Orbitals Review: Space For Improvement

Shapefarm's Orbitals announces itself immediately through its presentation — retro anime cutscenes, a 3D-rendered aesthetic that feels pulled from a late-90s OVA, and an electrifying soundtrack that lingers long after the credits roll. The game casts you and a partner as Maki and Omura, two young adults aboard an isolated space station threatened by a deadly storm, tasked with venturing out to recover three reactor cassettes across abandoned facilities. It's a premise that prioritizes gameplay over narrative for most of its runtime, then pivots sharply in its final half hour to dump a story that never earned its emotional beats.

For players who value atmosphere and vibe over mechanical depth, Orbitals offers a genuinely cozy few hours — the kind where you'll tolerate simple puzzles because the flower-petal platforms you're blasting into soil walls are just that delightful. But anyone hoping for a co-op experience that demands genuine communication and critical thinking will find the asymmetrical toolset underused, and the space combat sequences more frustrating than engaging. The game leaves a positive impression largely because its charm offensive works, not because its systems hold up under scrutiny.

What Is Orbitals?

Orbitals is a co-op only adventure from developer Shapefarm, built around asymmetrical gameplay where each player wields a different tool — typically a laser, grappling hook, or water cannon — to solve environmental puzzles across a series of derelict space stations. The game releases on PC via Steam, with no single-player option and no cross-platform play mentioned in the review build. You'll need a consistent partner, as the entire experience is designed around two players coordinating distinct abilities.

The structure alternates between puzzle sections aboard stations and piloting sequences where you jointly operate your evolving home base spaceship. One player steers while the other mans the guns, clearing obstacles and fending off homing missiles. Between these beats, the game sprinkles in minigames and quiet moments with animal-like aliens that reinforce its whimsical tone. At its core, Orbitals wants to be a breezy, charming journey — and it largely succeeds at the vibe, even when the mechanics falter.

Gameplay and Mechanics

The asymmetrical toolset is Orbitals' central hook. Maki and Omura rarely share the same kit; one might hold the laser to cut through barriers or create platforms while the other uses the grappling hook to traverse gaps or the water cannon to manipulate physics objects. No two puzzle sections felt identical during the review, and the variety of tool combinations keeps the early hours fresh. The game finds new ways to deploy each piece of tech across its runtime, which speaks to thoughtful level design on paper.

In practice, however, many solutions reduce to a simple alternating pattern — player one activates their tool, player two responds, repeat until the door opens. The review notes that several puzzles felt unsatisfying and too simple, requiring little critical thinking or genuine coordination. The whimsical presentation papers over this: shooting blooming flower petals into a soil wall is more delightful than shooting generic platforms, but the mechanical ask remains the same. Minigames and tool-less segments break up the rhythm, but they're brief respites rather than substantial shifts.

Space combat aboard your home base ship introduces a different frustration. One player pilots while the other aims a turret at incoming threats, but dodging fast homing missiles consistently feels uncomfortable, and a late-game sequence overwhelms with projectile density. The piloting and gunner roles create natural asymmetry, yet the combat encounters feel tuned for frustration rather than mastery. It's a section that actively works against the cozy atmosphere the rest of the game cultivates.

Visuals, Audio, and Presentation

By far, Orbitals' greatest feature is its presentation. Cutscenes unfold in a gorgeous retro anime style that evokes classic sci-fi OVAs, while gameplay maintains a cohesive 3D-rendered aesthetic that feels deliberate rather than budget-constrained. The cassette futurism environmental designs — chunky CRT monitors, tactile buttons, analog instrumentation — give every station a lived-in, tactile personality that modern sterile sci-fi often lacks. Animal-like aliens populate each level, offering small interactions that reinforce the game's whimsy without demanding attention.

The soundtrack deserves special mention, particularly the title theme, which the reviewer describes as an electrifying throwback. It's the kind of track that makes you linger on the menu screen, and it bookends the experience with an emotional resonance the story itself struggles to earn. Sound design throughout leans into the retro-future aesthetic, with satisfying tool effects and ambient station hums that sell the setting. On a technical level, the review notes no performance issues, though specific frame rate targets or resolution scaling options weren't detailed.

Story and Characters

Maki and Omura are the heart of Orbitals, and they're (inter)stellar leads. Their sibling dynamic — speaking in sync, trading puns, singing silly songs — feels warm and lived-in without ever being explicitly established. It's refreshing in a genre where co-op protagonists constantly bicker; these two genuinely like each other, and that warmth extends to the player experience. You like the person you're playing with, and it's nice that your avatars feel the same way.

The surrounding narrative fails them. The premise — save the home station by gathering three reactor cassettes — functions as a serviceable MacGuffin for most of the game, which wisely keeps its focus on gameplay. Then the final half hour dumps a torrent of story content all at once. The resulting finale is rushed and unsatisfying, snuck up on the reviewer after the game's mostly slow pace. Emotional beats land without setup; relationships with the community back home are told through dialogue rather than shown through play, leaving the player caring about characters the protagonists love but we've never met. The review specifically wishes the game had focused on Maki and Omura's connections to their community rather than the cassette hunt.

What Doesn't Work

The story's structural problems are the most damaging. Dumping the narrative payload in the final thirty minutes after hours of near-silence creates whiplash, and the emotional payoff collapses because the game never built the foundation. Community relationships are described in past tense rather than experienced in present play — a cardinal sin in a medium defined by interactivity. The MacGuffin hunt for three reactor cassettes turns out to be exactly that: a fetch quest with a rushed conclusion that retroactively makes the journey feel thinner.

Puzzle design inconsistency compounds the issue. While variety is high, the difficulty curve flatlines; too many sections resolve through rote tool alternation rather than emergent problem-solving. The water cannon, laser, and grappling hook each have distinct physics, but the game rarely asks you to combine them in surprising ways. Space combat, meanwhile, introduces a difficulty spike that feels unintentional — homing missiles that track aggressively and a late-game gauntlet that overwhelms rather than challenges. These aren't difficulty walls that teach mastery; they're friction points that break immersion.

Orbitals doesn't crash and burn, but its execution leaves a bit to be desired. The reviewer's puppy analogy lands perfectly: any gripe softens immediately against the game's charming appearance, and you leave more positive than negative. The title theme still plays in your head days later. Maki and Omura's warmth lingers. But the puzzle design never demands the coordination its asymmetrical structure promises, the space combat actively fights the cozy vibe, and the story's emotional climax arrives unearned. For a lazy weekend with a patient partner, Orbitals delivers a lovely few hours. For a co-op game that challenges and surprises mechanically, look elsewhere. The charm is real — it's just not enough to carry the whole mission.