I love highwater's art direction, in a visual sense. puttering around in your inflatable dinghy can often be a serene, beautiful experience—in it, you peer out into the world around you, paved with cerulean and sinister waters, which at times yield to massive landmarks to the world before climate disaster. everything is eye-catching, eerie, and impressionistic, giving you glimpses into the setting, without revealing too much
even your closest buddies, in how they're visually represented, lack visual definition in even their facial features, lending an air of interpretive mystery to the closest sources of support you have in the game. in this respect, I would say the lack of high definition, of specificity, serves the game well
it does not, however, serve the writing well, which, for me, is the game's greatest (but not only) flaw
I appreciate, and even sometimes love, the intentions behind this game. rag-tag group of set-adrift folks try to work together to survive, escape? a climate disaster suffering world where the remaining institutions of power continue to do business as usual: exploit. it touches on community and the perils of individualism, and isn't afraid to give the player uncomfortable consequences
unfortunately, its writing beyond the point of concept is consistently lackluster, in almost every respect. the biggest crime for me is that the characters—who should matter so much in a story like this—are so thinly sketched they're barely on the page. there's never enough dialogue, and what there is is so plainly generic and lacking in personality from person-to-person. new characters get air dropped into your party with little explanation, and any backstory is short and not the easiest to navigate. some characters barely have enough writing to even meet the threshold of being archetypes. it's really disappointing and, worse, boring
the political worldbuilding is barely better. in moments it offers some decent observational satire, but the circumstances are so impressionistically vague in how they're explained that it's hard to say anything truly sharp or smart with it, other than "corporations bad!" (correct) and maybe "rebellions just as bad!" (eck). I would've said through most of the game it floats around this kind of, apathetic libertarianism, though to its credit, I think the endings do make it somewhat more complex, though barely
I think most other people will be frustrated at the gameplay. the gameplay didn't bother me much—the lack of level turned each combat encounter into a type of puzzle, which I could enjoy—but it isn't super well-tuned. once you figure out how to use josephine, almost every battle is easy to slice down. given my frustrations with the game, I didn't mind speeding through that part
on the flipside, though the exploration aspect of the game looks very pretty, it is deeply underbaked. despite the tantalizing appearance of being able to explore across this flooded environment, it's remarkable on rails for most of the game. and by the time you get to the one area that isn't, you've been trained to not explore that it's almost lucky if you still have the impulse
lastly, there's a lot of polish missing, especially towards the end. typos, score suddenly drops, etc. it's not game breaking, but it is noticeable
I appreciate the experience of the game, and respect the developers' intentions. I hope they can build on what works and improve on their writing approach moving forward, because there's totally potential here.
if you want to play better games the explore similar themes, I'd very highly recommend saltsea chronicles, citizen sleeper, and kentucky route zero
even your closest buddies, in how they're visually represented, lack visual definition in even their facial features, lending an air of interpretive mystery to the closest sources of support you have in the game. in this respect, I would say the lack of high definition, of specificity, serves the game well
it does not, however, serve the writing well, which, for me, is the game's greatest (but not only) flaw
I appreciate, and even sometimes love, the intentions behind this game. rag-tag group of set-adrift folks try to work together to survive, escape? a climate disaster suffering world where the remaining institutions of power continue to do business as usual: exploit. it touches on community and the perils of individualism, and isn't afraid to give the player uncomfortable consequences
unfortunately, its writing beyond the point of concept is consistently lackluster, in almost every respect. the biggest crime for me is that the characters—who should matter so much in a story like this—are so thinly sketched they're barely on the page. there's never enough dialogue, and what there is is so plainly generic and lacking in personality from person-to-person. new characters get air dropped into your party with little explanation, and any backstory is short and not the easiest to navigate. some characters barely have enough writing to even meet the threshold of being archetypes. it's really disappointing and, worse, boring
the political worldbuilding is barely better. in moments it offers some decent observational satire, but the circumstances are so impressionistically vague in how they're explained that it's hard to say anything truly sharp or smart with it, other than "corporations bad!" (correct) and maybe "rebellions just as bad!" (eck). I would've said through most of the game it floats around this kind of, apathetic libertarianism, though to its credit, I think the endings do make it somewhat more complex, though barely
I think most other people will be frustrated at the gameplay. the gameplay didn't bother me much—the lack of level turned each combat encounter into a type of puzzle, which I could enjoy—but it isn't super well-tuned. once you figure out how to use josephine, almost every battle is easy to slice down. given my frustrations with the game, I didn't mind speeding through that part
on the flipside, though the exploration aspect of the game looks very pretty, it is deeply underbaked. despite the tantalizing appearance of being able to explore across this flooded environment, it's remarkable on rails for most of the game. and by the time you get to the one area that isn't, you've been trained to not explore that it's almost lucky if you still have the impulse
lastly, there's a lot of polish missing, especially towards the end. typos, score suddenly drops, etc. it's not game breaking, but it is noticeable
I appreciate the experience of the game, and respect the developers' intentions. I hope they can build on what works and improve on their writing approach moving forward, because there's totally potential here.
if you want to play better games the explore similar themes, I'd very highly recommend saltsea chronicles, citizen sleeper, and kentucky route zero