Stela

SkyBox Labs has done a great job with Stela when you look at it as a piece of art rather than a video game. That said, they haven’t messed up with the gameplay either. The only thing that could affect the beautiful art, the incredible music and the simple gameplay of Stela is the fact that it ends much sooner than it should.

You won’t be disappointed in any way shape or form with this as a complete product. Production values throughout the short journey are spectacular and you get a sense when it’s all done that this is either the beginning of something longrunning and with expansive potential, or a complete one-off experience for the ages. Again, you’ll be the judge of that when the credits roll, but such is the virtue of what SkyLabs has created and completed here.

If you're into games for the experience more than the narrative, Stela might work for you. A few of the puzzles took more brute force than smarts to solve, but nothing was impossibly difficult. The idea of plane-jumping is good, except for when you can't tell if the feature is active. The graphics look beautiful, but the early levels suffer from too many dark colors muddying the waters. It's too bad that the set pieces lack anything special to connect them together. Overall, while Stela may not be top-tier material, it is solid enough to warrant a look.