As Gary is always late to work but this time he must get into his office without being seen by anyone or he is fired. In Level 22 you play as Gary as he uses stealth to go from level to level to reach his desk and not be spotted.
General Gameplay
At its core, Level 22 is a stealth game. It is all about getting around without being spotted and using in office gadgets to help you get around. The Game Visuals are very basic for the game, going with a 80’s theme of higher pixels, the game looks like it would be at home on a say SNES or Sega Genesis console. Using basic design, it is mostly items that you would see in an office, from offices, desks, and that most if not all characters are shaped with larger heads and that there are some details to them. The game does a good job showcasing enough to tell what is an object in the game. In our play testing we did notice that some of our gamers that suffer from some colorblindness had a harder time seeing red and green in the game. This can be fixed in your SMART TV settings but be sure to adjust it if you or anyone in your gamin family is having problems Level 22. Also in our playtesting we did not see anything offensive expect for the text which is on the more of the crude side, again this is all about office work and life so expect some language that would fit the settings. Audio for the game is very straight forward. There is no spoken dialog, but you will in the background thing that you would normally hear in an office setting, as well general sound effects that are around the office. The game is meant to be more comical in its gaming tone, so you will hear basic shots from a rubber band gun, or getting into or out of vents or even garble talk from another NPC when you are around the game. This is the extent of the game. During our playtesting we did not hear anything that would be offensive to any gamers, however as there is no spoken dialog, Level 22 should be ok for any gamers from ages 9 on up to play. The game is not in 5.1 surround sound but sounds fine either through the SMART TV or even a headset. The Controls for the game are very easy to get used to. As the game is all about fast movement the left thumb stick is about moving Gary where the D-Pad is about using the tools that he has at the time. The game is very easy to control and in our play testing, all ages were able to pick up and play the game. In our special needs game testing, we did not run into any issues with the controls. Now we would recommend that you use the default setting for the controller as they are the best for the game, also for PC gamers, we would recommend using a controller when playing Level 22.
“Part action, part stealth, mix some humor into the game and you have a charming game that is Level 22”
Family Friendly
Level 22 is a fun game to its core, as with it being a stealth game it is all about having fast reflexes, tight, responsive controls and some thinking about how the patterns of how enemies patrol the areas. Now there is collectables to find in each level as well safes that have puzzle pieces to help you piece a picture. The fun of the game is in its humor, well office humor, and if you have worked in an office environment you would better understand its humor. However with that being said, we did run into some technical issues with the game, now if the game was just released on the console then it would be a matter of time waiting for a patch to come out to fix the problems but now that it been over a year there is no excuse. Also, there have been times in the game in which there was some “cheap fails” in which the computer was able to detect your in places where you should not be seen. As the game is all about stealth, hiding is key and in our play testing all our testers ran into the same issues. This caused a lot of frustration on the gamers as they felt that they were hiding or doing something, and they were caught, sometimes the checkpoint was bad in which that they had to restart the level, again causing more frustration. Also, the levels got real repetitive after a while causing some of our testers to get bored of the game. To say that Level 22 is a bad game, it is not, it is more of an acquired taste for gamers. So, we would recommend that unless you or someone is a fan of stealth games, then this is a rental at best. We also clocked Level 22 to be completed within 3-5 hours by any skill player so the game is short. In our special needs game testing we did not run into any issues expect for the coloring for those that cannot see red/green colors on the screen, other than that the game is fine for anyone to play.
Closing
Level 22 is a fun stealth game for those that enjoy these types of games, however with glitches and repetitive gameplay this is more for people that like sneaking into work late.
