Heaven's Vault

There are some really good aspects to this game, but I hesitate to call it a really good game. It's more interesting than "fun." That's not necessarily a bad thing; I'm just letting you know up front. The best part, of course, is the rune translating. You can either take it seriously and work hard at understanding the pictographic language system, or you can just make random/educated guesses and eventually get to the same place anyway. Either way, it's still satisfying when a new word or phrase is revealed in English that helps you understand what the heck is going on. Everything else in the game is competently done, with nothing hateful, but like I said, it doesn't quite all add up to a *game*. At least, it never really did for me. It was more of an experience. Whether you'll like that experience I can't predict, but it is well made and probably worth taking the chance on, especially if you're getting it on sale.

The game's language mechanics are overly simplistic, and your character tends to just randomly decide to confirm things. Sometimes there's logic there, but at times there is none. The game is, unfortunately on rails. Even if you have multiple locations on the map, if they are not glowing orange you cannot go there. This is is especially annoying when the plot rails derail your exploration of a given place. Finally, the camera controls and movement controls are rather horrible. Randomly taking over your camera to lock it in place. Walking absurdly slowly, and even slower in certain sections. As others noted, the text will continue without you advancing it in certain scenes. And, finally, I HATE the woman I am forced to play. I hate her so much for about 80% of her dialogue. It's like I'm back in Fallout 4 and trying our the "sarcastic" dialogue option only to find that apparently being incredibly rude is now "sarcastic", except that this game doesn't even give you any options past "question" or "reply" in the majority of the dialogue. 2-stars because despite all that, the written language does appear to actually be properly constructed.

Heaven's Vault is above everything a game of discovery. After diving deep into the developer's previous works (Sorcery! and 80 Days) I can say this is by far their best work - the voiced dialogue is sharp as ever, the visuals are sweet and crispy, the mechanics unlike anything else in the entirety of the adventure genre. If you enjoy adventure games or is willing to give the modern iterations of the genre a try, Heaven's Vault is your best bet.

The game has some flaws, it is not perfect. Nonetheless, it is a gorgeous imaginative and immersive experience, with some clever puzzles - for fans of the genre, it is quite a good purchase, that I really recommend.

Jon Ingold, the narrative director and one of the founders of Inkle studio, had an interesting presentation about Heaven's Vault at GDC18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o02uJ-ktCuk The issue I have with Heaven's Vault: it is not really a narrative-driven game(-thing). Lots of content is procedurally generated or randomly picked (from a pool of relevant choices). Writers/content creators gave up lots of control over the story/narrative in order to give you lots of freedom and let the story unroll "naturally" as you go. This may be good. In fact, it is probably great for some players. But it is also an inferior option for me. I like very logic, carefully designed and deep writing. The game gives you meaningful content but the overall perception over how payers should play the game (e.g. no saves) and the dictate of what is and what isn't meaningful is very alien to me. Is or isn't being stuck at some point at a story not meaningful? Why am I not allowed to ask the same question again? Why am I not allowed to visit the same locations again? I believe Inkle created something which is a more gamey and less narrative thing then they believe. The system they have created keeps the tension by constantly giving you something to chew, few choices to make and prevents some typical issues with "a player hasn't noticed". It has its price: you may not notice since you have always something to do, but the game plays you. You have found A not because you were in the right place at the right time. The game generated A for you because it was "meaningful" at that time and place.