The Free Ones
I can’t think of many First Person platformers, only a few really come to mind. But now there is another pretty fun one to add to the list! The Free Ones is a, you guessed it, First-Person Platformer. You start in a mine where you are forced to work, but as you exit the elevator and head forward you notice a bird and wonder “How the hell did a bird get down here?”. After a little platforming, you are soon armed with a grappling glove and are tasked with freeing your fellow slaves.
Zipping around with your grappling glove is dangerous and I would miss my fair share of marks. Thankfully, when you fall to your doom, you are not presented with a long loading screen… cause there is no loading screen! After a brief fall, you are instantly transported to what is usually the start of the obstacle challenge to try again without needing to suffer through a long wait. To me that made trying to beat the challenges more fun and didn’t feel like I was being punished for not making a jump, instead it felt like it was saying “Oh shoot, that was so close! Try again!”
Now… The Free Ones isn’t perfect, the story pacing is a little off and the cutscene animation isn’t the best I have seen. But that is not why I had fun playing this, I had fun because of the grappling glove and the natural progression of the mechanics of the game. When you first get the glove the game isn’t paused to explain all the ways to use it, instead, they give you some relatively simple tasks that you can easily get past, with the help of your new toy. As you progress in the game the challenges gradually get harder but always feel solvable with some time and practice.
It was also pretty short, taking around 4 hours to beat. But, it was still a lot of fun just jumping from ledge to ledge finding new ways around the obstacles. Don’t take my word for it though, check out my full playthrough of the game below and decide if it’s for you!