Medíocre seria um elogio para The Cub.

Por um lado, temos diversas críticas bem interessantes sobre a nossa sociedade atual, mas ele falha nos vários outros aspectos. Sua gameplay de platformer é bem fraca, seus visuais são bonitinhos no máximo e a história é simples (no mal sentido).

Pra fechar, ele tem toda uma feature ligada com o capacete do personagem. Ele é um receptor de uma rádio humana em Marte e, por isso, a trilha sonora por vezes é interrompida por um locutor que fala informações sobre a sociedade nesse planeta alienígena. Quando vamos para uma área subterrânea, ele para de funcionar, o que é muito interessante por ser uma característica diegética. A minha questão é que isso sacrifica a coesão com aquele universo. As músicas não são ruins, mas, na minha perspectiva, não combinam nem um pouco com a ambientação. Esse aspecto acabou me tirando muito da experiência e me fez questionar: até onde a diegese pode sacrificar a coesão?

The game was very short with an interesting story with platforming mechanics that left me underwhelmed. Now I've never played any of the previous Demagog Studio games, and that lack of experience may have effected my view of this game. The music made for the game wasn't bad, some of the songs were much better than others, and some were very bizarre... I missed a couple achievements but collected everything in one short playthrough.

You can view my entire review here: https://youtu.be/BlqpNqFOnR4

The old version of the demo made me cautiously optimistic while noticing some issues with the platforming. The new version of the demo improved on some aspects and I was ready to get the game day one but the reports of 2-3 hours of content discouraged me. The price of €15 seemed like too much based on that. Then the game released with a 33% discount and there was a bigger discount if you own Golf Club Nostalgia for a total of 46% off. I decided to get the game for €8 and I can definitely say it was worth it for that price.

Saying the game is a platformer is not really accurate. While platforming is definitely part of the game, there are also a lot of chase sections, other sections that add variety, there are a lot of collectibles, there is also a strong focus on fleshing out the story with lore and cutscenes between every chapter. Platforming might be the weakest aspect of the entire package because you need to get used to certain quirks of the controls and the game requires you to deal with some sections one way only despite there being multiple ways. For instance, the game has issues with grabbing poles when you jump between them. Even though you have normal jump and high jump, thus allowing you to adjust your position, the game doesn’t always like that. There have been instances where I adjusted my jumps and I should be grabbing a pole but I still miss. It’s preferred you either use normal jump or high jump once depending on the distance between the poles. Once you figure this out, the game becomes enjoyable to control. It’s not a fluid platformer like other games focused on platforming and this is something to keep in mind.

The game focuses on variety, atmosphere and telling a story through various means instead. The visuals and sound work together to successfully and uniquely get you invested. Seeing ruined buildings with details tells you a lot and the cutscenes are very effective and beautifully done despite the simplicity. The boy you control narrates the cutscenes very nicely and the host of the radio you listen to while playing is very soothing to the ears. The radio is not just there to flesh out the world but the radio also comments directly to what’s happening with the story as it develops and it’s quite brilliant. Then you have the collectibles. You can collect A LOT even though some of it is optional (not required for the achievements). You can find 22 books, 22 newspapers, 15 holo messages, 11 videos, 11 burps (food), 7 luxury items and 8 bears you can hug. The newspapers and books don’t have actual text, you mostly read the headlines with images to set the tone of the world. Those collectibles are already a lot for a longer game. So you can imagine where the focus lies when the game took me 3 hours on my first extensive run with only missing 4 collectibles and 3 achievements. Almost every collectible is easy to find. They’re not there to frustrate you but they’re there to enhance the story. You can check most of the collectibles found through the settings menu and the game also has chapter select right from the start. There are 8 chapters and a prologue.

It makes sense why the game is this short and costs this much. The 3 hours are not much but the presentation and almost everything around it is of very high quality. The game has lots of animations and the music within the radio seems to be done by actual bands/singers. The songs are also extremely good. It was such an enjoyable journey that I went back to complete it a second time straight away without rushing things even after I got all the achievements. I ended up playing the game for 7 hours. The Cub makes me want to play Golf Club Nostalgia asap because I want to see more of this world. Getting the game purely for the gameplay and content might not be a smart idea. But the game is worth getting if you like what you’re reading. €15 might be too much unless money is a non issue to you. Less than €10 is safer despite me fully understanding where the budget went and why it costs €15.