The Missing handles its heavy story themes and touchy subjects quite well, successfully establishing a dark, surrealistic, dream-like atmosphere as the truth is slowly revealed. As you would expect from a Swery game, there's a strong tinge of dark humor, but not to its detriment. It's clear that Swery and his team doesn't take it lightly, and in a story like this, it's the very least one should expect, and they delivered more than that.
Gameplay-wise, it's a puzzle platformer with a sick twist, as extreme violence and self-harm is required in order to pass many of its obstacles. The puzzles themselves are pretty good overall, and there's good variety as each level has their own gimmick. But the game definitely requires some patience from the player's part, as many of the mechanics has a slow pace to it. You often have to wait for elements of the level to be at the right place, or just wait for certain animations to be finished before you can start moving. For example, waiting for an enemy to finish dismantling your body parts before you can move on. It might feel sluggish to some, especially when you're just looking around and trying to figure out what to do. Personally it didn't really bother me, I enjoyed the slow-ish pace. I also enjoy how the gameplay thematically ties to the larger picture of the story, it certainly adds to the game's unique personality.
Unfortunately, the game is not very stable. In my 5-6 hours playthrough, it froze 4 times, and 3 of them happened at very important story moments, actively hurting their emotional impact. At one point I was literally having goosebumps, and then the game froze and I just felt limp, the big moment was just snatched away from me like that. Because of this, I have to take the game down a few notches.
In short, The Missing is not exactly a breeze. Many people will be too troubled by at least one of its aspects, but you have to be patient with it. It's trying to tell you something important.
I still have some collectibles hunting to do, I want to see all the optional story stuff but I don't feel like going through the game again this soon. Will add a P.S. when that happens.
Gameplay-wise, it's a puzzle platformer with a sick twist, as extreme violence and self-harm is required in order to pass many of its obstacles. The puzzles themselves are pretty good overall, and there's good variety as each level has their own gimmick. But the game definitely requires some patience from the player's part, as many of the mechanics has a slow pace to it. You often have to wait for elements of the level to be at the right place, or just wait for certain animations to be finished before you can start moving. For example, waiting for an enemy to finish dismantling your body parts before you can move on. It might feel sluggish to some, especially when you're just looking around and trying to figure out what to do. Personally it didn't really bother me, I enjoyed the slow-ish pace. I also enjoy how the gameplay thematically ties to the larger picture of the story, it certainly adds to the game's unique personality.
Unfortunately, the game is not very stable. In my 5-6 hours playthrough, it froze 4 times, and 3 of them happened at very important story moments, actively hurting their emotional impact. At one point I was literally having goosebumps, and then the game froze and I just felt limp, the big moment was just snatched away from me like that. Because of this, I have to take the game down a few notches.
In short, The Missing is not exactly a breeze. Many people will be too troubled by at least one of its aspects, but you have to be patient with it. It's trying to tell you something important.
I still have some collectibles hunting to do, I want to see all the optional story stuff but I don't feel like going through the game again this soon. Will add a P.S. when that happens.