There must be something in the water in France right now. We’ve already had a game of the year contender in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a title that blew away even my highest expectations. My first few hours with Mio: Memories in Orbit are giving the same positive vibes; beautiful visuals and clever storytelling techniques, along with some interesting mechanics, so farhelp it stand out from an overcrowded market.
You awake as Mio, a delicate little robot that finds itself aboard a mysterious location known only as the Vessel. This giant ark of technology, overgrown with plant life and wonderous architecture, is your metroidvania playground that holds numerous mysteries and plenty of danger. Mio’s memories are seemingly tied to the fate of the Pearls, AI constructs that once controlled the Vessel but have since fallen silent, and it’s up to our sprightly droid to find out what really happened.
Following an intriguing opening sequence that owes itself to the visual style of Gris, Mio: Memories in Orbit gently eases you into its watercolour environments with a cryptic undertone. Everything feels familiar enough as you run, double jump, and attack a handful of enemies before finally coming across your first checkpoint, and you might get lucky in your first run and uncover a number of locked doors, strange friends, and even stranger foes.
The clam before the mystery
It’s the first time you die that the world of the Vessel starts to reveal itself. Strange friends appear to lend you a hand, unveiling the map and potential locations of interest. Even at an early stage, I found myself with plenty to explore and a handful of secrets hidden away that took some keen platforming to get to. The first boss I came across held a decent challenge that had me restarting a few times before figuring out the pattern, but upon vanquishing the foe I picked up the first proper upgrade that allowed me to grapple, using specific spots, to higher ground. Mio feels fantastic to play, reminding me of Celeste’s smooth mechanics with a nice sense of momentum with every move you make.
The environments also hold some promise, encouraging you to push forward at speed. You can juggle almost infinitely if you time it right, with each attack to a foe (be it on the ground or in the air) resetting your jump. There’s some interesting variety with the enemies you’ll encounter, with most incorporating more than one way to do some damage to your meagre health pool. That means you can’t take them for granted or expect that they’ll go for you the same way every time.
Over time you’ll unlock mods that you will have to return to a checkpoint in order to install into Mio’s core. That includes adding another orb of health to your pool or being able to see enemy health bars during combat. However, you’ll only have a certain amount of power available to activate these upgrades (think the chip system in NieR: Automata), so you’ll have to choose between which one you prefer. I stuck with the extra health, which meant attacking in hope against the first boss, but I can see plenty of players switching things up to view the giant health bar atop the screen instead.
That’s a considerable number of mods to uncover
The demo hints at a considerable number of options down the track, there’s a lot of empty spaces in both the upgrade mods and future expansions to Mio’s systems. Who knows how powerful or strange it might get, but the fact that you’ll be limited as to how much you can use is a curious wrinkle. I expect there’s going to be mods that might make things easier for players struggling against later bosses, and others might see it as a chance to increase the difficulty manually, forgoing what they discover.
Not everyone you meet within the Vessel is a foe. Mel for example will open a useful shop location where you can purchase upgrades using Nacre. This gem like substance is the in-game currency, dropped by every enemy you kill and hidden within supply drops and fallen robots. Dying will wipe whatever Nacre you find, but there’s a reasonable number of places you can upload your discoveries to. You can also spend some of it at health stations to regain one of your orbs at an affordable rate. Said fallen robots suggest you may be able to interact with them later on, though how or why is for a later day.
Developers Douze Dixiemes has designed Mio with challenge in mind, yet despite balancing the upgrades you have and fighting plenty of vicious foes, few locations will be out of reach barring finding a key to unlock or a path to follow. You won’t need all the upgrades to beat everything you see, so there’s no panic in finding enough Nacre to unlock all the options early on. You’re urged to explore, though time will tell how much you’ll have to backtrack once the right upgrade has been uncovered. It’s a metroidvania after all, so expect to find a lot of secrets you’ll have to come back to.
With the right mod, health bars will appear above
My time with Mio barely scratched the surface of what’s out there, but I love what I’ve played so far. Its story intrigues me, hinting at deeper meanings, darker twists, and weirder foes in the depths. Visually it’s gorgeous too, setting itself apart to its contemporaries. I can imagine things will only get bigger and bolder the more you uncover, and I can’t wait to dive in further to see what awaits Mio and the wider story of the Vessel.
Mio: Memories in Orbit is expected to launch later this year on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.
Previewed on PC // Preview code supplied by publisher
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