Unlike the advertizing trailer and the screenshots, the cutscenes have a control overlay (similar to Netflix's "skip opening"). I have no idea how to remove it and if I can, I rather play the DOS version than have an annoying icon on every cutscene.
Many times I hear about a game that it's linear. Like Half-life is linear or Tomb Raider is linear… When people say that, they try to define the genre of these games. There are fine "linear" RPGs out there. This game isn't just a linear RPG. In this game the gameplay itself is linear. Allegedly you're supposed to be investigating a crime. Which means you just click through every interactable icon you see. Because you can't interact with anything, only things that are important to the quest. And the dialogues: you just click through everything until you click the last line and then you get to advance in the story. I'm not playing, I'm clicking through a visual novel, except sometimes there are extremely easy fights. Now, the fights control very similar to the XCOM reboot, but have no tactical depth. You choose a character from your party and shoot the bad guys. One time I got scared, because I ran out of covers, and it turned out I didn't need to be in cover to win. I just lost a couple of HPs and won easily. And the "moral dilemmas" are ridiculously signposted. You basically make no real decisions. And the shopkeeps? I just went one by one and bought the one best item from each of them I wanted, and I had just enough money to do that. It's almost like I didn't even have to worry about money, just click through the next option. And you can see that they are in love with the prose in the dialogue. Now, as I understand there is one big merit of this game: people can make new adventures for it. And its engine might be used for way better adventures, which are less linear, where a player could interact with more stuff, where there is more in-depth strategy in buying equipment, etc. That might be fun.
There are two negatives of this game: it's very short and it's very easy. It was originally a mobile game, so I guess, it was meant for casual players. And being short isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means I want more from this, but when you look at the price, jut don't forget that you can easily finish this game in the freetime of two workdays. That said, the content itself is great. The game is about exploring the behavior of alien life forms and building an ecosystem. And I have to say, I was extremely curious all the time what I will find next. Thus, it simulates very well the research. Most of the time it isn't really about getting out of the cave, it's more like finding out more about the lifeforms. And it's important to note that this game is scientifically sound. Yes, when you look at the trailer, it doesn't look very realistic. But the scientific concept behind it that's in the dialogue, will seem almost too accurate after playing so many silly games and watching so many sill y movies. My only annoyance was that I got some information from the dialogues in the wrong order (I rushed ahead and the characters discussed things I could've disovered by then, but didn't) and the game doesn't indicate if your character has something to say or not. Also, some dialogues may be repeated. This is the only thing that destroyed my suspension of disbelief. I'm happy to own this game, but I wish there was more of it.
