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This review contains spoilers

Game where you have to identify the path forward using maps? Great! But sadly, this was more like: Game where you have to identify the path forward using maps-- oh no you missed a map so now you have to backtrack and there are characters apparently but you haven't actually run into more than one and he wasn't useful in the slightest and you swear that you've climbed this cave before and, yep, you have, you're going round in circles and the protagonist is now berating herself because there's a soft time limit on navigating this terrain and you're taking too long and you just fell to the bottom of the climb again and the day is over and there's nowhere to sleep so you're just going to lose health tonight before you climb your way through this cave for the third time. Time for a jaunty tune that you've heard three times while you jump across this plain again since you're not sure if you need to go to the left or right side of it and you keep running into dead ends! Oh and while you want to interact with this signpost that'll let you cross to another path, the protagonist just launched into an anecdote so you'll have to wait until she finishes.

Sorry for the vent, a small title like this doesn't deserve it - especially one that's so earnest and inspired and doubly so when I may have just been an idiot and missed something obvious. But the pitch of open-ended navigation by identifying the path forward on maps sounded like something right up my alley. I love that shit! And with a great visual style, great music and some fun writing in Scottish accents? Everything sounded perfect to me, so I can't help but feel incredibly frustrated with my experience of it. I feel like I'd have more patience if it wasn't for the soft time limit. Initially I was taking my time, exploring the world, but then the protagonist started talking about how I was taking too long and wouldn't make it to the lighthouse in time so I started rushing and getting stressed out by how few relevant maps I was finding. Maybe I'll give this a few years and come back to it with a fresh perspective and love it.

On launch, I've had an absolute blast playing queuing with friends. I've been told the solo queue experience hasn't been great (which isn't hard to believe with how frantic things get), but this game is a tense, action-packed experience that I've enjoyed every minute of. Map knowledge is clearly going to be one of the biggest parts of the early difficulty curve, especially when you aren't playing heavy with the ability to break down walls, since you don't really know where doorways and windows are yet. I also suspect there are some balance issues that'll need to get ironed out, but as it stands this game is in a very nice spot on launch. I'm looking forward to making the most of it before its inevitable, sad decline into live service oblivion.

edit: I have since become aware that the voices are AI generated which makes a lot of sense as they never sounded very natural to me. Knocking it down from a 4 to a 3 because yeah, knowing that does impact my enjoyment a fair bit.

Puzzle platformers aren't really my thing, so I'm shocked to announce that American Arcadia kept me very engaged for its 6 hour runtime. The key factors that contributed to this were the engaging story, the great dialogue writing and the variation. Each section of the game had something different going on, and the first person areas did wonders to spice things up a bit. Some plot beats were a little bit contrived, and some puzzles could get a little frustrating (especially one or two that couldn't be solved without seeing an easily missable clue), but ultimately I really enjoyed this one.

One last thing worth mentioning is that they nailed the difficulty. While it isn't a hard game by any means, there are some sections where it's incredibly easy to stuff up. Thanks to the quick restart, you get back to it pretty quickly, and thankfully not many areas were such a cinch that it got boring. That, I think, was key to keeping me engaged.