There's something to be said about a small game that tries to do one or two things really well.
I wish that was how I felt about Alba. The ambience and sound work is wonderful, hearing the birds all around, the leaves in the breeze and the faint music is all wonderful, the gameplay just couldn't hold a candle to that.
Alba is very simplistic in nature and between it's fairly underwhelming intro and extensive hand-holding, my excitement to explore the island lessened. I was incredibly excited to run around the island initially -- only to find out portions of it would be blocked off for the first couple days, or a quest wouldn't be doable until later. I felt the sense of exploration being taken from me as I wanted to search and explore.
At it's core, taking photos of animals can be a wildly fun expedition, there just wasn't enough to do. It wasn't like I was on a safari and snapping photos for points like Pokemon Snap -- and I wasn't able to parkour or use any fancy movement to get to more areas and explore like A Short Hike or even something tranquil like Outer Wilds but instead found myself locked down for most of the time.
When I did set off, I had already found a lot of what was interesting about the island and was going from point A to B for each quest before returning for another day of questing. There wasn't anything driving my sense of adventure once I knew how the game would play out. Heck, the photos I took for the story wouldn't matter since it'd just show a pre-rendered photo instead.
During the opening cutscene I tried to jokingly take a photo of my abuelo without my abuela to see what'd happen, instead of using my photo or telling me I did it wrong, it displayed the right photo and progressed the story. Never did I get the opportunity to revisit my photos or even see them during the credits, they were just lost to time.
And at the end of 100% completing the few things that were left, what was I rewarded with for my wildlife adventure? A badge. An unviewable badge. It didn't show up on my notebook or anywhere on my game.
I wish the best for all y'all who liked this game. Hopefully one day I'll find that perfect exploration game for me. Until that day, I guess I need to go back to the list of games I need to finish.
I wish that was how I felt about Alba. The ambience and sound work is wonderful, hearing the birds all around, the leaves in the breeze and the faint music is all wonderful, the gameplay just couldn't hold a candle to that.
Alba is very simplistic in nature and between it's fairly underwhelming intro and extensive hand-holding, my excitement to explore the island lessened. I was incredibly excited to run around the island initially -- only to find out portions of it would be blocked off for the first couple days, or a quest wouldn't be doable until later. I felt the sense of exploration being taken from me as I wanted to search and explore.
At it's core, taking photos of animals can be a wildly fun expedition, there just wasn't enough to do. It wasn't like I was on a safari and snapping photos for points like Pokemon Snap -- and I wasn't able to parkour or use any fancy movement to get to more areas and explore like A Short Hike or even something tranquil like Outer Wilds but instead found myself locked down for most of the time.
When I did set off, I had already found a lot of what was interesting about the island and was going from point A to B for each quest before returning for another day of questing. There wasn't anything driving my sense of adventure once I knew how the game would play out. Heck, the photos I took for the story wouldn't matter since it'd just show a pre-rendered photo instead.
During the opening cutscene I tried to jokingly take a photo of my abuelo without my abuela to see what'd happen, instead of using my photo or telling me I did it wrong, it displayed the right photo and progressed the story. Never did I get the opportunity to revisit my photos or even see them during the credits, they were just lost to time.
And at the end of 100% completing the few things that were left, what was I rewarded with for my wildlife adventure? A badge. An unviewable badge. It didn't show up on my notebook or anywhere on my game.
I wish the best for all y'all who liked this game. Hopefully one day I'll find that perfect exploration game for me. Until that day, I guess I need to go back to the list of games I need to finish.