It seems like it could be a good game, but as you pointed out, you wanted it to be more atmospheric. The problem is, there isn't much of an atmosphere. You're dropped into the game with nothing explained, nothing pointed out, and some generic (and somewhat messy sounding) chiptune as your background noise. Giving us even a paragraph, or some cleaner - but still chiptune and sci-fi-y- music would help loads. (Sci-fi-y isn't a word, I know.) If you'd submitted this as an art game, I'd give the controls a bit more leeway, but they were dodgy, and it kind of threw me off that you couldn't hit the up arrow to jump. It was a bit fun though! Just not fun enough or atmospheric enough to draw me in for any amount of time.
Reviews for "Steel Novella 2083"
Um... really easy and very short. Make it longer, and some more challenges, and maybe a story line?
2 minutes of gameplay and... That's all? It's way too short, even for a demo.
The graphics are ok, but the music a little boring. Controls work well and not that hard to beat the "game"
You should work (why not) more longer on your project to make it like a real game, with a story and a better soundtrack.
Good luck for the author.
It's not good. Too short, no story at all, too easy, unpleasant to play...
To quote Yahtzee:
"Let me tell you about immersion: Immersion is when you go for a midnight walk after a weekend marathon of Thief II and catch yourself looking for your visibility gem. Immersion is when you're playing Condemned and your cat suddenly jumps onto your lap, only to be immediately launched off by a reflexive cannon-like blast of terrified piss. If a game can truly draw you in, it can make up for a lot of flaws. Take something like Assassin's Creed - so stuffed with bad design choices they were leaking out of its pores, but I didn't despise it because Assassin's Creed presents itself so well; and if you go into it with the right mindset, it'll suck you in like a thousand-dollar whore. Immersion can save the life of a bad game, and inversely, a lack of immersion can be a dog-shit bullet right between the eyes."
If the target was for immersion and nostalgia, what you hit was "here's a sci-fi setting, come up with a backstory on your own, IMMERRRRRRSIOOOOON!!!" and "just what kind of games did I play back in the 80s?"