i only have a few hours but the game works and robots are cool
I only played it for 8 hours or so which means that I can't give it a glowing recommendation just yet, but what I can say is that it feels exactly like I hoped it would. I played Cultist Simulator for about 30 hours. I loved the writing and the sense of mystery it evokes, qualities which Book of Hours inherited. However, I never really got into CS because the card system often felt confusing and the game fell short of its name in terms of presentation and gameplay. I could never get immersed into the role. Book of Hours is a great improvement in these aspects. The presentation is much more charming, and the gameplay feels smoother and makes more sense than it ever did in CS. I really do feel like the caretaker of the Hush House as I try to clean it up and make sense of all the crap/priceless treasure lying around. The only real downside I can see as of now is the clunkiness of the controls. Some of it is definitely intentional, like the way books can't be automatically sorted - this makes sense of course, as it's your job as a librarian. However, it's going to be such a pain in the butt to manually go through all the skills once I accumulate a bunch. I have maybe 15-20 and it's already getting a bit crowded in there. It;s also going to be a pain to navigate the screen later on. I hope they add some filters, more sorting options, and maybe even camera hotkeys to make navigating the screen and finding cards easier. Overall, I'm really happy with the game so far and I hope there are many surprises waiting for me as I delve deeper into the hush house.
Coteries of New York is a short Visual Novel. I have mixed feelings about this one, but one thing that I can wholeheartedly praise is the atmosphere. The art and music - sparse but great - and the writing really nail the power fantasy and everpresent paranoia, terror, and listlessness that a VTM vampire lives with. Especially at the start. The game really makes you feel like a new vampire surrounded by older, fiercer, and more intelligent elders ready to use you and discard you. Another thing the VN does an indisputably well is introduce the player to the world of VTM. It's cool, but it feels excessive at times. It's strange to me. The game is a VN, which is a pretty niche genre. I imagine most of your audience is already familiar with the setting? Now for the criticisms: First, the game is too linear. I have no problems with kinetic (no choices) visual novels, but the game tries to make you feel like you're making choices that matter, and they generally don't. It's deceptive. Second, the game's mechanics are underutilized. The titular "coterie" is non-existent. You read through a quest chain for each character, and at the end the character says "see you around". As far as I can tell there's minimal interaction between coterie members, or between members and the main plot My last and most significant point is the quality of the writing. I have to say I got bored with some of the questlines. The writing is definitely quite good at places, but some events/questlines are too bland for my liking. It seems like the writers were too concerned with keeping things accessible for newcomers. As for the main plot, it was quite a letdown. I'm being vague to avoid spoilers... let's just say that I liked the overall angle they went for, but the execution was not great. What I hate is that they force our character to remain oblivious. It makes sense, but it's just not that fun to read. Overall, I'd say Coteries is worth a read if you're a VTM fan. Get it on sale.
I haven't even left Fort Joy. Because the goddamn launcher does not work. It is completely unresponsive. The game doesn't launch properly when I try to start it from the game files either. It crashes. Resetting the launcher worked once but not anymore. It's a single player game. It doesn't need a launcher, and even if it did, how the fuck do you even build something so awful? The game itself runs fine by the way. Although I only played it for an hour or two.
You play as a monster. You slaughter humans using a mix of guile and brute force. You eat them to regenerate health and to grow bigger and stronger, and you make your way through the levels using all your abilities to chomp on humans and solve puzzles. If this sounds appealing to you, this game is is going to be great fun. The game is pretty engaging throughout its fairly short campaign. The fights never feel dull or unfair. The puzzles tickle your brain just enough to be challenging but are never difficult to the point of slowing you down too much. I don't really like the pixel-y art, but even with my taste it looks pretty decent, and the soundtrack is quite good as well. My main point of criticsm is the lacklustre AI. These guys can definitely tear you to pieces, but they're also quite dumb. They respond to you in the most rudimentary ways. If they have a gun, they'll shoot you if they see you. If they don't, they'll scream and run away. But they never act like humans. They don't try to flush you out of hiding, they don't call their buddies to help. They never try to trap you. They don't hide. Each NPC has their own patrol pattern and they stick to it regardless of what happens. The fights can still get quite challenging due to their sheer firepower, but they could be so much more. I would've also liked for the game world to be easier to navigate (it's fine if you don't have a map but why not add signage?) and dull voice acting. It'd be much more fun to tear people to pieces if you could hear them panick, call for help, beg for their lives etc. Anyway, as the title says, it's great for what it is. A modest game, with a modest runtime and a modest price tag, especially on sale. I enjoyed my time with it, and I think you will too if the first paragraph sounds appealing to you. I hope someone makes a Triple A version of this, with 3D graphics, more varied voice acting, and great AI. It would be great.
