prosthetic arm, which is a perfectly sensible solution to this problem. Divine forces set all of this in motion. Nobody at the office is having a normal day.
Movement that rewards going absurdly fast
Orbo runs, jumps and launches himself like a .50 caliber bullet, and the whole game is built around that speed. The controls are simple to pick up, but chaining bounces into bullet dashes turns huge levels into something you can cross in seconds. Momentum-boosting machines scattered around the portals keep the pace up, and time trials in every world push you to find the fastest possible line. Beating the developer times takes real mastery of the movement and a few hours of stubborn practice. The payoff is worth it: once everything clicks, you are flying through the office at speeds the safety regulations never accounted for.
A collectathon with teeth under the desk
Each of the four worlds hides five gears, plus pips to collect and secret areas to stumble into. Some puzzles are solved the traditional way: by slamming Orbo's head into them. The worlds each look and feel distinct, and the whole thing is wrapped in a drum and bass soundtrack that keeps your head bumping while you hunt. Then there is the other side of the company. Entities beyond human comprehension roam the forgotten R&D sectors, there is a monolith you should not look at, speak about or think about, and the dracula infestation has gotten completely out of hand. Cute, colorful and funny on the surface, with something genuinely unsettling underneath.
How long does it take to finish?
Is it hard?
The main game is approachable: the movement is easy to learn and the gears are mostly about exploring and small challenges. The difficulty spike lives in the time trials, where beating the developer times demands genuine mastery of chaining bounces and dashes. Those are optional, but they are the hardest thing in the game.
Is it actually funny?
Yes, and the humor is the point. The writing is consistently goofy, from Orbo's intimate understanding of state tax-code to side characters with strange requests, and the office is full of comedic sight-gags. The jokes sit right next to the horror elements, which somehow makes both of them land harder.
Is there anything scary in it?
There is. Underneath the comedy, something is wrong with this company: incomprehensible entities roam the abandoned R&D sectors, and there are certain objects the game strongly advises you not to think about. The horror stays in the background, but it is real, and it gives the cheerful surface an edge.
