After about 3 hours I have not finished, but my curiosity has been piqued and my attention has been gripped. This is a narrative adventure. The purpose is only to deliver to you a story, that you piece together. A well-woven story was created. The backdrop of your surroundings is beautiful, in an artistic way rather than a super-realistic way. The lighting and shadows are well done, and performance was for me where it should be. It ran at a solid 60fps with everything turned up. Would I have appreciated some actual puzzles? Sure, I would, and it being an adventure game I went into it expecting it. But it's in reality a narrative adventure, a story telling tool, and at that it does a good job. If this is your thing I recommend it, as I am enjoying the story and eager to finish in order to find out all that happened.
I picked up The Occupation today, 4 hours after release. This is best termed a cerebral mystery adventure game. You are a reporter, investigating a bombing and someone’s supposed innocence. Honestly, I haven’t got a clue what’s going on beyond that, LOL. I have vague clues in my notebook, I can make many intuitive motions by mouse. A lot of that adds to my notebook, but my objectives are very vague. Graphics are different. They used the UE4 engine, but instead of ultra realism, they've seemingly hand painted everything ala Ether One graphics, similar to cel shading you might see in Prince of Persia 2008 or Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. The result though is perfectly suited to the game, which focuses on exploration, backstory, and investigative prowess. Also, it’s in some kind of weird resolution. I selected 1920x1080 because of alternate system monitor, and there are black bars too and bottom, so it becomes like 1920x980. Upon restart, half your video setting like full sized, Vsync and max frames goes bye bye. Although it is only a minor annoyance it needs to be fixed. This is a challenging game. There is seriously no hand holding. I picked up a piece of mail, and only by accident turned it over, and only then realizing I had the ability to open it and retrieve the 3.5” floppy disk inside. You have vague tasks that you need to follow, and no idea how to get them done or find the information you need. You get small windows of time to investigate/trespass (hopefully without getting caught) and have enough questions to ask of persons of interest. You are on your own, just like the real world. Trial and error...fun! So, in summary, 4.5 hours in, I’ve grown several new brain cells figuring stuff out one step at a time, but still don’t have a clue what is going on! Regardless, I like it, and want to keep going. It’s a case of I KNOW I must be smarter than the game. Recommend!!
I had fond memories of this game and its predecessor, Bioshock. approximately 2 years ago the remasters were released, and people complained loudly about instability and crashes. I stayed away. Now on GOG, I still see the same comments. I bought the games anyway, happy to not have to play on Steam or use a disc based version on W8.1. Terrific! The remastering brought the game a little more modernity while maintaining the atmosphere of the original! Very well done. Not only did I not have a single crash in this game, it looked great while satisfying my nostalgia itch well enough that I count it as a current type game. Loved this release! Best part is the originals for both are about to drop into my library.
