I understand that the game strives to be as minimalistic as possible. No visuals on any stats, damage taken or given etc, except for that you and the enemies bleed if hurt. No pop ups with info. This is great but there is a problem. One of the developers recommends reading the rather in depth manual to get a hang of the game. It kind of defeats the purpose. Could just as well include the info in the game. I never read such manuals and was not even aware that one existed during my first run. Still enjoyed it but was at times very frustrating. Almost uninstalled the game after a very difficult encounter, partly because a roll dodge bug got me killed a few times when i was close to clearing the room. Turns out you can skip the room completely or solve it by donating a few herbs. Many of the most difficult encounters are completely optional but there is no way you would know without reading the manual. If your ingame "minimalism" is so extreme that you need to include a thick manual, is it even minimalist? Except for that and a few small annoyances (roll dodge bug and at times annoying enemies) i really enjoyed the game. Invokes the sense of being lost in a world you dont understand. Atmospheric, great exploration, a lot of attention to details, made with love. I liked the items too. Many games just fall back on these boring +10% damage. The items here were usually kind of unique. Easy to miss though and many are almost useless (even if unique). I'd definitely give this a go. Nothing wrong with going in blind but if you want to avoid frustration,just read the manual or keep in mind that many encounters are not meant to be solved through violence. Often you can give some items to an "enemy" and have them let you pass or even give you some unique item in return.
Gave this a few hours of my time but its next to unplayable. Main problems: the controls. Often they will not register the press of a button. Some times I had to press "menu" like five times before finally the menu would pop up. Then repeat for each potion I want to drink. A few times I died from burn damage / poision etc because the menu would not open, preventing me from drinking potions. This was the jankiest experience I ever had with a game with an official release. Can't even jump or attack sometimes. Even if the controls had been responsive, they would have been kind of crappy. The main character moves very stiffly and clumsily. Very cheap feeling. Your success in fights will not depend on your reflexes or anything, but if you have the right equipment and use the right items. The controls are so unbelievabley janky and unresponsive that it leaves little room for the player to develop any skills. It's more like "Ok, on this boss I need to use the lightning weapons and buff my fire resistance". Another important thing that will keep you alive. expect the controls to kill you. At any moment they may refuse to register a jump or attack input. The controls are generelly speaking your worst enemy. Last major problem: all the items. There are absurd amounts of weapons, spells and items. Often it is a bit unclear what sets them apart and the list of gear is a jumbled mess of whatever you have picked up in chronological order. Complete mess. The items themselves are often of the most annoying kind. Very niche. You are required to open the menu and switch gear around a lot. Some e.g. make you immune to lightning damage in water and are super useful in a few situation but completely useless in all others. I don't really like these "immune to X for 24 sec" pots that just clutter up menues. "OK, now the fire boss, lets spam these pots". Most items are niche like that. Major focus on items because the controls are so janky it cant be played like a normal game.
Really like the idea but the game has a few big flaws. You progress from node to node, visible on a hub. Each node has a name and some text attached to it. E.g. a node could be called "silt dune" and have some descriptions of the scenery. Some of these texts add to the game but when every single node, of which there are perhaps a thousand, has some text attached to it and few of them are actually any interesting, it just distracts. I'm sure I skipped several interesting stuff simply because I didn't feel like reading about how some algae floats around in slightly brackish water for the third time. For me, and possibly many others who don't really see the point with closely studying a made up ecosystem, fewer entries but overall higher average interst per entry would be better. Its worse when in some areas, e.g. poisonous water or in areas where you cant refill your fuel or oxygen, don't have the time to read the entries you would find interesting. Overall intersting concept but could be streamlined without losing out on any qualities. Some areas, with branching paths etc, are just unnecessarily messy time wasters. You could visit each node to read descriptions and collect samples if you are into that. If not, you'll more likely prefer the game to be more straight forward. Unless you like reading, collecting samples offer little of value. You can refill fuel, oxygen etc, but the game is rather easy, it's more an exploration game than a survival game. Main thing you get is entries in your computer, where the more samples you collect of certain organisms, the more detailed logs you can read about them. Again, this is a bit much for a made up ecosystem. I prefer reading wiki articles about actual organisms. Some organisms can also be used a bombs etc in simple puzzles. I especially hated searching large areas for some small node. If not for those sections I'd given a 4/5. Main strengths: setting, graphics, music, atmosphere. Great job on these.
So fed up with the lack of imagination in fantasy. Oh, you are a boy from village. You are the chosen one. Come ride dragon. The dangerous one is dangerous. Wow so strong. Can to do the magic? Yes. Here, you'll find none of that. You play as a road warden performing his job, exploring, mapping and getting to know a remote peninsula. Your job is to get to know the area as well as you can, help it develop, try to find ways for the capitol to make profit from it etc. You can also choose to focus on other things if you dont care much for your employers. Bare boned and very basic gameplay but with great art and music, an interesting world seen from a refreshing perspective, lots of impactful choices, an overall very good story. Only real weaknesses i found were that the stat system with cleanlyness etc and the food and inn system could both be kind of tedious. Overall, nothing to complain about.
Really well designed. The artstyle doesn't really remind of Limbo except for the color scheme. Reminded me more of Creaks, one of the prettiest puzzle games to look at i.m.o. It is a solid first game. Puzzles and the underwater world are both very imaginative. Where the game fails however is 1. being fun - it's often a rather dull game, at times slow, repetitive or overly simple. 2. Motivating the player. Why are you there, why do you do this or that. The game lacks any clear story or intrigue. It feels like you do random stuff for no real reason. I'm sure there is a hidden story if you study the backgrounds closely enough, but for me to do so as a player, I need to be a bit invested to begin with. A creator can't just expect the players to care without giving them any reason to care. I'd say give it a go during a sale and if you like puzzle games with nice art (this has really great art tbh) you will probably enjoy it. It probably won't become a favorite though. I hope that for the next game, the studio will try to include some story, intrigue or anything at all.
Overall very nice design with varied landscapes. Some stages tell little background stories. Wish they could have added some more secret rooms or interactivity. The soundtrack is great. A radioshow that the golfer listens to through his suit's built in receiver. Some good music, interviews, advertisements etc, all written specifically for the game. Really good idea. Too bad the gameplay is lacking. Uninspiring golf game with some different stage mechanics. Don't shoot the ball close to a squirrel or it will snatch it, shoot a ball into a pipe to transport it elsewhere, stuff like that. The stages are not really puzzles but very simple. I found most of them boring. Sometimes controls are a bit janky but it's not a big problem. Much of the story is told through a diary or a sentence or two that are displayed between stages. You unlock diary entries by completing stages in less than a set number of shots. Sometimes a level has several entries. First entry unlocked if you complete the stage in less than 8 shots, second if less than 6, for example. I didn't find the entries very interesting. Feels bad to give the game a 2/5 since I like the idea, design and the radio show. But the game itself is very lacking and the story failed to impress. Radio show interviews were well written and imaginative but the actual story feels generic and bland.
I'd recommend anyone to give the game a chance. It doesn't cost anything and an average playthrough should take somewhere around 20 minutes or so, so worst case scenario you don't even have to pay with wasting time, as sometimes with other free games. Fun and enjoyable with a bizarre setting and good short story. Charming pixel graphics. The puzzles are simple enough for most people not to get stuck. One or two stand out a bit as the solutions are rather odd, but the possible things to combine etc are so few that it doesn't become a problem. The game is very small and does not have loads of interactible objects. Nice of the developer the share the game for free.
Just finished the game and they do have some good stuff going on. Nice art, fun journal with entries about the various enemies etc, nice concept. Has some interesting less is more storytelling going for it. Otherwise 1/5. Problems: Many stages later in the game are very RNG-dependent. You may have to reset a few times to get a good setup. It can differ extremely. Getting 1 creature and 2 extra enemies or getting 3 creatures and 0 extra enemies. It does not make sense. Luck based and stupid. Little to do with strategy. Menu system. Extremely tedious having to add the stats to the creatures every time you switch e.g. the frog for the hedgehog and then want to use the frog again. Would be better to not use "equipment" but instead just level up creatures. It would make a big difference. The equipment system is the worst I have encountered in any game. Extremely bad music. Just some crappy stuff on a loop. Would prefer something ambient. You have to grind a bit to be able to afford stuff from the shop. Most of the stuff is completely useless and will just clutter up your menu. At times some relatively expensive stuff appears that you have to buy in order to progress. Buggy. Often I had to restart levels as they would not register that they were completed. Usually levels are 40-120 seconds so it is not as bad as it sounds. Just annoying. If you are a completionist, some of the stuff can not be gathered due to bugs. Certain documents, entries etc mostly connected to the story (its told through journal entries unlocked by these documents but many of them can not be gathered. Usually the stage end not registered bug showed up when trying to gather documents.)
Disappointed so far. Starting up, locations, equipment etc is randomized. Your three starting drones will have access to critical tools needed in order to progress, but they will also have random secondary tools. Some of them are great, others much less so. In a game as unforgiving as this, where even a very slight mistake could lead to one or several drones breaking down, that a bit frustrating as you may have to restart a lot before you learn how things work. For example, there is a tool that scans for enemies in adjacent rooms, but it apparently does not work for all enemies. Once I went into a "safe" room just to get one shotted by an enemy. OK lesson learned. Thats ok. Doors are usually named d1, d2 and so forth. Suddenly an a1 door appears. Open it. Drone sucked out through the airvent. OK. Maybe would have been better to somehow explain that doors named "a" are airlocks and more to be used as traps to lure enemies to. But OK. Again not a disaster but itcould have been communicated better. It just feels stupid to have to restart the game over such a thing. Biggest problem. Taking it slow one run, checking the logs. The game is heavily based on text demands. For example "navigate 1 2 r3" makes drone 1 and 2 transport themselves to room 3 while you explore manually with drone 3. I was looking for other useful commands and info. All my drones safely tucked away. Doors locked. Area and adjacent rooms explored. Apparently enemies can morph into a room from nowhere if you sit around reading logs long enough. Entire drone fleet dead. I don't know. To me it just seems kind of stupid. First create all these complex commands and encourage the player to read up on them through in game prompts, then heavily penalize a player for doing so. Overall the game has some good sides. If it weren't for the focus on trial and error it could be a strong 3/5. Original and interesting but not enough for it to compensate for the poor gameplay and lack of story.
