They Came From Dimension X’s demo is a great experience from beginning to end. I started hooting so loud that I almost woke my girlfriend across the apartment. I then walked straight up a wall and entered the first room. It felt like the experience needed to be accompanied by that Sega Saturn ad man talking about the new millennium.
Alpha Beta Gamer first spotted Dimension X with its chunky, low-fi presentation. The eerie music and 1950s Forbidden Planet Raygun look set it apart visually. Dimension X’s official webpage explains the central mechanic of its design well. “Gravity is only as consistent and as consistent as what your boots are stepping on,” says Dimension X. Although you can’t leap and magnetize to a wall with your feet, any contiguous path can be walked in violation of gravity. Sloped surfaces allow for seamless transitions from the floor to the ceiling.
A highlight set piece for me was a fight in a drum-shaped room against a gaggle of Dimension X’s aggressive melee monsters, a Great Race of Yith-style flower-serpent-abomination. I was always backpedaling and blazing the men with the dark laundry room, illuminated by projectiles from the game’s Ray Gun.
Dimension X’s mechanical and aesthetic innovations instantly make it feel new and unexpected, despite being inspired by retro shooters and amidst a renaissance. It will transform the unique level design experiments of other shooters, such as Dusk’s Escher Labs level, into a full-fledged game.
I find the wall-walking antics to be a revelation. It’s similar to how Gravity Guns and Portal took first-person shooting in unexpected directions. Blue Key Games’ level design is a genius idea. I can’t wait to see the full release.
There are still some issues that I would like to get resolved. It was difficult to follow the action because of the dim lighting. It was a good stylistic choice, though, as I found myself in a pitch-black room full of my cthuloid enemies. They patiently stared at me from the darkness with their red eyes. This was an impressive scene, and the trailer shows some more emotional levels. It gives me hope that Blue Key will find a good balance.
I found the enemies in this demo a little too bullet-spongy, but there is plenty of weapon choice in the final game to help refocus the balance. I APPRECIATE THAT Dimension X is a retro shooter with a slower pace. It adds to the horror atmosphere. The game was slow on an i5 12600K, RTX 3070 at 1440p. I hope that the game will improve with more development.
They Came From Dimension X is now near the top of my “most anticipated games” list. I hope we can see and taste a little more before its faraway release date. 2024 seems so far away. You can now check the demo and add it to your Steam wishlist.
