Wanted to give Pony Island a playthrough in preparation for Inscryption. I have heard in the past that Pony Island is an indie to play, but just never gave it the time. Good news, you don't need to give it a ton of time! I think it's a fun art game, but that in the last 5 years people have taken similar notes and expanded onto them in more interesting ways. Everything here is solid, and worth a recommend -- but it may not be as "woah dude" as it once was.
This review contains spoilers
Really fun little game! I legit got fooled by the fake Steam message gag in the Asmodeus encounter LMAO. It was funny as fuck it chose a person I never talk to on steam it was so funny.
Feel my only criticism that it was pretty barebones, but that was rly the point I know. I just loved all the computer puzzles. Azazel's presentation was by far my favorite, with the locks blocking the executable. Pretty cool!
Feel my only criticism that it was pretty barebones, but that was rly the point I know. I just loved all the computer puzzles. Azazel's presentation was by far my favorite, with the locks blocking the executable. Pretty cool!
This one's a bit odd because on the one hand I wanted to see what the game was going to throw at me next, but on the other I didn't want to suffer through whatever I was currently doing because it all felt so uninteresting. The last quarter of the game was my favorite part and it saves it from going below average, but I wouldn't recommend Pony Island.
In a game about hiding facades, it does a pretty bad job of making it's game anything more than just that - a front.
There's really a lack of gameplay, story and even ideas to get into as the game begins a loop that doesn't explore outside of a few interesting ideas.
Games breaking the fourth wall is not new at this point, we've seen it in a handful of wonderful games... it just feels like this didn't go far enough with that idea.
It didn't go too far outside of its comfort zone, it felt almost too tame with the overall design of the puzzle game.
There's really a lack of gameplay, story and even ideas to get into as the game begins a loop that doesn't explore outside of a few interesting ideas.
Games breaking the fourth wall is not new at this point, we've seen it in a handful of wonderful games... it just feels like this didn't go far enough with that idea.
It didn't go too far outside of its comfort zone, it felt almost too tame with the overall design of the puzzle game.
It's...okay. The big twist of Pony Island is that it's not about ponies or an island at all, and it's instead something else entirely. It's very good about building on the bits of knowledge it's already given you in order to tutorialize throughout the whole experience without shoving any abrupt explanations in your face about some new game element, so you feel clever when you solve a problem, like you figured it out entirely on your own even though your thought process was probably exactly what the developer wanted you to go through. Presentation-wise, it's kind of clever, a little bit irreverant about its subject matter at times, which comes across as odd when a lot of the hints at the "lore" seem to suggest it's meant to be taken more seriously. It's one of those games that works far better if you play it yourself rather than watch someone else play it, and there are several points where the narrative/game design tricks they pull honestly made me laugh. But overal, I disagree with the overwhelmingly positive rating the title is being given right now, and I don't think I'd recommend it. It's not awful, it's just that your money is just better spent elsewhere.