bitterbatterdog
BACKER
Void Stranger 2023
Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
Wishlist
Rating
Time Played
10h 15m
Days in Journal
2 days
Last played
December 9, 2023
First played
November 30, 2023
Platforms Played
Completion Criteria: Ending 2
I've been debating whether I should mark this as complete and review it and since the game has told me it's over. I feel like I should, for people confused about what I mean? I can't really be specific without spoilers and I can't even really critique it without spoilers. But I want to provide a review for people who are seeing the high scores and wondering if it's worth it.
I guess I also don't have an answer for you. I don't know. The game is a sokobon intended to be used to provide a detailed and mysterious story, but although the sokobon is servicable (as the genre gets, very standard), and the story itself is serviceable to what I played. They do not gell particularly well. Themes come across and are obvious but for a game that wants to hide secrets from you, it makes it very hard for you to look for secrets. Playing through ostensibly the entire game because I realised a split second too late that the room I was in was the goal of a clue provided earlier does not leave a good taste in your mouth. My gut tells me that the scores for this game may be bloated by those who really put loved it whilest the middling feelings were blasted away by the tedium expected from you. I played the game for a bit over 10 hours and was already not particularly happy with the design choices so when I checked the How Long to Beat Time was over 50 hours, also seeing the recommended reviews on steam reaching upwards of 140 hours, I realized that this game is hitting for people.
Maybe the reason people are so invested are legitimate, maybe they are superficial, maybe they are horny. I don't know. All I can say is as someone who has finished some highly controversial puzzle games like La Mulana, I just feel like they may have attempted to purify their theme and ended up ruining the puzzles of the world (even they kind of mess up there them anyway with <spoilers>
Try it with a word of caution, if you get to a point you think the game asks for too much, don't follow the words of hype. Maybe I'll go back to it but I am definitely not invested in doing so at the moment.
I've been debating whether I should mark this as complete and review it and since the game has told me it's over. I feel like I should, for people confused about what I mean? I can't really be specific without spoilers and I can't even really critique it without spoilers. But I want to provide a review for people who are seeing the high scores and wondering if it's worth it.
I guess I also don't have an answer for you. I don't know. The game is a sokobon intended to be used to provide a detailed and mysterious story, but although the sokobon is servicable (as the genre gets, very standard), and the story itself is serviceable to what I played. They do not gell particularly well. Themes come across and are obvious but for a game that wants to hide secrets from you, it makes it very hard for you to look for secrets. Playing through ostensibly the entire game because I realised a split second too late that the room I was in was the goal of a clue provided earlier does not leave a good taste in your mouth. My gut tells me that the scores for this game may be bloated by those who really put loved it whilest the middling feelings were blasted away by the tedium expected from you. I played the game for a bit over 10 hours and was already not particularly happy with the design choices so when I checked the How Long to Beat Time was over 50 hours, also seeing the recommended reviews on steam reaching upwards of 140 hours, I realized that this game is hitting for people.
Maybe the reason people are so invested are legitimate, maybe they are superficial, maybe they are horny. I don't know. All I can say is as someone who has finished some highly controversial puzzle games like La Mulana, I just feel like they may have attempted to purify their theme and ended up ruining the puzzles of the world (even they kind of mess up there them anyway with <spoilers>
Try it with a word of caution, if you get to a point you think the game asks for too much, don't follow the words of hype. Maybe I'll go back to it but I am definitely not invested in doing so at the moment.