Short and a too easy, but otherwise great
The bad:
* Too short (7.5 hours, far less than Obduction which took me about ~20)
* Couple of puzzles are "tedious" meaning you know how to solve, but have to do some repetitive task to complete it. This isn't super common though.
* Strictly first-person isn't good. There were a couple sections where a third-person high view would have drastically improved the gameplay, and it could have been easily explained lore-wise. I know that they have some aversion because of both VR and their heritage, but I think some rules bending needed to happen.
* Very linear. Only one order you can progress in, as far as I can tell.
* The puzzles are too easy. I only had to break out pen and paper once, and a lot of the puzzles are brute-forceable and don't require much thinking or deduction. Cyan games are a niche product for puzzle game fans, most of whom are older now. I think they could easily aim for a higher difficulty with no serious issues. (That's what hints and guides are for) To me, this is the largest sin that Firmament creates. I REALLY wanted to have some tough puzzles that I had to approach from multiple angles, go back and try again while working on another puzzle, consider the problem again and again, maybe sleep on it a day or two and then have that awesome AH-HAH! moment. But that just almost never happened. That's the core joy of a puzzle game to me, so it's a bummer to not have that.
Some complain about technical state (stutter, falling into terrain, etc), but it's not bad for most players and will be fixed in the next few weeks, so I see no point in dwelling on it.
The good:
* The graphics are gorgeous, and the art style is definitively Cyan
* The architecture is beautiful and fascinating to see
* The sound and music are on point
* The adjudicator feels very satisfying to sling around and control
Despite my complaints, I enjoyed this game and REALLY hope they do more. I just want more bite next time! (Even if graphics or otherwise have to be sacrificed)
25 gamers found this review helpful