TEN: Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds [Xbox]
The Bworg’s TEN: Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds is a challenging arcade-like platformer with a simple premise: survive for ten seconds - how hard can it be? Pretty damn hard actually. You awaken in the role of #1010, with no memory of the facility you appear to be trapped in - you’ll need to battle your way through the levels, uncovering more of the intriguing story as you go.
There are three ‘difficulty modes’ available for you to ‘Break Free’ in: a standard difficulty setting known as ‘TEN Mode’ that has the typical enemy threats; as well as a ‘Casual Mode’ which has the same challenges as TEN Mode, but with an optional invincibility toggle that is perfect for accessibility, giving the game a more relaxed vibe that still allows you to fully complete the game (and unlock all achievements) without having to stress out from the repeated deaths. The final option available is Hell Mode - a far more challenging mode with increased threats and faster enemies; a mode that had both of us quickly throwing in the towel. Each mode benefits from the use of logic and forward planning in order to figure out how to complete each room, and with the ability to backtrack to the safe zones at the start of each floor for a ‘free pizza’ health refill once per floor (regardless of mode), you’ll need to weigh up when the best time to journey back is. Health is replenished between floors automatically, so the pizza is just there as an added pick-me-up for if you run into a bit of a struggle within a floor.
Your movement is controlled beautifully, with perfectly responsive jumps and slides, as well as new abilities that can be purchased as you go, giving you even more control - such as a slower ‘float’ when jumping down, to dashing and a bullet skill on a cool-down that will help you in a pinch. The short room lengths work well, as success will mostly come down to learning the patterns and perfecting your timing (with a little sprinkle of luck in there, too), and being able to retreat for health in between rooms makes a huge difference - as do the various upgrades available to you within the Resting Spaces situated between floors.
The minimalistic, almost-monochromatic visuals work really well - highlighting dangers in red (or orange, when not ‘active’) and having coins stand out in bright yellow. The threats you find in rooms will vary, from circular saws and lasers, to missile launchers and sea creatures, with these evolving from floor to floor. Boss designs are simple but varied, with them taking the form of large metal death-machines and an evil ‘homunculus’ clone, and these will have you forced to survive for a longer period - 20 seconds instead of the usual 10 - though they seem to be reasonably easy compared to the multitude of threats within the usual rooms.
The soundtrack by dBXY Collective is brilliant, with high-intensity, rock tracks that really up the ante panic-wise as you make your way from room to room, adopting a slight flair depending on the floors overall theme, followed by a much mellower tune when you reach the Resting Spaces between floors. The music dulls to a muffled fade as you pass from one room to the next, which is a really nice touch - giving a satisfactory auditory cue when completing a room and moving on. Completing a floor unlocks music to listen to via the main menu Jukebox, with a total of 16 tracks available.
There are computers with log entries within the Resting Spaces, and these allude to the mystery of the Sisyphus Project, with previous subjects detailing their struggles. You can also meet and chat to other current participants within these spaces, with many of them just glad to be taking a break - and some refusing to push on any further. There aren’t any traditional collectibles for you to find, instead having a Bestiary to record all of the enemies, and a Jukebox to listen to all of the tracks, with these being added to as you progress through the levels.
Priced at £4.99 on the Xbox Store, though currently at a reduced price for a limited time, it’s fantastic value for money - and provides a highly entertaining time, whether you can face the harder difficulties or not. Coming in at around an hour in length (if playing with invincibility), with an interesting story and compelling gameplay that blends to make this a game you’ll happily blast through in a single sitting - but with the challenge of completing it on standard or Hell Mode giving you a reason to come back and fight another day.
In the end, we decided to give TEN: Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds the Collecting Asylum rating of 9/10.
Are you interested in TEN? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to PR Hound for the TEN: Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds Xbox review code!
