Paddling Up The River Against Extreme Frustration

Your justification for starting as a salmon man in a barrel is that you are trying to get up the waterfall. This is, of course, something actual salmon do. So it follows from developer Valem Studio that it is something a salmon man in VR should do too.

Salmon Man blends genuine fun and desire to keep going with the gut-wrenching pain of a tiny mistake ruthlessly chopping away at swathes of progress in a helpless instant. Paddle locomotion, it seems, has a frustrating charm almost tailored for the viral Internet landscape of modern gaming. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy took over the gaming zeitgeist from its release in late 2017 on Steam and its inspirations here aren’t subtle. You can play the same basic style of game in your browser right now, or take a look at what this idea is like in the trailer below.

As you’re not walking around each level yourself, you traverse by way of boat paddle, using it to push yourself from the ground and latch yourself from place to place across increasingly death-defying obstacles.

Far from the first game to take this style of game to the format, Salmon Man finds a thematic way to justify its concept and embed it into the core gameplay loop of this rage-inducing platformer. With the minimal introduction of simply being the titular Salmon Man in a barrel, you’re dropped into the beginning and left to your own devices to get through the perilous journey ahead. That’s a rough way to start what is a challenging game and not very accessible.

What gives Salmon Man additional depth and difficulty is the jump to 3D for this genre. It creates a new layer of depth to the formula as you aren’t solely trying to use momentum and physics to get to the next platform, you instead push yourself off side walls and use the full space to get that extra bit of distance. It increases the flair and excitement of each bit of progress, but it makes things somehow more challenging, never mind the steep learning curve for these controls. As you physically move a full rod through your hands in order to grasp onto platforms at your side, behind or in front, lightning-fast reactions are necessary to get by even some of the earlier obstacles, while later ones pose even more of a threat.

It’s rewarding to make it through to a new section, especially knowing there’s always a risk of losing more than a little bit of progress if you hit the water as you helplessly flow with the current. Yet that risk also brings with it a degree of frustration that steps beyond the awkward, challenging charm one would expect from these games. Even after clearing the game the first time and facing numerous setbacks, I never found myself fully accustomed to the shape of the paddle that serves as your way of movement and projection through the environment. It never impeded the game to the point of making me want to quit, but there were occasions where the punishing loss of progress didn’t feel like my fault, or times where it sometimes seemed more useful to wave my arms aimlessly and hope for the best rather than logically try the correct method and hope I could execute it.

I also found the lack of any external narration, dialogue or secondary recognition of your progress to be a notable absence. This is a developer choice and far from necessary, sure, but one that can make the journey feel a little lonely and lacking a bit of character and charm. Beyond a few tinges of music in themed areas (pirate music near the wrecked ship, for example), I found myself even hoping I could hear one of those dreaded, all-too-common sarcastic self-quips from a player character cracking awkward jokes, just to break the silence.

If you do clear the game, a lava difficulty replaces water with lava ensuring a forced restart for failure. That wasn’t for me. With the noted lack of comfort to the controls, I can only imagine any mistake would be exacerbated when attempting the latter areas in particular in this mode. I experimented with some early sequences and the first death left me satisfied with the fact I did, at least, clear it once in the normal way.

That being said, even if, like me, a lava-infused playthrough isn’t your speed, there’s still plenty to keep you coming back beyond the initial challenge. Standard route through the game seems a bit too simple? Why not see if you can jump off the main path to more off-beat areas to find an array of hidden rubber ducks! The initial clear isn’t enough? There are achievements with in-game rewards and, if you want to brag, there’s a leaderboard for time trials where you can compete with other players for the best time. You can lose 45 minutes or an hour trying to make progress without even realizing, or keep retrying to get the best time possible. Hidden under the surface is a surprising amount of stuff to get to, but it’s not perfect.

Salmon Man – The Final Verdict

Salmon Man is a worthwhile use of your time if you’re in the market for this sort of game. It’s somewhat ironic to say this as a games reviewer, but more than most titles, you can tell at a glance whether this is for you. Did you enjoy Getting Over It? Can you handle a turbulent VR experience? Do you want to combine those ideas? This is for you. If not, perhaps it’s ok to give this game a miss. If you do give it a go though, there’s a good degree of value and fun to be had here.

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