The Shore

in library

3.2/5

( 21 Reviews )

3.2

21 Reviews

English & 10 more

Overall most helpful review

Posted on: October 27, 2021

NightflierRZ

Verified owner

Games: 833 Reviews: 16

A speed date with Cthulhu

If you're into lovecraftian horror you should give this one a try. It's a mix of adventure, walking simulator and horror survival game. The playtime is just about an hour so it feels a bit stuffed. As if the developer had no time or budget to make a bigger game but still wanted all his ideas in it. It starts calm when you wake up on a strange cold island of black sand and rocks and search for your daughter. You can explore some stuff, collect items and solve simple switch puzzles. Unfortunately you can't go far because the level design limits you to the small area where you find your next clue. If you try to get past a barrier it can happen that you get stuck and have to reload. After making your way to a portal you find yourself in another dimension, summon some Ancient Ones, get chased by small and big (very very BIG) enemies to finally refocus in an emotional ending why you came to that island in the first place. So the game is not great in any of the genres it covers. Compared to other lovecraftian games like "Dark Corners of the Earth", "Darkness Within" or "Conarium" it lacks some depth and finesse. But if you can't get enough of Cthulhu go for it!

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Posted on: November 1, 2021

Crazyfoolgaf

Verified owner

Games: 223 Reviews: 1

Half Baked

An ambitious indie project with some impressive visuals, saddly hamstrung by weak gameplay and a lack of understanding of Cosmic Horror. The game opens promisingly in a strange and nicely detailed setting filled with forboding dialog and uncanny sights to put the player ill at ease, but is all to eager to begin throwing indisticnt tentacle monsters at you, so much so that they begin to appear within the first 30 minutes. This dispenses with any sense of atmosphere and subtlty the game has, and it fails to recover. Narratively the game is so focused on telling the intimate story of a father searching for his missing daugther that it barely touches on the implications of any of its comsic mysteries, never really reflecting on the bizarre and alien places you visit and creatures you enounter. Ultimately it all ends up feeling like lovecraftian window dressing. Mechanically the game is mostly about puzzle solving, but also features the occasional monster chase sequence or combat section, neither of which are ever well executed. Most of the puzzles boil down to just pressing the interact key on whatever visually distinct objects are in the room, only a few of them require actual consideration. Lenght wise, the game comes in at between 3 and 4 hours. Overall if you're desperate for a lovecraftian gaming fix and big sea/space monsters are enough to satisify you, The Shore contains enough striking visuals to be worth a look. If youre seeking an actual slow creeping sense of dread or a thought provoking reflection on cosmic mysteries, keep searching.

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Posted on: November 6, 2021

AlexIsPlaying

Verified owner

Games: 677 Reviews: 10

A Disjointed Mess

The Shore is a game that tries to do so much and accomplishes so little. It suffers from quite the identity crisis. This feels like it should have been 5-8 hours long and not just barely 2. One of the first things I noticed when launching The Shore is that there are no rebindable keys, so you better be comfortable with WASD/I/C, thankfully this worked for me. There are no graphic settings besides a general preset and framerate limiters. There are Field of View options. The game is VERY CPU heavy (roughly 40-50% usage of an 8700k at times even with a 60FPS Lock). The game starts as a rather generic walking simulator about surviving a boat crash and going on the hunt for your daughter who was traveling with you. You'll you find ancient relics and the logs of a distressed group who stayed at a lighthouse nearby. It's very much go from Point A -> Point B, see what changes, go down the new path and repeat. Then the game tries to become a bit like your typical run and hide horror game, but barely. It dives into a bit more of a fantasy setting as well. It also shoehorns in combat sections that just don't feel good. On top of that there are even some very poorly thought out puzzle sequences. This game just did not know what to do. At its peak the game simply had moments that were "Okay". Invisible Walls and Bugs plague this game. Does an area look easy to access? Chances are you'll hit an invisible wall. I managed to accidentally bypass one of the walls and got stuck forcing a reload. It's so frustrating because the world in this game is gorgeous. Some of the sights in this game are honestly top notch but so many areas are just out of reach because of a pebble is in the way. Overall, the game is nice eye candy and may scratch a Lovecraftian itch. It would have benefitted from strictly being a walking sim. If you can get this for super cheap it might be worth a curiosity look, just don't expect anything engaging. I unfortunately did not enjoy this one at all.

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Posted on: March 3, 2024

zurowiok

Verified owner

Games: 595 Reviews: 8

Good idea, poorly executed

I can understand that this seems to be a one persons project, so lots can be forgiven. However, the game tries to cram too many things into those few hours of gameplay. + visuals and general atmosphere. Game looks good. + simple puzzles, but I like it that way. - lack of optimization, it cooks my PC like it did some Bitcoin mining on the side. - badly executed "combat" and "run, the monster's chasing" sections. If the game simply stayed a walking/puzzle game, it would be really good IMHO. But the dev just HAD to insert some invisible-walls run away trial and error sections. And I really do not want to start on the quality of combat.

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Posted on: July 11, 2022

Leovinus87

Verified owner

Games: 215 Reviews: 4

An enticing proof of concept

The Shore is many things, but I wouldn't call it a game as such. It's more of an experience. An exceptionally well made proof of concept. That may sound harsh, but it comes from a good place. You see I absolutely loved The Shore. In short its a walking simulator with feint notes of Amnesia-esque horror that leaves you wanting much, much, more. The game oozes atmosphere with a story both succinct and well acted by the main cast. The lives of other unfortunate souls, gone to mysterious fates or found dead, scattered about like breadcrumbs in the games opening. And its Lovecraftian elements are on unapologetic, majestic, display. Brought out with a cohesive and beautiful aesthetic. You feel small. An ant in a giants world. And as you walk through the landscape the score is befittingly harrowing or bittersweet depending on circumstance. Why I say that the game is more a proof of concept is evident in its length and in the lack of refinement. Gameplay consists of walking or jogging about, with puzzles made up mainly of simple deductions and random clicking. The "combat" is made up of either running away or pointing a magical item at fiends. In many cases both. Some geometry and monsters also tend to clip, and there is a large amount of dead ends and invisible walls. While animations are decent overall they could also be better. Especially for larger creatures, whose inspiration of awe is diminished somewhat by stilted movement. The main issue is its length however. The games narrative tantalizes you with depths that go sadly unplumed as plot developments whip by at breakneck pace after the opening. It seldom lets its story unravel organically. There are so many questions, and details of Andrews and the islands past, I wish had been fleshed out as the game abruptly concludes its main story arc. As a proof of concept its a magnificent outing from developers I hope that we'll see more from in the future. They certainly have a good foundation to build on.

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