If this game could exist without the baggage of a truly abysmal UI that seems to be actively hostile to the player, I could actually like it. Instead we get the typically juvenile Kojima faire; grotesquely overrated, pseudo-auteur nonsense detracting from an otherwise very novel and fun sci-fi hiking game.
Maybe one day I'll come back to finish, but all I can say is, I have never played a "AAA" game with a UI this incoherent (unintuitive menu organization, piecemeal quest turn ins, map/route tracing systems with absurd button combos just to use basic functionality). For this alone, I was repelled from the game despite really enjoying the traversal and to some extent the world building/setting.
The hiking/traversal parts are all genuinely/shockingly fun. I quite enjoyed the slow, almost meditative nature of walking around. And when juxtaposed with the utterly TERRIFYING ghosts you really feel the stakes. The world is bizarre and not 100% sensical but it IS fully realized. At times it's silly in such a way that detracts from the world building (the bad guy porters are..... addicted to delivering? *eyeroll* ffs).
If someone could remake this game without the overwrought Kojima nonsense and I'd probably 5-star it, instead, you have to fight through it all just to get to the good gameplay. And I'm not sure its worth the hassle.
Maybe one day I'll come back to finish, but all I can say is, I have never played a "AAA" game with a UI this incoherent (unintuitive menu organization, piecemeal quest turn ins, map/route tracing systems with absurd button combos just to use basic functionality). For this alone, I was repelled from the game despite really enjoying the traversal and to some extent the world building/setting.
The hiking/traversal parts are all genuinely/shockingly fun. I quite enjoyed the slow, almost meditative nature of walking around. And when juxtaposed with the utterly TERRIFYING ghosts you really feel the stakes. The world is bizarre and not 100% sensical but it IS fully realized. At times it's silly in such a way that detracts from the world building (the bad guy porters are..... addicted to delivering? *eyeroll* ffs).
If someone could remake this game without the overwrought Kojima nonsense and I'd probably 5-star it, instead, you have to fight through it all just to get to the good gameplay. And I'm not sure its worth the hassle.