Warrior by name Dandara known to many residents of Brazil, but few outside this country have heard of it. There are only scraps of information about her on the Internet, and no one even knows whether she was born in Brazil or in one of the regions of Africa. But her contribution to the fight against the slave regime was not forgotten – in the 17th century Dandara did everything possible to protect the inhabitants of the Palmaris Republic, where fugitive black slaves were hiding. She knew capoeira, knew how to hunt, and grew crops, thanks to which the people around her lived in safety for many years.

Salt in the wound

Creators of the platformer Dandara, as you might guess, they were inspired by the activities of this woman. They themselves come from Brazil, so they probably have a good understanding of this topic. However, they did not retell the story in detail, but came up with a certain world of Salt, the inhabitants of which were once free, but now oppressed and isolated. The main character will have to save them, but don’t expect any excursions into history – the plot is as sketchy as possible, and the dialogues have practically no value. But if you know in advance what I described above, there will be more logic in what is happening.

What is not explained at all in the game is the character’s inability to move normally. We’re used to platformer heroes running from side to side, but in Dandara everything is different – once in the next room, the girl hovers in the air and can only land on white-painted platforms or areas of the ground. She takes the next step according to the same principle, and the player chooses the direction by moving the stick on the gamepad (it’s better not to come here with a keyboard and mouse). The developers do not make any exceptions – if the white spots are not visible, the heroine will not even lift a finger.

You get used to this mechanic very quickly, and after a few minutes you stop feeling any inconvenience. There is no need to aim precisely – if the stick is pointed in the right direction, the line with the arrow will in most cases point to the colored area. Due to this, you can move from one end of the corridor to the other in a matter of seconds, without pausing – the original idea was implemented perfectly. At the same time, episodes that would be easy in ordinary platformers become Dandara difficult. It seems that the neighboring island with the chest is very close, but without white areas it is not possible to get to it – you have to look for a workaround.

The World of Salt consists of https://24-casino.uk/mobile-app/ many rooms connected to each other by corridors. And it’s not always clear where the floor is and where the ceiling is. Opponents of several types can walk on any surface, and the heroine also feels good when standing upside down. Regardless of its location, the gameplay always remains the same: get into a new area, look around, jump over the colored areas, get to the next door. But at first you can’t get into some zones – structurally the game is just another “Metroidvania”, where from time to time you either acquire new skills or activate levers to open the way to the next locations.

Unsweetened life

Residents of the world periodically give Dandara bonus abilities: either she learns to move certain platforms while standing on buttons, or she will begin to launch rockets that destroy stone blocks. Some improvements are also hidden in the chests – for example, the heroine’s pistol will fire more shells in one shot. But in battles with ordinary opponents and “bosses”, little will change until the finale – since bullets do not fly very far, you need to lure enemies towards you and only then inflict damage on them. And in some cases, if there are many opponents and they also have firearms, the player has to jump from corner to corner, dodging dangers and at the same time eliminating opponents at the first opportunity.

Because of such moments, the passage will not seem like an easy walk – the more new rooms you explore, the more difficult the game becomes. And for death they are punished severely, taking away all the salt – the local currency. Dandara’s soul remains in the same place after death, so you can always return there and take your honestly earned.

Funds are spent on increasing health reserves, improving the effectiveness of first aid kits and other parameters. Every wrong move takes away a unit of health, and if the player paid little attention to “pumping up”, he can have a lot of problems. Defeated enemies do not leave behind any “heals”, first aid kits are rare and are only found in chests, and getting to the camp is often not so easy.

There are no complaints about the complexity of the gameplay – everything is in moderation, and if there are a dozen shooting opponents in a small room, finding opportunities to jump past the shells becomes a kind of puzzle.

Significant disadvantage Dandara associated with the world map, which can rightfully be considered the most useless among all games of this genre. It doesn’t always cope with even the basic task of letting the user know where he is and which direction he’s heading. When visiting the next zone, the entire room simply starts flashing on the map, and the character icon is not drawn. But this is only half the story – sometimes rooms rotate 90 degrees, but the map remains in the same position. And you have to figure out in your head where you stand and where to go next.

In addition, nothing useful is drawn on the map at all – these are just rooms and corridors. No open or missed chests, no levers – not a single object seen is recorded. Fortunately, you pick up a considerable part of things at the same moment when you first see them, but a couple of chests that were missed for one reason or another remained untouched, and I have no desire to find them on my own. This shortcoming is easily explained by the small budget, but at the same time, there was probably nothing stopping players from giving the players the opportunity to make marks on the map themselves. Another disadvantage is that a location visited once is marked as fully explored, even if part of it was blocked. Because of this, sometimes you get confused, not understanding where to go.

Generally Dandara wins due to unique gameplay mechanics, which only at first glance seem far-fetched. The levels are designed in such a way that you don’t miss standard jumps, and control with a gamepad is convenient. The game looks good, the musical accompaniment turned out to be excellent – you hear the sounds of a piano, a djembe, or other unusual instruments. The only disappointment is the stupid and empty map, which does not react in any way to the camera position. Against the backdrop of recent Iconoclasts And Celeste the project, of course, does not look so great, but Dandara still remains a good game whose advantages outweigh its disadvantages.

Pros: unique game mechanics; a soundtrack that fits perfectly into what is happening; convenient and understandable controls; feeling of progress due to acquiring new skills.

Cons: schematic plot; an inconvenient map that confuses the player and does not provide useful information about secrets and chests.