Overall most helpful review

Posted on: March 22, 2024

Ken1171

Games: 2832 Reviews: 19

Good but misleading

Based on the trailer videos and screenshots, it was a sure buy. Great art, great story, fully voiced, and exploring an exotic alien planet with a robot companion, leading to a giant mysterious monolith? What could go wrong? At first, nothing. For a while, you get what was promised - until you get to the monolith. Now that I finished the game, I realize what we see in the trailers is just misleading bait to make you buy it. Up to that point, they had a perfectly good story and game experience. Such a waste. The featured review here admits not having finished the game, and perhaps that explains why it was so positive. No spoilers here, so I will just say this game is definitely worth 5 stars up to the point where we reach the monolith, which I think it’s 70% of the game. The really disappointing part is this last 30%, where the game departs from what you see in the trailer videos. Hence the feeling of being misled, since this is how the story continues to the end. I don’t regret playing because it was good for a while, but I feel misled. Some may argue that this is a mature adult story, but even that part went over my head. Her intentions are good, but she does nothing to mitigate the actions that led to it. Instead, she just “thinks about it”, and regrets her decisions when it’s already too late. That’s why some other reviews said it becomes a slog to play it because it’s pointless. That’s all this game becomes from this point on - tons of pointless reflections over how much she regrets her life decisions, all the way to the end of the game. In a nutshell, it’s a collection of sorrow and regrets about what she did with her life. This is what the devs wanted this game to convey, but that’s not what the marketing sells to us. Forget the “monolith”. This game should be titled “Sorrows and Regrets”. If you don’t mind that, buy the game.

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Posted on: October 19, 2023

QAI1

Verified owner

Games: 174 Reviews: 1

Tragically Mishandled

This game isn't about exploring an alien planet, or an intriguing sci-fi mystery. It's not even really about grief or loss, not directly. To its credit, the twist is unforeseeable, but only because it isn't properly foreshadowed. Hints that things aren't right point in wholly wrong directions, making you think the issue is some corporate sabotage or alien phenomena. Anything else that might be foreshadowing is honestly indistinguishable from things I expect to find in sci-fi written by non-scientists (eg. fantasy metals that aren't real or medicinal formula that don't make sense). The final revelations are almost spiteful in how they treat both the player and the point-of-view character; she's not a real 'explorer' just an author, her efforts at creation matter less than her familial duty, she an inadequate mother because she spends a lot of time working etc. As you slog through the last parts of the game, the writers make you claw your way through the molasses of doing penance for a characters wrongdoings which, until a few scenes ago, where wholly unknown to you because you thought this was an entirely different story. Characters you thought you understood, or had a handle on turn out to be - quite literally - figments of the imagination. In the end, though, the story commits the worst possible crime; I just stopped caring. I stopped caring about Tessa, Melissa and whoever else, because they weren't the people I thought they were and the world wasn't the world I thought it was. Could the story work? Sure, if it didn't value the twist over good writing. Case in point; the Title? the Monolith in the story is meaningless. it has no impact on the plot, has no symbolical value and does nothing. A much more sensible title would be 'The Crash' as it is the only thematically mirrored event between start and end. Do not buy.

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Posted on: October 14, 2023

martinbaselier

Verified owner

Games: 444 Reviews: 1

Roughly cut diamond

This game is a true gem, though admittedly, it's a rough cut. You can clearly see the makers know what they want to tell and they do it to their best effort. The voice acting is spot on and really carries the game. They've done everything they can to make the controls as easy and natural as can be. It has this classical feel without having a resolution from the early nineties. You can see they've done their best to avoid the classic point-and-click caveats. And they've acceded mostly. The puzzles are logical. In each part of the game you have a limited amount of rooms you can go to. The mini-games are fun and meaningful. You can even skip them if you want to. You can use space to see all parts you can interact with. And that's where the roughness shows, from a modern point of view. If you're stuck, there's too little hints to point you in the right directions when interacting with object for the umpteenth time. If you're stuck, there's a built in walk-through though. But dynamic hints would have been much more fulfilling. Also in the cut scenes you see a future version of yourself, which look younger and altogether different from you're normal character. When you put on your spacesuit, you suddenly become curvier. Some animations clearly miss the mark. The sound changes on your voice from a space-suit or the environment are just that tiny bit too much. All this is clearly noticeable, but it didn't make it any less enjoyable or engaging. I just makes you wish the creators would have had a bit more budget, so they could have made the game they envisioned in all it's glory. As it is, it's a wonderful intriguing exploration as you slowly discover what's going on and what happened to you. I haven't finished it yet, but I presume it won't be very long. But it's well worth the money as you can clearly feel the love that went into making this game.

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Posted on: October 19, 2023

DavidMcNamara

Verified owner

Games: 183 Reviews: 2

Great comeback from Animations Arts

A clear recommendation for fans of 2.5D point&click adventures of the early 2000s with a sci-fi touch. Pro + Wonderful wordbuilding + Interesting story - the ending is debatable, but there's more depth to it than meets the eye + Solid soundtrack + Good game length (8 to 9 hours) + Well-integrated mini-games + Great user interface + Low price Contra - Voice acting with a few hiccups here and there - In some places the game doesn't give enough hints on what to do to progress - Some black screens instead of animations, which is due to the low budget

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Posted on: November 18, 2023

spirostsonas

Verified owner

Games: 110 Reviews: 4

Underrated adventure

The game has surprisingly received lukewarm reviews so far, but I found it to be a great traditional point'n'clock graphic adventure. It's better to go into it without reading the professional reviews (or any reviews at all), as long as you are interested in sci-fi and can appreciate how it can reflect real down-to-earth everyday life of an adult. The whole thing reminded me of the longest journey, with much more mature plot and setting, and more satisfying puzzles. The story is wonderfully done, at the level of a good piece of literature or film, and mashes nicely elements of scifi, psychological and existential thrillers, with lots of emotional drama in the last part which could be done a bit more subtly but it never gets corny. Few grievances, which are not worth subtracting even half a star for: translation from German is rough at places (only a few), the 3d models during the cut scenes aren't too attractive, some of the mini games are so and so but still ok (and skippable), animation transitions could be more fluid, and finally lack of real puzzles after a point near the endgame. All in all, highly recommended especially for genre veterans

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Monolith

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An unknown planet

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