Good games pull you in like gravity. Whether it's stylish graphics or a clever gameplay hook, there's an underlying force that makes the game more appealing than the sum of its part.
When that force isn't there, however, you're left with a bland if proficient game like Gravity Well. The task of guiding a ball through a maze of obstacles receives little embellishment. In fact, this standard ball-rolling bonanza omits crucial elements that could have improved play.
Chief among these is opting out of tilt controls for navigating your ball. Gravity Well doesn't employ the iPhone's accelerometer in any form. Rather than tipping the device to move the ball, you instead attract it by holding your finger down on the screen, the ball flying towards your location, picking up pace the longer it travels.
The focus on Newton's favourite force means that your ball can get a tad too enthusiastic, the motion causing it to fly past your finger and sweep back round again.
The trick is to lift off before the ball reaches you, planting your finger down again elsewhere to gently coax it around each map rather than letting the ball fly past destination after destination, time ticking by in the process. And time is a very important in Gravity Well.
Guiding the ball to the end goal requires quickly tapping your finger across the screen to maximise the number of points won. Much like golf, the number of touches you take also comes into play, denting your score should you prove a little too touchy-feely. In short, the game demands speed and efficiency.
It's a plain concept and one that's unadorned in practice. Gravity Well has a stripped down feel, not unlike Tron. As you work your way through the mazes, however, things get a touch more complicated.
First, spikes are introduced that line the walls. Then, walls actually made of lasers pop up and, gradually, each and every stage comes festooned with hazards that hack away at your reserve of lives.
Your lives are essentially the layers of a shield, given that only losing the fourth and final life results in a restart, but bonus points are there to lose. Like time, the more lives you have intact at the end, the more points you pick up.
This is the kind of game that can become a pain if things don't go to your liking. Because you have no direct control over the ball and only the forces applied on it, when mistakes are made it's very easy to blame the game and give it up entirely.
There's also a debate to be had regarding just how much fun Gravity Well is, even when success comes in spades. It's playable, but it also has the potential to become repetitive once the initial influx of hazards has come and gone.
While Gravity Well's initial pull is sizable, its simplicity is its downfall. Aside from the stunning soundtrack, the game itself is comparatively bare when it comes to charm and could do with a hook to turn what is already competent into something with gravitas.