Still There is a sci-fi point-and-click, which flirts heavily with very serious themes, such as grief and the search for identity. We play Karl Hamba, a man who has lost his daughter and who, in order to forget and to forget himself, has taken a job in a 'galactic lighthouse', far from Earth. This loneliness, the alienation he experiences and the relationship he has with the station's AI are reminiscent of Duncan Jones' Moon, with a somewhat inverted premise. In any case, Karl leads a routine and excessively uninteresting life, until he receives a distress message from a ship lost in his sector. A whole series of events unfolds, revealing the truth about Karl's presence on this station. Like an old-school point-and-click, Still There has its share of puzzles, some of which are particularly tricky. They are not necessarily unsolvable puzzles that don't make sense, but they do require a certain amount of concentration and the effort of reading the station's manual (the oxygen leak puzzle is particularly tricky). On top of that, the story is itself a puzzle: the search for a way to mend a broken soul that no longer has the strength to love. Still There takes a surprising direction, stating that this is impossible, but without necessarily having a pessimistic tone. Time does its job and eases the pain, but nothing will be the same as before. The title enjoys a quality art direction, both with the neat retro-futuristic settings and the soundtrack that accompanies the dialogues very effectively.
Still There asks the question of the most intense mourning and the necessary empathy. How to live with a heart reduced to shreds? Should one flee? But then, how far should one go? In any case, all the time we spent together will remain.
Still There asks the question of the most intense mourning and the necessary empathy. How to live with a heart reduced to shreds? Should one flee? But then, how far should one go? In any case, all the time we spent together will remain.
A superb example of good mechanics. You won't be surprised by the 'routine gets established and then disrupted' storytelling, but it gets better. It also shows how to use the manual style of technical puzzles without it becoming work (looking at you, Zachtronics).
I am not sure if I like the ending, it feels very indie game-y to me and while it felt very good at first, it faded out to become a question mark similar to The Suicide of Rachel Foster.
But still, it's a beautiful rendition of the emptiness and solitude of space, and sometimes being unlucky.
I am not sure if I like the ending, it feels very indie game-y to me and while it felt very good at first, it faded out to become a question mark similar to The Suicide of Rachel Foster.
But still, it's a beautiful rendition of the emptiness and solitude of space, and sometimes being unlucky.
A great point and click game. The progression could be a little more clear sometimes, but overall decent puzzle design. The music and atmosphere are chill and there's charm in the characters and interactions in the game.
This review contains spoilers
This was a really great puzzle game, but not without its issues.
First off, it turns out I pretty much recapped most of the game, so that's what a lot of this is.
Second, and ill say it at the end too, but I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who want's to experience the story, they do have an easy mode so you can bypass their puzzles if need be.
Story Recap and Throughts
To start off, Still There is a game about grief and loss. You don't learn this immediately though. You start of as the player spaceman Karl Hamba, in a tiny confined ship cutely named The Bento. Karl is out here just monitoring the area in a kind of space-lighthouse. You're only companion out here being a rather sassy AI and your radio.
Eventually, after some initial setup puzzles, you receive a call from someone alone and stranded on a derelict spaceship. Further puzzles ensue and a mystery starts brewing. There are quite a few stressful puzzles you have to do with alarms going off and problems happening. Steadily you learn more about our protagonist, and things start getting real sad, real quick.
Karl had a daughter, and you only get flashes of it for a while, but steadily you learn why he took this job in middle of nowhere. As the puzzles go on and your try everything to save this person on this ship, more and more memories come up. A red shoe, your daughters voice, something happening. An accident.
During this you find this ship isn't everything it seems either. It's simply not there, or rather, it's not there at this point in time. The story evolves into this whole time travel/psychological thriller.
You're station is falling apart, the person in the ship is losing oxygen, your memories are coming back, forced by this anomaly space.
Karls daughter died in front of him, and that's why he's out in middle of nowhere space. This anomaly, the person in another time, all coming together to have him finally face his grief and loss.
The ending genuinely made me cry.
though admit ably I'm prone to it if something wants the player to do so.
The Puzzles
The puzzles themselves were probably the weakest part of the game. They ranged from good puzzles, to just bad incomprehensible thought paths you were supposed to take to reach the conclusion they wanted. There were some puzzles that for me, just were not conceivable in any way and I had to use a walk-through to get a foothold for the section.
So not great in that regard, but when they were good they were good.
The art style was serviceable, nothing stood out as amazing, but the music and sound design were great!
I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who want's to experience the story, they do have an easy mode so you can bypass their puzzles if need be.
First off, it turns out I pretty much recapped most of the game, so that's what a lot of this is.
Second, and ill say it at the end too, but I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who want's to experience the story, they do have an easy mode so you can bypass their puzzles if need be.
Story Recap and Throughts
To start off, Still There is a game about grief and loss. You don't learn this immediately though. You start of as the player spaceman Karl Hamba, in a tiny confined ship cutely named The Bento. Karl is out here just monitoring the area in a kind of space-lighthouse. You're only companion out here being a rather sassy AI and your radio.
Eventually, after some initial setup puzzles, you receive a call from someone alone and stranded on a derelict spaceship. Further puzzles ensue and a mystery starts brewing. There are quite a few stressful puzzles you have to do with alarms going off and problems happening. Steadily you learn more about our protagonist, and things start getting real sad, real quick.
Karl had a daughter, and you only get flashes of it for a while, but steadily you learn why he took this job in middle of nowhere. As the puzzles go on and your try everything to save this person on this ship, more and more memories come up. A red shoe, your daughters voice, something happening. An accident.
During this you find this ship isn't everything it seems either. It's simply not there, or rather, it's not there at this point in time. The story evolves into this whole time travel/psychological thriller.
You're station is falling apart, the person in the ship is losing oxygen, your memories are coming back, forced by this anomaly space.
Karls daughter died in front of him, and that's why he's out in middle of nowhere space. This anomaly, the person in another time, all coming together to have him finally face his grief and loss.
The ending genuinely made me cry.
though admit ably I'm prone to it if something wants the player to do so.
The Puzzles
The puzzles themselves were probably the weakest part of the game. They ranged from good puzzles, to just bad incomprehensible thought paths you were supposed to take to reach the conclusion they wanted. There were some puzzles that for me, just were not conceivable in any way and I had to use a walk-through to get a foothold for the section.
So not great in that regard, but when they were good they were good.
The art style was serviceable, nothing stood out as amazing, but the music and sound design were great!
I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who want's to experience the story, they do have an easy mode so you can bypass their puzzles if need be.
Nice atmosphere, somewhat complicated/mechanical puzzles.
Ich mochte die Rätsel an sich sehr. Es steckten wirklich kreative Ideen hinter vielen Momenten. Ein paar Anspielungen hier und da waren auch immer wieder zur Auflockerung gut. Es war interessant, wie schnell man sich trotz technischer Ahnungslosigkeit in diesem Raumschiff zurechtgefunden hat.
Die Geschichte an sich hat mich leider nicht so überzeugen können.
Die Geschichte an sich hat mich leider nicht so überzeugen können.
Decent puzzle design and a fun concept. Has more potential but is fun enough.
(review da steam//antiga)
Inicialmente aparenta ser só um jogo de puzzles em confinamento, mas logo a história engata e o jogo começa a se conectar emocionalmente com você, e os personagens começam a se tornar cada vez mais humanos, mesmo um deles sendo uma IA. O jeito que eles usam da viajem no tempo é um tanto refrescante considerando o quanto esse tema ja foi explorado e saturado por outras mídias. Além disso tudo tem ótimos dialogos e uma arte magnifica, um dos meu jogos favoritos e com certeza valeu a pena ter comprado, so queria não ter demorado tanto pra começar a jogar.
Inicialmente aparenta ser só um jogo de puzzles em confinamento, mas logo a história engata e o jogo começa a se conectar emocionalmente com você, e os personagens começam a se tornar cada vez mais humanos, mesmo um deles sendo uma IA. O jeito que eles usam da viajem no tempo é um tanto refrescante considerando o quanto esse tema ja foi explorado e saturado por outras mídias. Além disso tudo tem ótimos dialogos e uma arte magnifica, um dos meu jogos favoritos e com certeza valeu a pena ter comprado, so queria não ter demorado tanto pra começar a jogar.
A fine little narrative, lots of mysterious happenings to tangle yourself in. That's definitely the strong point of the game, as the protagonist's multiple strained and fraying relationships with the other characters do a good job of driving the plot forward.
The puzzles are difficult in a way I'm not entirely sure they are supposed to be. It's not so much that the puzzles are hard; they are, and that's fine. The main issue I kept encountering was that I couldn't figure out how to access the puzzle I was supposed to solve. The space station's mainframe was dizzyingly obtuse to access in a way that makes me think only people with some kind of experience with the actual, physical guts of computers and the like would understand. Which is fine, but it wasn't for me.
The puzzles are difficult in a way I'm not entirely sure they are supposed to be. It's not so much that the puzzles are hard; they are, and that's fine. The main issue I kept encountering was that I couldn't figure out how to access the puzzle I was supposed to solve. The space station's mainframe was dizzyingly obtuse to access in a way that makes me think only people with some kind of experience with the actual, physical guts of computers and the like would understand. Which is fine, but it wasn't for me.
Inicialmente aparenta ser só um jogo de puzzles em confinamento, mas logo a história engata e o jogo começa a se conectar emocionalmente com você, e os personagens começam a se tornar cada vez mais humanos, mesmo um deles sendo uma IA. O jeito que eles usam da viajem no tempo é um tanto refrescante considerando o quanto esse tema ja foi explorado e saturado por outras mídias. Além disso tudo tem ótimos dialogos e uma arte magnifica, um dos meu jogos favoritos e com certeza valeu a pena ter comprado, so queria não ter demorado tanto pra começar a jogar.