Miasmata

It took me 28 (in game) days to finish it at last,what a journey...After 2 or 3 restarts of the game at the beginning,I finally understand what I had to do and the magic begun. Tips for the new players: 1)Always know where you are,using triangulation or else... 2)Always have water 3)Always have at least one medicine One of the games that I will always remember,it is standing over the pile of games that is flooding us these days. Excellent

If you like exploration, count this as a 5 rating and buy this right now. If you like combat and twitch reflex gameplay try something else (or broaden your horizons). The movement system gives the player an excellent sense of physicality in the world in the same way that Mirror's Edge did, only it's even more pronounced here. Pros: A large, hand-crafted island to explore Mapping system based on triangulating from previously discovered locations Unusual but satisfying movement system. Descend slopes carefully! Collect a variety of plants and discover recipes to heal and increase your stats Day-night cycle with excellent lighting effects Balance exploration with occasionally cowering from a terrifying beast which stalks you Cons: Poor framerate (560Ti, i5 2500K) Somewhat outdated graphical style (models and textures) Occasional crashes to desktop (happened to me twice) Movement, stealth and combat mechanics not well explained A particular note about the movement system. It's never explained in-game, and it's initially very confusing and easy to mistake for a badly designed system. The game uses FPS style wasd movement, but it's modeled to be much more like real human movement than any other FPS I've played. The W key moves you forward by adding forward momentum, so when you release it you'll still coast forwards a little bit more depending on how fas you were going. Also when you walk down a slope you gain forward momentum in proportion to how steep the slope is. The S key is the reverse of the W key, adding momentum away from where you're facing so you can use it to walk backwards if you're stopped but it will also slow you down if you've been running forward, and most importantly you can use it to slow your descent down a steep slope, which would not be required in most FPS games. Moving across a slope (rather than up or down it) might cause you to start sliding if you go to fast and the slope is too steep. You can halt the slide if you're quick by facing uphill and trying to walk forwards. You can scale almost any slope, up or down, as long as you go slowly and carefully. If you're careless you'll slip and tumble down the slope, injuring yourself and scattering your possessions. The A and D keys can be used for sidestepping, but are not often required. Using them while you're moving at speed is likely to make you slip, as is turning sharply while running. That sounds pretty complicated, but once you realise that circle-strafing isn't going to work in this game it ends up being very natural, and it's the only game which has reminded me of how it really felt to scramble around on wooded hillsides when I was a kid.

Firstly, apologies for the wall-of-text; I've tried to break it up a bit. But this is a unique game and a lot of effort has obviously gone into it, so I felt that I wanted to put some effort into the review. This is a difficult one to review impartially. When I started out I would have scored the game 2/5, 1 for playability and 1 for the fact that this is the work of just two people. Once I started getting clues and got to grips with the quirks this rose to 3 or 4 out of 5, and was a firm 4/5 once I completed the secondary objectives. Upon completion I was very tempted to give it 5/5 and the fact that two people (and Milo, apparently...) created this from scratch does make it worth 5/5 in my opinion. Gameplay: 4/5 ============== Miasmata has a (very?) limited number of gameplay components, but they frequently come together in new and unexpected ways. I won't bore you with gameplay anecdotes, but things happened in the game that I'm unlikely to forget for a long time. ______________ One 'weakness' of the game is that it felt like some fundamental gameplay was lacking, particularly hunger and some environmental effects. But it has to be remembered that this is the work of just two people. Also, as others have stated, many aspects of the game feel contrived. For example limited carrying capacity and mechanics, and the 'magic chest' plant storage. However, these are clearly game balance decisions and once I accepted them and moved on I started to enjoy the game much more. Overall I have to say that the balance between playability and virtual reality is superb. ______________ The atmosphere of the game, once you get past its graphical qirks (below) is great. The snippets of partial-story that you come across, the quality of the writing (although use of a spell-checker would have avoided a couple of typos), the ambience and other factors all come together to create a game that feels understated in a positive way. ______________ Replayability is subjective, I think. It's low for me for several reasons. Firstly, it was a unique experience and some things are best savoured just the once. Secondly, exploration was more than half the gameplay for me; mapping the entire island became an additional goal. Finally, knowing where key elements (plants) are would be a major spoiler for me. ______________ Game saving. I'm specifically mentioning this because I normally HATE games with limited game save mechanics. Games like Alan Wake went unfinished and therefore un-reviewed here just because game saving was too restrictive, leading to too much repetition. The limited game saving actually works really well in Miasmata, though. Note, however, that there is only one saved game file. As some people have complained of stability issues, I recommend backing up this file regularly. I haven't read of anyone suffering corrupted save files, but better to be safe than sorry. ______________ Character movement also warrants special mention, as it seems to be the source of some peoples' frustration with the game. As another reviewer here has pointed out, W and S are NOT move forward and move backward keys. They are for adding and reducing momentum. This is a subtle difference, but recognising it makes a big difference to the gameplay. For example, to walk forward at a moderate pace you need to use W intermittently; if you hold the key down you will speed up to a brisk walk or jog, and will get out of breath and be more likely to lose control. Similarly it's possible to move down many steep slopes using the S key. People have also complained that the movement is unrealistic/too exaggerated. But if you have ever been so ill, or run for so long, that your muscles tremble and your legs 'feel like jelly' you will know the feeling that Miasmata is trying to impart. That feeling where even walking is an effort. Treat the character as though he is made of eggshells, at least until the secondary objectives are completed. As an illustration, I didn't use the strafe keys at all and only jumped twice in the entire game. Graphics: 3/5 ============== I feel a bit unfair only giving it 3/5 because, despite initial appearances, it became apparent that Miasmata is far more about gameplay than graphics. However, in the early stages I was plagued by the distraction of texture resolution changes popping in right in front of me, together with very rare cases of overlayed textures and flickering water. Honestly though, once I got into the game I stopped noticing even the 'pop-ups'as I was too busy scanning the environment for the things I needed to see. I would have liked to see a greater variety of rock types/textures, but that's a personal thing. Audio: 5/5 ============== That rating might surprise some people as the music is ambient, rare and understated, but if you focus on it when it occurs you'll see (or hear) that it's very well done. Environmental sounds are adequate and realistic - basically day/night sounds with occasional extra bird caws etc. added, the sound of water and weather, and footsteps that change according to what's underfoot. However, the strong wind sound is at odds with the calm swaying of plants and rippling of water. A minor thing, but for me it intruded within minutes of starting the game. Stability and Performance: 5/5 ============== That's based solely on my own experience. I know that people have complained of stability and performance problems, but for me the game ran smoothly with one minor exception and didn't crash once. That's with all settings at maximum, but I do have a fairly powerful system. The one exception was a very slight but noticeable pause while music loaded. However, this is relatively rare and didn't impact on the game for me once I got going. Overall ============== A very immersive game, harrowing and dark but with an undercurrent of hope. Pleasantly understated in many ways with a rewarding and refined ending. Amazing that it was created by just two people. Note that this is NOT an action game and is probably best enjoyed when in a calm and patient frame of mind.

This game has touched my heart. seriously, I've been so much emotionally involved that for a few days, I lived like if I was actually on that island. the big point of this game in my opinion is the feeling of being stranded. I mean, you are stranded on an island, but the point is that if you start walking, especially if you don't follow the coast, you will be very quickly completely lost. and trust me, if it's not morning, this can become a very big problem. I've been lost in the evening a few times and I've been devoured by anxiety, hoping to find a shelter where to sleep and pass the night. other times I was finishing the water, lost in the middle of an unknown area, without finding any lake nor shelter. one time I've been caught lost by nightfall. I won't forget it as if it happened for real. that time the beast found me too, and I died. yes, because in the middle of all this being stranded and trying to triangulate every time there is the chance to reveal a new piece of map, rather than just running around; you will also have to hurry and worry about hiding yourself every here and there, in order to listen if your heart is beating which means that the beast is near. the problem is that when the heart is beating loud enough to hear it clearly, it's already too late and the beast is too close to avoid it. other than that, the clues are not very linear, excluding the very first couple. many times you will find yourself without any clues of where to go next. with the urgency of having to find a shelter for the night and to don't pass where you've seen the beast the last time. and so you just go randomly to explore a new area of the map, hoping to find something useful. stranded even in the plot.. anyway the story is very intriguing and the island is so beatiful to explore. the atmosphere is very deep, the musics are perfect and used very rarely. most of the time you'll be left alone with your breath, the sound of the sea and the noise of your steps. stranded.

Ever wanted to play a diseased researcher on an unexplored island, whose only goal is to cure himself before he dies, and only mean of navigation is actually triangulating your position on the map? Miasmata might be your next favourite game then. At first, you are panting after walking just a few steps, climbing even a small hill proves to be a real challenge, you can't swim farther than a few metres without starting to drown, and you can trip really easy if you don't watch your balance. You also know almost nothing about the island, so you need to locate the research teams to find answers. But when you reach the very first research camp, you only find dead bodies of the research team members, some notes on what was going on in the camp and a bloody note, vaguely describing the components of a possible cure. And that's it -- you're on your own now. The game has no actual combat system. Where it shines at is navigation. Your only way to determine your location is to triangulate your position on the map. And frankly, this was the best part of the game for me. Exploring the island by triangulation was just awesome on its own, but then you realise that there's something lurking around, watching you.. Another cool thing about this game is that it's really dark during the night, so it's very easy to get lost. The game is not perfect by any means, of course. While lighting is absolutely stunning, there are plenty of graphical corners the Johnson brothers decided to cut. Animal behaviour and models are also nothing to be amazed about. Sometimes there are FPS drops. I also had a feel that some of the features were left unfinished. But in general, this is a very unique game. Navigation part and the general feeling of being stranded on an unexplored island is simulated extremely well. The search for the cure gets a bit boring after a while, but I didn't actually have as much fun getting it as I had while drawing the map of the island and navigating it.