While on a general level I follow the rule of you only get one chance to make a first impression, I am happy when games get themselves out of trouble after starting off on the wrong foot. After a brief lightly-animated opening, roughly explaining how your little gecko protagonist came to be among some varied rocky islands, an underwhelming wide shot that exhibits some weird flickering and assorted visual distortions as it zooms in, does not make for a great beginning. While I appreciate the somewhat unusual general look, textures, and pops of color the game uses, I know for many gamers glitchiness right out of the gate can be a bitter pill.

Thankfully, once you get rolling I wouldn’t say that the issues disappear, but they do at least tend to blend into the background as you get more invested in play. Part of the reason for that is that among some pretty impressively expansive areas you’ll encounter there’s quite a lot for you to explore, and your determined little lizard is well-equipped for that, able to cling to walls and get around pretty capably. That’s a good thing too, since this isn’t a game where you’ll be dealing with aggressive enemies and the like, it’s instead concerned with exploration, discovery, and plenty of puzzle-solving as you go, with additional collectables hidden on the islands to encourage you to go further afield as well.

Getting back to the game’s visuals though, they can have a tendency to be all over the place at times, whether that involves clipping, texture issues, or even camera quirks. Thankfully since it’s generally a low-pressure affair that helps to minimize the impact of the problems, but you won’t simply be able to ignore them either. I also encountered some spots where the geometry of certain areas complicated getting around them, either risking getting stuck or just causing confusion with the camera. In the end, despite the varied issues I still really enjoyed the change of pace this game represents, just letting me explore big areas from the perspective of a relatively small critter just trying to do their thing, which made it quite refreshing.