NaissanceE is a first person exploration PC game developed on UDK by Limasse Five with the participation of Pauline Oliveros, Patricia Dallio and Thierry Zaboitzeff. The adventure takes place in a primitive mysterious structure and the game mainly consists to explore and feel the deep and strong ambiance of this atemporal world but platforming and puzzles areas will also enrich the experience. NaissanceE is a game, a philosophical trip and an artistic experience. The game is constructed along a linear path punctuated by more open areas to freely explore, some puzzles to solves and some more experimental sequences. Going deeper and deeper in a primitive zone from “Naissance” world, the player will meet entities or mechanical systems. Whether those entities are life forms or pure machines, they react to player presence, to light and shadow and they may open access to the following. If most parts of the journey will require only curiosity and logic, a good control and coordination on running, breathing and jumping actions will help to go through rare but exigent sequences, as an homage to old school die an retry games. The main idea behind the game is to make the player appreciate the loneliness, the feeling to be lost in a gigantic unknown universe and to be marvelled by the beauty of this world. A world which seems to be alive, leading the player, manipulating him and playing with him for any reason. Imagination is an important key to enjoy and understand NaissanceE. Walking in an undiscovered abstract structure brings questions about the nature of this world, about the meaning of this trip. Evocating and symbolic, the architecture and events will lead player’s imagination to find an answer, if it only matters.
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I was enjoying the game whenever it let you explore (specially those sections that give you the illusion of an open world), that's where the dev's world design shines (great atmosphere for what is a minimal style), that's accompanied by some interesting moments of subtle world building or quirky interactions. But sadly ruined by mundane puzzles and clunky platforming sections that take away from the experience. Also, what's the point of the breathing mechanic? You use it for like 10% of the game, and it practically only exists to distract and not let you immerse yourself. Maybe the devs should've stuck to the premise of it being an "artistic experience" and not a game, even though it sounds pretentious as hell in the steam description. Anyway, I don't want to rip too much into this game since it's free, and the most offensive thing it does is being amateurish... Overall, a decent short game. Discovered "BLAME!" thanks to it too, so I'll probably go right ahead and read that.
(Oh, if you have a monitor with an energy saving feature that turns it off whenever the screen is black, turn that off before playing because the game's really dark, and lifting the gamma to max on the settings seemingly doesn't help lol.)
This review contains spoilers