szymon
36 Reviews liked by szymon
Kona
2017
Kona is not a good game. I wouldn't say it's a bad game either because I really liked the setting and the survival elements. But it's very close to bad in my opinion. If the mystery was better and the ending was good, it could have been a great game. In it's current state though, I can't recommend it to anyone.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
A Boring and Uninteresting Adventure
Kona is a walking simulator/survival game set in Northern Quebec. I was expecting to play something good, maybe great with a deep story and surprising twists. Unfortunately, that's not what I found.
In Kona, we play as private detective Carl Faubert in 1970. After getting a new job, he drives to Northern Quebec but finds himself in a huge snowstorm. After fixing his car and arriving at the town he was supposed to go, he finds the person who gave the job to him dead. And decides to investigate the town where it seems that no one else is alive.
Opening of the story is really interesting but unfortunately the story goes to some unexpected places that I did not like. Things won't go the way you think, that's all I'm saying. And this game does the terrible thing in all walking simulators; it shows it's characters as flashing lights.
Which leads you to forget their stories. You really should take notes while playing. There is an in game journal as well that your detective takes notes in and characters are featured in there but it wasn't enough for me.
One final thing about the story and characters, ending was very disappointing as well. Both story wise and even gameplay wise. Like wow. I really did not like that ending.
Speaking of gameplay, let's talk about that. In Kona, you will mostly walk, solve some light puzzles and investigate areas. But interestingly, there are also survival elements. Let's leave them for now on focus on the other things. Kona is an open world. Actually, it's more like an open area.
We have a map and we can see all the houses in the town. They are marked. We also see sheds and towers and the general store and a few other important things. Our job is to visit each of the important locations and witness 4 special memories.
I already talked about the memories a bit. You watch something that happened before you arrived and you see the characters as bright lights. Other than those 4 memories, every piece of story you get will be through environmental storytelling, photos or notes.
Most of the puzzles in the game are about exploring the environment and finding stuff to fix some stuff. They are not hard though don't worry. And if you follow the main story path only, you won't see much puzzles at all.
I have to say, I didn't like the exploration very much. I mean, it's kind of boring. But that's also caused by me not liking the story much. If you get immersed in the story, I am sure you will explore the town much more curiously.
However, very interestingly, I liked the survival elements. Because there is a snow storm, our character has a temperature meter. There are campfires across the map and there are usually fireplaces in every named location.
You need to find wood and I think a lighter to start the fire. Fireplaces and campfires are also your save points. You can only save the game at those points and there are wolves in the area so you need to be careful.
Other thing I liked about the survival elements is the psychology meter. Yes, you have a meter for that as well. Smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol raises it the most but those lowers your health meter so be careful. Staying near a fire also raises it but that has a limit. It doesn't fully raise the meter.
And killing wolves decreases it. Yes, you can attack the wolves and kill them with your crowbar or axe but using a flare gun to scare them off or throwing steaks so that they get it and disappear might be better for your mental health.
Those resources are not infinite though and that's exactly what I liked. You have 3 meters to consider with your health, mental health and temperature but you have few resources and you have a mystery to solve. While I did not like the mystery, I have to say that these 3 elements combines to create something really unique.
By the way, don't worry if I made it sound very difficult. It's not very easy; but when you understand what you should do and where you can get the material, you will easily get through the game.
Technically, the game is fine. It doesn't look awesome or it doesn't sound great but I played it on PS5 and it had a native PS5 version. So I got clear images and smooth frame rates.
As for my trophy hunters, it's an easy platinum but 2 playthroughs will be needed for most of you. You can do everything in one but not without looking constantly at a guide. And because it will be your first time, you will get even more lost. I did it in 2 playthroughs and it took me 7 hours but the second playthrough was really boring let me tell you that.
Kona is not a good game. I wouldn't say it's a bad game either because I really liked the setting and the survival elements. But it's very close to bad in my opinion. If the mystery was better and the ending was good, it could have been a great game. In it's current state though, I can't recommend it to anyone.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
A Boring and Uninteresting Adventure
Kona is a walking simulator/survival game set in Northern Quebec. I was expecting to play something good, maybe great with a deep story and surprising twists. Unfortunately, that's not what I found.
In Kona, we play as private detective Carl Faubert in 1970. After getting a new job, he drives to Northern Quebec but finds himself in a huge snowstorm. After fixing his car and arriving at the town he was supposed to go, he finds the person who gave the job to him dead. And decides to investigate the town where it seems that no one else is alive.
Opening of the story is really interesting but unfortunately the story goes to some unexpected places that I did not like. Things won't go the way you think, that's all I'm saying. And this game does the terrible thing in all walking simulators; it shows it's characters as flashing lights.
Which leads you to forget their stories. You really should take notes while playing. There is an in game journal as well that your detective takes notes in and characters are featured in there but it wasn't enough for me.
One final thing about the story and characters, ending was very disappointing as well. Both story wise and even gameplay wise. Like wow. I really did not like that ending.
Speaking of gameplay, let's talk about that. In Kona, you will mostly walk, solve some light puzzles and investigate areas. But interestingly, there are also survival elements. Let's leave them for now on focus on the other things. Kona is an open world. Actually, it's more like an open area.
We have a map and we can see all the houses in the town. They are marked. We also see sheds and towers and the general store and a few other important things. Our job is to visit each of the important locations and witness 4 special memories.
I already talked about the memories a bit. You watch something that happened before you arrived and you see the characters as bright lights. Other than those 4 memories, every piece of story you get will be through environmental storytelling, photos or notes.
Most of the puzzles in the game are about exploring the environment and finding stuff to fix some stuff. They are not hard though don't worry. And if you follow the main story path only, you won't see much puzzles at all.
I have to say, I didn't like the exploration very much. I mean, it's kind of boring. But that's also caused by me not liking the story much. If you get immersed in the story, I am sure you will explore the town much more curiously.
However, very interestingly, I liked the survival elements. Because there is a snow storm, our character has a temperature meter. There are campfires across the map and there are usually fireplaces in every named location.
You need to find wood and I think a lighter to start the fire. Fireplaces and campfires are also your save points. You can only save the game at those points and there are wolves in the area so you need to be careful.
Other thing I liked about the survival elements is the psychology meter. Yes, you have a meter for that as well. Smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol raises it the most but those lowers your health meter so be careful. Staying near a fire also raises it but that has a limit. It doesn't fully raise the meter.
And killing wolves decreases it. Yes, you can attack the wolves and kill them with your crowbar or axe but using a flare gun to scare them off or throwing steaks so that they get it and disappear might be better for your mental health.
Those resources are not infinite though and that's exactly what I liked. You have 3 meters to consider with your health, mental health and temperature but you have few resources and you have a mystery to solve. While I did not like the mystery, I have to say that these 3 elements combines to create something really unique.
By the way, don't worry if I made it sound very difficult. It's not very easy; but when you understand what you should do and where you can get the material, you will easily get through the game.
Technically, the game is fine. It doesn't look awesome or it doesn't sound great but I played it on PS5 and it had a native PS5 version. So I got clear images and smooth frame rates.
As for my trophy hunters, it's an easy platinum but 2 playthroughs will be needed for most of you. You can do everything in one but not without looking constantly at a guide. And because it will be your first time, you will get even more lost. I did it in 2 playthroughs and it took me 7 hours but the second playthrough was really boring let me tell you that.
Kona is not a good game. I wouldn't say it's a bad game either because I really liked the setting and the survival elements. But it's very close to bad in my opinion. If the mystery was better and the ending was good, it could have been a great game. In it's current state though, I can't recommend it to anyone.
Kona
2017
Before I got this game I thought it was purely a walking simulator, but upon playing it, I was surprised with how much you could do. The mysterious story and setting was quite interesting, as well as the little side stories tied to the inhabitants of the village. Collecting evidence and filling up your journal with entries, trying to make sense of what was happening was quite cool.
However, some mechanics such as the combat is clunky, and the last quarter-ish of the game's story really fell flat. I can't exactly put a pin on it, but something made me rush through the game and be done with it. Even being someone who does collectibles and stuff, I just had no will to do that here. Despite its virtues, every time I get reminded of this game, I think about how I have no desire to play it ever again.
However, some mechanics such as the combat is clunky, and the last quarter-ish of the game's story really fell flat. I can't exactly put a pin on it, but something made me rush through the game and be done with it. Even being someone who does collectibles and stuff, I just had no will to do that here. Despite its virtues, every time I get reminded of this game, I think about how I have no desire to play it ever again.
Hypnospace Outlaw
2019
Going into this, I assumed Hypnospace Outlaw would more or less be a quirky 90s internet simulator, and it is that—but it's also much more. At the risk of sounding really pretentious, it's kind of a tribute to the internet, regardless of the time period, in all its best and worst forms. For every troll or hacker dweeb with a holier-than-thou attitude, there are just regular, passionate folks that are sharing their hobbies online. For all the games and media in general that try, and sometimes fail, to appropriately capture internet culture or modern culture in general, Hypnospace Outlaw doesn't feel out of touch at all, presumably since it harkens back to a simpler time when the web was this hot new thing with a relatively miniscule userbase (at least compared to today).
Now, of course, you could be cynical about Hypnospace and claim that its just capitalizing on nostalgia and has no substance or value for people who weren't on the ground floor of the pre-Y2K fervour it depicts. That said, as someone born in 1997, I could fully get on board with the cosy, charming, and somewhat naïve world wide web that Hypnospace is recapturing. I suppose since the game takes place in a fictional version of the early internet and you play as a newcomer to it, that does help bridge that gap for people like myself. However, the point is that I had no qualms getting on board with the version of the web that Hypnospace Outlaw is selling.
The writing across the board is great, balancing heaps of silly with the occasional serious tones (depending on what sites you're visiting) without it coming across as jarring at all. As you explore the web and act as a firm but fair administrator for its users (and more so for the corporation running it), a mystery narrative also starts to develop that becomes really engaging and kind of takes it beyond the fun, quirky game that it seems from the outset.
The culmination of this mystery is decent enough but perhaps not as dramatic as some may be expecting, although, given the jovial, wacky writing and presentation of the rest of the game, perhaps making it too dramatic and dire would have betrayed the overall feel that Hypnospace Outlaw goes for as a playful examination and time capsule of early internet culture.
Really, my only big complaint is that some of the cases you're handed down by your bosses can have really abstract solutions and unless you've really been paying attention to every detail of every site you visit, you may need to consult a guide once or twice. However, of course, your mileage may vary there.
Even with those quibbles, Hypnospace Outlaw is such a spectacular treat in every way a video game or piece of media can be, whether you're intimately familiar with the pre-Y2K internet or not and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
10/10
Now, of course, you could be cynical about Hypnospace and claim that its just capitalizing on nostalgia and has no substance or value for people who weren't on the ground floor of the pre-Y2K fervour it depicts. That said, as someone born in 1997, I could fully get on board with the cosy, charming, and somewhat naïve world wide web that Hypnospace is recapturing. I suppose since the game takes place in a fictional version of the early internet and you play as a newcomer to it, that does help bridge that gap for people like myself. However, the point is that I had no qualms getting on board with the version of the web that Hypnospace Outlaw is selling.
The writing across the board is great, balancing heaps of silly with the occasional serious tones (depending on what sites you're visiting) without it coming across as jarring at all. As you explore the web and act as a firm but fair administrator for its users (and more so for the corporation running it), a mystery narrative also starts to develop that becomes really engaging and kind of takes it beyond the fun, quirky game that it seems from the outset.
The culmination of this mystery is decent enough but perhaps not as dramatic as some may be expecting, although, given the jovial, wacky writing and presentation of the rest of the game, perhaps making it too dramatic and dire would have betrayed the overall feel that Hypnospace Outlaw goes for as a playful examination and time capsule of early internet culture.
Really, my only big complaint is that some of the cases you're handed down by your bosses can have really abstract solutions and unless you've really been paying attention to every detail of every site you visit, you may need to consult a guide once or twice. However, of course, your mileage may vary there.
Even with those quibbles, Hypnospace Outlaw is such a spectacular treat in every way a video game or piece of media can be, whether you're intimately familiar with the pre-Y2K internet or not and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
10/10
Hypnospace Outlaw
2019
Playing as an content moderator on a capitalized oldschool internet fills me with dread on a fundamental level. Watching people adapt, learn, grow and connect with this janky technology is one the joys of this game, so seeing technical incompetence and hubris as well as capitalist interests (and some misogyny) impede or destroy relationships is heartbreaking. What is striking is really how it lands those emotional moments with sincerity and subtlety behind their grim reality specially nearing the last act. I must mention how memorable the various video, music, pets and effects the game has specially the monster catching and hot butter brand in bringing levity and charm. The story steps into various technical, political and social issues surrounding an emerging technology that I wish more games would tackle such as the lack of backwards compatibility which effectively deletes content similar which is still relevant in the current gaming industry. I am thankful the internet remains an open public good and this game reminds me of its grim alternative.
The other joy of this game is its slightly difficult puzzles with no hint system. No case is a simple page search but following breadcrumbs to hidden and private pages and software that feel rewarding to piece together. I do love the last act mechanic where each page has a new dimension that jives with its context and nostalgia in a way. What I love too is the moral ambiguity of the job itself whether to file a violation or detain a user specially how most of them are minors that perhaps need a guiding hand more than a ban hammer. This reason conflicts at times with less rewards in accessing more of the game's content such as pets and achievements which is a nice complication. I do urge players in avoid using a guide and take in the world that was created with passion and quirks.
My issues are few and the biggest one really is the artificial loading of pages for its immersion. It is cute early on but it feels more of an annoyance later on specially when the game offers a page speed booster program which comes with its own annoying ad popup window. The tradeoff between immersion and convenience here I feel was not really worth it. I was going to mention the lack of bookmarking but I late figured out every stamped pages can be viewed from the misleading lower left box next to the music player which conflicted with my expectation of a sidebar. Playing on a keyboard and mouse, I did not find any quick window switching shortcut like Alt+Tab available to bring windows to the foreground for some mechanics. One tedious mechanic in particular I wish had a browser button or program to check for hidden files instead having to manually type in a password everytime would be great. I do have a small peeve about the ending program as it feels out of place given the gravity of the situation although I do see how it loops back to the critical incident. As an indie game, some jank can be expected but overall the experience was pretty good.
I love this and would have been a game of its year.
The other joy of this game is its slightly difficult puzzles with no hint system. No case is a simple page search but following breadcrumbs to hidden and private pages and software that feel rewarding to piece together. I do love the last act mechanic where each page has a new dimension that jives with its context and nostalgia in a way. What I love too is the moral ambiguity of the job itself whether to file a violation or detain a user specially how most of them are minors that perhaps need a guiding hand more than a ban hammer. This reason conflicts at times with less rewards in accessing more of the game's content such as pets and achievements which is a nice complication. I do urge players in avoid using a guide and take in the world that was created with passion and quirks.
My issues are few and the biggest one really is the artificial loading of pages for its immersion. It is cute early on but it feels more of an annoyance later on specially when the game offers a page speed booster program which comes with its own annoying ad popup window. The tradeoff between immersion and convenience here I feel was not really worth it. I was going to mention the lack of bookmarking but I late figured out every stamped pages can be viewed from the misleading lower left box next to the music player which conflicted with my expectation of a sidebar. Playing on a keyboard and mouse, I did not find any quick window switching shortcut like Alt+Tab available to bring windows to the foreground for some mechanics. One tedious mechanic in particular I wish had a browser button or program to check for hidden files instead having to manually type in a password everytime would be great. I do have a small peeve about the ending program as it feels out of place given the gravity of the situation although I do see how it loops back to the critical incident. As an indie game, some jank can be expected but overall the experience was pretty good.
I love this and would have been a game of its year.
Fun for a couple hours, but ultimately the twin-stick combat mechanics just aren’t deep, varied, or engaging enough to make one run feel sufficiently distinct from the next; the quest objectives, meanwhile, are randomized just enough to make finding them frustrating, while also being fixed enough to make the lack of any mid-run checkpoints, admittedly standard for the roguelite genre, frustrating as well. The pixel art is still cute and the writing is fun (if too Extremely Online), and I respect that Snoozy Kazoo chose to do something different with the second Turnip Boy game, but I wish they had just built on Commits Tax Evasion’s Zelda-like gameplay instead.
Norco
2022
This review contains spoilers
I've read plenty of reviews for games where people complain about a story going off the rails. I like to think that I can appreciate a proper rollercoaster of a game, even if it's unexpected.... and I did really enjoy Norco- but ok fine I understand where these types of people are coming from now.
There's so much that I find compelling in Norco... they just spent too much attention on the Gaerett Cult; pawpaw and his jesus bloodline stuff should be violently escorted out by a bouncer; and the moment i read dialog in the shield masquerade ball I knew this game would lose me by the end.
If the game choose what it focused on differently, i would have really loved it, instead i'll just have to settle for saying it was pretty cool.
Anyway, they really nailed the tone, writing and setting here, wow it is all so evocative. Norco is blunt and murky ,heartfelt and amusing, grounded and absurd, strange and mundane, morose and striking - all of those words that come to mind are contradicting, that's how you know they did a good job of capturing life. I'm very impressed that I was able to vibe with it so much, since the game is operating in a genre that I would normally consider not my style. Maybe i'm just an easy fish to bait by putting in cool sci-fi elements
Shoutout to superduck! That sure is a concept! The phrase "internet of flesh" still lives in my mind. This unique fusion of AI and organic life is quite interesting, especially with the nuance of being a virus that mutated from a sketchy memory backup. The Quack jobs app is a neat idea on top of that.
The setting of Norco doesn't take that many steps away from the present- which is weird to say given the inclusion of Robots and AI. The writers obviously wanted to write about reality, and just take a few sci-fi concepts along for the ride. To be clear, that's not a complaint- they pulled it off great. It's super cool how they mixed diet cyberpunk elements into a place that's both burdened by its past and cynical on its future.
I was on board for the game's storytelling starting from the very beginning. I adore the intro to this game. The first imagery defining the setting is incredible and the way they catch you up on Kay's life story are incredible. They use the classic game thing of occasionally giving you text choices between the walls of text, but the ones here game really come out swinging in a way that strongly contributes to the setup of tone and characterization. (A great example is the description of kay deciding to leave despite bleak's pleading and being able to choose "I didn't care" or "I knew he'd get over it"). I've been playing a lot of narrative games that open with an interactive fiction inspired sequence like this lately- that's a trend i will continue to enjoy with great enthusiasm. Always a pleasure to see such a strong use of 2nd person.
As soon as I woke up in the bedroom i began reading the mindmap- and found it quite cool. I'm a bit disappointed that past that point it became a glorified "information learned so far" tracker. It had a lot of potential as a source for cool writing, but generally didn't live up to that beyond the family entries that you see initially. I was excited to check it every time the new notification appeared, and that was rarely worthwhile.
My favorite scene in the game is the retelling of the 3 floods the house has been through, with the addition of the 4th flood that will occur. Shoutout to all the bits in this game that remind me of the shivers writing in Disco Elysium, i adore them.
My 2nd favorite scene is the spaceship-dream-trek through the rooms of the house (with each one dedicated to a specific family member). Even amid an ending sequence filled with narrative elements I cared little for, this stood out as a very satisfying component of the finale. The game really succeeds with its storytelling centered around the family.
I love the structural gimmick of alternating between Kay and Catherine's adventure. I don't think the switching to optimize cliffhangers was really necessary though. I can respect cliffhangers in media that actually has a reason for the audience to wait, but here it feels like cowardly backing away from the current scene. Aside from that timing complaint, I like what these switches do for the pacing. I can't decide whose segments I prefer.
The memory clinic scene that Catherine starts with is fantastic. I also love all the mileage they get out of Catherine's phone. The apps are a neat idea and they are surprisingly effective given their simplicity. Having to pay to travel to locations is a cool touch, even if it's never an actual stressor. The voice memos is a cool idea for a mechanic- both for puzzles and for player note-taking.[In practice the voice memo puzzles aren't that interesting, but i still stand by it being a solid mechanic] I like the added friction of having limited memory. That seems like something that would be a quality of life hit, and it is slightly, but the way it forces you to remove irrelevant memos actually makes it a net positive in QoL. [and removing them automatically would hurt the diagetic nature of the voice memo app. The Aprocypha AR app sets up a really funny jumpscare with ditch man. Giving the phone to Kay in the present after Catherine's story concludes is cool.
Overall the Point & Click Adventure gameplay neither appeals to me nor annoys me. It's not really that involved and never had me questioning what to do next. The combat feels quite pointless. The boating in the lake section is rad, both from the writing of the dive scenes and the actual gameplay of navigating around the map. The drone puzzle has potential in its ruleset, but the actual setup is too simple.
The pixel art in this game is really pretty. The looming background Industry and Infrastructure looks especially cool. These artists have a way with lights (both natural and artificial) that just packs the game with awesome screens.
The music has some nice tracks and fits well, but otherwise didn't feel like a memorable component
There's more to be said about the writing in Norco, but it's ~7am so I'm just going to stop writing my thoughts here. There's some solid humour, characters, and descriptions spread throughout this game.
There's so much that I find compelling in Norco... they just spent too much attention on the Gaerett Cult; pawpaw and his jesus bloodline stuff should be violently escorted out by a bouncer; and the moment i read dialog in the shield masquerade ball I knew this game would lose me by the end.
If the game choose what it focused on differently, i would have really loved it, instead i'll just have to settle for saying it was pretty cool.
Anyway, they really nailed the tone, writing and setting here, wow it is all so evocative. Norco is blunt and murky ,heartfelt and amusing, grounded and absurd, strange and mundane, morose and striking - all of those words that come to mind are contradicting, that's how you know they did a good job of capturing life. I'm very impressed that I was able to vibe with it so much, since the game is operating in a genre that I would normally consider not my style. Maybe i'm just an easy fish to bait by putting in cool sci-fi elements
Shoutout to superduck! That sure is a concept! The phrase "internet of flesh" still lives in my mind. This unique fusion of AI and organic life is quite interesting, especially with the nuance of being a virus that mutated from a sketchy memory backup. The Quack jobs app is a neat idea on top of that.
The setting of Norco doesn't take that many steps away from the present- which is weird to say given the inclusion of Robots and AI. The writers obviously wanted to write about reality, and just take a few sci-fi concepts along for the ride. To be clear, that's not a complaint- they pulled it off great. It's super cool how they mixed diet cyberpunk elements into a place that's both burdened by its past and cynical on its future.
I was on board for the game's storytelling starting from the very beginning. I adore the intro to this game. The first imagery defining the setting is incredible and the way they catch you up on Kay's life story are incredible. They use the classic game thing of occasionally giving you text choices between the walls of text, but the ones here game really come out swinging in a way that strongly contributes to the setup of tone and characterization. (A great example is the description of kay deciding to leave despite bleak's pleading and being able to choose "I didn't care" or "I knew he'd get over it"). I've been playing a lot of narrative games that open with an interactive fiction inspired sequence like this lately- that's a trend i will continue to enjoy with great enthusiasm. Always a pleasure to see such a strong use of 2nd person.
As soon as I woke up in the bedroom i began reading the mindmap- and found it quite cool. I'm a bit disappointed that past that point it became a glorified "information learned so far" tracker. It had a lot of potential as a source for cool writing, but generally didn't live up to that beyond the family entries that you see initially. I was excited to check it every time the new notification appeared, and that was rarely worthwhile.
My favorite scene in the game is the retelling of the 3 floods the house has been through, with the addition of the 4th flood that will occur. Shoutout to all the bits in this game that remind me of the shivers writing in Disco Elysium, i adore them.
My 2nd favorite scene is the spaceship-dream-trek through the rooms of the house (with each one dedicated to a specific family member). Even amid an ending sequence filled with narrative elements I cared little for, this stood out as a very satisfying component of the finale. The game really succeeds with its storytelling centered around the family.
I love the structural gimmick of alternating between Kay and Catherine's adventure. I don't think the switching to optimize cliffhangers was really necessary though. I can respect cliffhangers in media that actually has a reason for the audience to wait, but here it feels like cowardly backing away from the current scene. Aside from that timing complaint, I like what these switches do for the pacing. I can't decide whose segments I prefer.
The memory clinic scene that Catherine starts with is fantastic. I also love all the mileage they get out of Catherine's phone. The apps are a neat idea and they are surprisingly effective given their simplicity. Having to pay to travel to locations is a cool touch, even if it's never an actual stressor. The voice memos is a cool idea for a mechanic- both for puzzles and for player note-taking.[In practice the voice memo puzzles aren't that interesting, but i still stand by it being a solid mechanic] I like the added friction of having limited memory. That seems like something that would be a quality of life hit, and it is slightly, but the way it forces you to remove irrelevant memos actually makes it a net positive in QoL. [and removing them automatically would hurt the diagetic nature of the voice memo app. The Aprocypha AR app sets up a really funny jumpscare with ditch man. Giving the phone to Kay in the present after Catherine's story concludes is cool.
Overall the Point & Click Adventure gameplay neither appeals to me nor annoys me. It's not really that involved and never had me questioning what to do next. The combat feels quite pointless. The boating in the lake section is rad, both from the writing of the dive scenes and the actual gameplay of navigating around the map. The drone puzzle has potential in its ruleset, but the actual setup is too simple.
The pixel art in this game is really pretty. The looming background Industry and Infrastructure looks especially cool. These artists have a way with lights (both natural and artificial) that just packs the game with awesome screens.
The music has some nice tracks and fits well, but otherwise didn't feel like a memorable component
There's more to be said about the writing in Norco, but it's ~7am so I'm just going to stop writing my thoughts here. There's some solid humour, characters, and descriptions spread throughout this game.
Open Roads
2024
I had a good time with it! I think the characters interact in fun ways, and the overarching mystery was honestly pretty intriguing. A lot of the time film actors/actresses doing voices for games doesn't quite work out, but I think Kaitlyn Dever and Keri Russell were pretty great in this! Believable and emotional voice acting. I also really liked the art style of the characters!
Open Roads
2024
Eh... it’s quite sad and hard to be slightly disappointed in the new work of a team whose work you’ve been following for a long time. Open Roads from the team of the same name (from the former core of Fullbright studio) can hardly be called the next step for the creators of Gone Home and Tacoma, rather a child of its difficult development cycle. And it's really sad.
Well, the story is not bad. It brings you back to Gone Home in the way the game turns a slightly mystical premise into a down-to-earth, everyday ending, which is generally done quite well, but also quite simply. The game perhaps feels too short, and the choice of road trip structure, while fresh, seems to come at the expense of the excellent environmental storytelling skills that the team's previous projects have been known for. There simply aren't large enough locations to develop this skill beyond a very basic level of interaction, and the game as a whole struck me as disappointingly less interactive and detailed than previous works (only in the summer house segment does the story get an acceptably large location and path within it and layout plot-significant objects has at least a little more interesting thought behind the most basic level). However, the two main performances are not bad, the variety of dialogue between the heroines is pleasing (and there even seems to be some choice), and although the story itself does not feel too deep, the good chemistry between the characters lifts this aspect a little.
And at the same time, the hardest thing for me is to formulate my thoughts about a rather important and interesting decision in the visual aspect of the game. Despite (as before for the team) a rather realistic environment, this time the characters are drawn in a 2D style that seems to correspond to comics or animation of the era (and besides this, even in the environment there is a certain touch of “drawnness” that departs from realism (which, however, is not a bad thing at all and allows you to create beautiful background landscapes, especially in the segment with a summer house it is incredibly beautiful)). And if at first it looked rather repulsive and incongruous, then towards the end I came to terms with this stylistic decision a little. I just don't understand why they didn't use the characters themselves somewhere other than dialogue (where they look most unnatural), since in the scene in the car the mother looks pretty good while driving. Well, the characters themselves are drawn quite simply and without any attempt to synchronize speech with their faces, here they simply give out one of a small number of emotions and then seeing a static character while the dialogue is going on is quite sad. What's also sad is the technical part of the game. There is nothing critical here, but a few small moments that obviously could be seen in the very basic playtest (mainly with the mechanics of picking up items) slightly spoil the overall impression (considering that this is a very mechanically simple game and it is very difficult to break anything here). However, it's hard to criticize the game too much for this given its notoriously difficult production history.
So overall, I’m just a little sad that this project is more of a victim of circumstances and in no way a development for this team. I hope that these people will be able to create something more exciting in the future, perhaps separately and in new teams. Because it seems that Open Roads is a thing that needed to be finished and left behind, just as the heroines of this game actually do in their story.
Well, the story is not bad. It brings you back to Gone Home in the way the game turns a slightly mystical premise into a down-to-earth, everyday ending, which is generally done quite well, but also quite simply. The game perhaps feels too short, and the choice of road trip structure, while fresh, seems to come at the expense of the excellent environmental storytelling skills that the team's previous projects have been known for. There simply aren't large enough locations to develop this skill beyond a very basic level of interaction, and the game as a whole struck me as disappointingly less interactive and detailed than previous works (only in the summer house segment does the story get an acceptably large location and path within it and layout plot-significant objects has at least a little more interesting thought behind the most basic level). However, the two main performances are not bad, the variety of dialogue between the heroines is pleasing (and there even seems to be some choice), and although the story itself does not feel too deep, the good chemistry between the characters lifts this aspect a little.
And at the same time, the hardest thing for me is to formulate my thoughts about a rather important and interesting decision in the visual aspect of the game. Despite (as before for the team) a rather realistic environment, this time the characters are drawn in a 2D style that seems to correspond to comics or animation of the era (and besides this, even in the environment there is a certain touch of “drawnness” that departs from realism (which, however, is not a bad thing at all and allows you to create beautiful background landscapes, especially in the segment with a summer house it is incredibly beautiful)). And if at first it looked rather repulsive and incongruous, then towards the end I came to terms with this stylistic decision a little. I just don't understand why they didn't use the characters themselves somewhere other than dialogue (where they look most unnatural), since in the scene in the car the mother looks pretty good while driving. Well, the characters themselves are drawn quite simply and without any attempt to synchronize speech with their faces, here they simply give out one of a small number of emotions and then seeing a static character while the dialogue is going on is quite sad. What's also sad is the technical part of the game. There is nothing critical here, but a few small moments that obviously could be seen in the very basic playtest (mainly with the mechanics of picking up items) slightly spoil the overall impression (considering that this is a very mechanically simple game and it is very difficult to break anything here). However, it's hard to criticize the game too much for this given its notoriously difficult production history.
So overall, I’m just a little sad that this project is more of a victim of circumstances and in no way a development for this team. I hope that these people will be able to create something more exciting in the future, perhaps separately and in new teams. Because it seems that Open Roads is a thing that needed to be finished and left behind, just as the heroines of this game actually do in their story.
Open Roads
2024
Open Roads is a fairly mid-tier experience within the Walking Sim genre. Although, given the size of the genre and that its one I'm a fan of, that means I still had a fun ride with Open Roads.
The 2D character art alongside the highly detailed 3D environments was a welcome change from its peers. The characters being given few frames that are exaggerated is a cool style, thought I found the lack of frames during speech a bit jarring. The voice performances on the other hand are great and helped patch that hole. Kaitlyn Dever in particular is phenomenal and brings so much life and youthfulness to Tess.
The primary mystery of the story is... okay. It functioned better as the carrot on the stick rather than being a mind shattering plot twist with the final reveals. Instead the story bits I found more engaging were the little details and sub-conversations. Themes of divorce, loss of loved ones, growing up with only one parent, cycles within families. There is surprisingly a lot packed into the short run time, thinking back on the experience once its done.
Overall I can't call this a must play relative to the other Walking Sims but while this can be a tropey genre in its themes, settings and even specific plot details, I think Open Roads takes the road less travelled and explores some new ideas.
From what I've seen, this game experienced a rocky development, but I am left excited to see what this team does next. Hopefully its a smoother ride where the potential for an even greater game is just a ways down the road.
The 2D character art alongside the highly detailed 3D environments was a welcome change from its peers. The characters being given few frames that are exaggerated is a cool style, thought I found the lack of frames during speech a bit jarring. The voice performances on the other hand are great and helped patch that hole. Kaitlyn Dever in particular is phenomenal and brings so much life and youthfulness to Tess.
The primary mystery of the story is... okay. It functioned better as the carrot on the stick rather than being a mind shattering plot twist with the final reveals. Instead the story bits I found more engaging were the little details and sub-conversations. Themes of divorce, loss of loved ones, growing up with only one parent, cycles within families. There is surprisingly a lot packed into the short run time, thinking back on the experience once its done.
Overall I can't call this a must play relative to the other Walking Sims but while this can be a tropey genre in its themes, settings and even specific plot details, I think Open Roads takes the road less travelled and explores some new ideas.
From what I've seen, this game experienced a rocky development, but I am left excited to see what this team does next. Hopefully its a smoother ride where the potential for an even greater game is just a ways down the road.
I finished this game like 4 months ago and never bothered to review it or even put much thought into it. I think this game is probably the biggest culprit on why “more is less” is contributing to the downturn of AAA games, there is just way too much pointless crap this game is filled with and most of the time it never justifies its inclusion. Why would I want to constantly return to my hub cantina just to do pointless stuff like plant flowers on the roof, or find fish in the open world to make my cantina aquarium looking nicer? This stuff doesn't really add anything to the game, it's just more crap to fill the giant empty world the game replaced the interconnecting metroidvania maps with. These giant open worlds are not fun to explore and are a pain in the ass to traverse mostly because I get so fucking bored going from point A to B because they decided to use some of the most Star Warys looking planets imaginable.
You can’t even use the “Oh but the open maps looks breathtaking with our new 9th gen hardware” YOU CAN’T BECAUSE THE GAME LOOKS AND RUNS LIKE SHIT. It runs like a ps3 game for most of the game and the load times in and out of building is atrociously slow, almost all the of lighting gets fucked in enclosed spaces and I had numerous crashes over the course of the game. I genuinely believe the reason why this game wasn’t being ported over to 8th gen was because when they added the giant open worlds that ballooned the amount of power required for the game to have and made it nearly impossible to port to 8th gen, which would be fine if the game even ran well on 9th gen hardware which it doesn't. I don’t even wanna hear someone say “oh it’s just early into our new gen so it’s not gonna look great” WRONG SIR WRONG. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Dead Space Remake, Returnal, RE4 Remake and The Callisto Protocol all look more current gen then Jedi Survivor, and if you wanna pull out the “oh it’s an open world game that takes more power” card; Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom runs at a more stable ramerate and it runs on a fucking toaster, and even Hogwarts Legacy for as shit that game is; it at least had a stable framerate in it’s open worlds. There's no excuse for this game to look and run like dogshit on both PC and consoles.
Oh yeah the game also had a story, idk I thought it was mid. This game didn’t have the same writer as Fallen Order since Chris Avalon got outed as a sex pest; say what you will about Avalon as a person because I sure will but he’s a fantastic writer; and his presence sorely missed. The drop off in character writing quality is strong and none of the characters really feel the same, they feel more like archetypes of what people expect them to be rather than characters who’ve grown old from this ever ending war with the empire. They all just seem very one note and bland, like almost every other big AAA video game. They also try really hard to implement High Republic era stuff into the game and it feels less like the writers wanted to put it in and more like someone at Disney told them to add in High Republic stuff since that’s what the movies and TV shows are gonna be centering around soon.
I think the only aspect that puts Survivor over Fallen Order is probably the combat being 10 times smoother and the different lightsaber stances is a nice addition, but like; I don’t really care for Soul-like gameplay. Soul-likes aren't really my thing so I wasn’t really playing Fallen Order or Survivor for their gameplay, more so I was playing to see a fun story in the Star Wars universe. (back when I still cared about this IP) Now the story and characters are bland and one note and I could give less of a shit about Star Wars as a whole so yeah.
I don’t know if this game genuinely sucks or I’m just being a negative nancy because I’ve become apathetic towards Star Wars as a brand, but the game left me feeling nothing and mad that I waste my time even 4 months later, and I’d argue that’s being bland and forgettable is worse than being just bad.
You can’t even use the “Oh but the open maps looks breathtaking with our new 9th gen hardware” YOU CAN’T BECAUSE THE GAME LOOKS AND RUNS LIKE SHIT. It runs like a ps3 game for most of the game and the load times in and out of building is atrociously slow, almost all the of lighting gets fucked in enclosed spaces and I had numerous crashes over the course of the game. I genuinely believe the reason why this game wasn’t being ported over to 8th gen was because when they added the giant open worlds that ballooned the amount of power required for the game to have and made it nearly impossible to port to 8th gen, which would be fine if the game even ran well on 9th gen hardware which it doesn't. I don’t even wanna hear someone say “oh it’s just early into our new gen so it’s not gonna look great” WRONG SIR WRONG. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Dead Space Remake, Returnal, RE4 Remake and The Callisto Protocol all look more current gen then Jedi Survivor, and if you wanna pull out the “oh it’s an open world game that takes more power” card; Elden Ring, Tears of the Kingdom runs at a more stable ramerate and it runs on a fucking toaster, and even Hogwarts Legacy for as shit that game is; it at least had a stable framerate in it’s open worlds. There's no excuse for this game to look and run like dogshit on both PC and consoles.
Oh yeah the game also had a story, idk I thought it was mid. This game didn’t have the same writer as Fallen Order since Chris Avalon got outed as a sex pest; say what you will about Avalon as a person because I sure will but he’s a fantastic writer; and his presence sorely missed. The drop off in character writing quality is strong and none of the characters really feel the same, they feel more like archetypes of what people expect them to be rather than characters who’ve grown old from this ever ending war with the empire. They all just seem very one note and bland, like almost every other big AAA video game. They also try really hard to implement High Republic era stuff into the game and it feels less like the writers wanted to put it in and more like someone at Disney told them to add in High Republic stuff since that’s what the movies and TV shows are gonna be centering around soon.
I think the only aspect that puts Survivor over Fallen Order is probably the combat being 10 times smoother and the different lightsaber stances is a nice addition, but like; I don’t really care for Soul-like gameplay. Soul-likes aren't really my thing so I wasn’t really playing Fallen Order or Survivor for their gameplay, more so I was playing to see a fun story in the Star Wars universe. (back when I still cared about this IP) Now the story and characters are bland and one note and I could give less of a shit about Star Wars as a whole so yeah.
I don’t know if this game genuinely sucks or I’m just being a negative nancy because I’ve become apathetic towards Star Wars as a brand, but the game left me feeling nothing and mad that I waste my time even 4 months later, and I’d argue that’s being bland and forgettable is worse than being just bad.
Edit: I've since went back, finished it an did a new review.
Genuinely unplayable currently on the Xbox Series X. Put in almost 10 hour, but am going to give up and start a new playthrough in a few months when they patched this shit into a playable state.
Leaving this review because this shit shouldn't be normalized. Its not ok, no other product in the world except videogames can break false advertisement laws so clearly but receive 0 consequences.
None of the trailers featured an average of about 20FPS in larger areas. Or FPS drops every 5 fucking seconds, when it does manage to go above that. Or the game looking PS3 Level ugly in Performance mode, while still having the aforementioned FPS drops every few seconds. So why tf are we not entitled to full refunds, when the actual product does feature these issues?
Genuinely unplayable currently on the Xbox Series X. Put in almost 10 hour, but am going to give up and start a new playthrough in a few months when they patched this shit into a playable state.
Leaving this review because this shit shouldn't be normalized. Its not ok, no other product in the world except videogames can break false advertisement laws so clearly but receive 0 consequences.
None of the trailers featured an average of about 20FPS in larger areas. Or FPS drops every 5 fucking seconds, when it does manage to go above that. Or the game looking PS3 Level ugly in Performance mode, while still having the aforementioned FPS drops every few seconds. So why tf are we not entitled to full refunds, when the actual product does feature these issues?
Somehow, the bad optimization returned.
*Played as part of the Master Chief Collection
So the original Combat Evolved was one of the two Halo games I played, as it was the only one I knew of that was on PC at the time. I was just never an Xbox kid, so I completely skipped this series back during its heyday. Thankfully most of the series is on PC via the Collection (which I have definitely taken way too long to get around to as well), so are now more easily accessible (Halo 5 PC port though? When is that happening? I would like to eventually complete the series).
As a game, this is a pretty fun FPS experience, but it definitely feels dated now. The lack of accessibility options such as sprinting and weapon iron sights makes it feel like more of a slog to get through than it actually is, especially when redoing checkpoints. The level design is interesting though, with many large sections and maps that you circle around completely. This is something that I don't think I've really seen before in a linear game such as this. The vehicles are also fun to play with, although I hated driving the Warthog. For some reason, the Banshee handles like a dream, but the Warthog is this unwieldy thing that flips over every time you hit even a slight pothole or elevation change.
Overall, the story is enjoyable enough, but is still pretty bland and by-the-numbers. You also don't get much lore at all during the course of the game, with a lot of questions just left up in the air - I suppose for the later games to answer. Who are the Covenant? Why are we at war with them? Why is Master Chief such a unique badass? Why is Cortana so sassy? Who the fuck are the Forerunners and the Monitor? Anyway, I'm sure I'll get more answers as I go through the series, so I'm not too worried about these questions.
We continue onwards to Halo 2, which will be the first completely new game in the franchise I'll have played, so I'm looking forward to that.
So the original Combat Evolved was one of the two Halo games I played, as it was the only one I knew of that was on PC at the time. I was just never an Xbox kid, so I completely skipped this series back during its heyday. Thankfully most of the series is on PC via the Collection (which I have definitely taken way too long to get around to as well), so are now more easily accessible (Halo 5 PC port though? When is that happening? I would like to eventually complete the series).
As a game, this is a pretty fun FPS experience, but it definitely feels dated now. The lack of accessibility options such as sprinting and weapon iron sights makes it feel like more of a slog to get through than it actually is, especially when redoing checkpoints. The level design is interesting though, with many large sections and maps that you circle around completely. This is something that I don't think I've really seen before in a linear game such as this. The vehicles are also fun to play with, although I hated driving the Warthog. For some reason, the Banshee handles like a dream, but the Warthog is this unwieldy thing that flips over every time you hit even a slight pothole or elevation change.
Overall, the story is enjoyable enough, but is still pretty bland and by-the-numbers. You also don't get much lore at all during the course of the game, with a lot of questions just left up in the air - I suppose for the later games to answer. Who are the Covenant? Why are we at war with them? Why is Master Chief such a unique badass? Why is Cortana so sassy? Who the fuck are the Forerunners and the Monitor? Anyway, I'm sure I'll get more answers as I go through the series, so I'm not too worried about these questions.
We continue onwards to Halo 2, which will be the first completely new game in the franchise I'll have played, so I'm looking forward to that.
Ravenlok
2023
This review contains spoilers
This game is quite pretty! The highlight is the gorgeous environments, shoutout especially to the clocktower, void, labyrinth, and of course the final vista.
and that's the only nice thing I have to say about this game! Wait, i like how you have to do a cute little dance animation to gather collectibles. Ok, that really is all I'm positive on.
The gameplay is mindless, the characters are uninteresting, there's no meaning for me to find in story... there's so little personality in everything except the visuals. I found myself wondering what the team member composition of this studio was right until i rolled the credits. Did the artists outnumber all the other roles 7:1???? Were any game designers thrown in a dungeon for speaking of the forbidden concept of fun?
I always hate seeing games make things like healing and bombs limited consumables (and worse you use freely from a menu that pauses gameplay). It's not like that matters here though, my rant about these mechanics is a waste of time in a world where enemies are this easy.
Combat is almost entirely spamming attack and skills as they go off cooldown, with the occasional need for the legendary "move out of the way" maneuver. Why did they even add the shield and stamina bar lol?
The game is short (which is something i always enjoy), but it's still padded through it's quest design. Don't worry, it doesn't get to the point where you are ever like "let me play the game agaain"... especially since the combat itself feels like padding anyway.
This game makes me appreciate the way levels in other games feel like places. Seeing the hedge maze in the background at the beginning made me quite excited to explore there. Jokes on me, it's actually just 3 rooms.
The other locations are pretty much like this too. This game has no sense of navigation or traversal. I'd be happy to see some games get away with that, here it just feels like a shame.
The more i think about it, the more i realize the non-visual components of the game are bad not because they are flawed or annoying, but because they are so utterly uninteresting. Bleh that's enough of writing this review, i'm not built to be negative on games
and that's the only nice thing I have to say about this game! Wait, i like how you have to do a cute little dance animation to gather collectibles. Ok, that really is all I'm positive on.
The gameplay is mindless, the characters are uninteresting, there's no meaning for me to find in story... there's so little personality in everything except the visuals. I found myself wondering what the team member composition of this studio was right until i rolled the credits. Did the artists outnumber all the other roles 7:1???? Were any game designers thrown in a dungeon for speaking of the forbidden concept of fun?
I always hate seeing games make things like healing and bombs limited consumables (and worse you use freely from a menu that pauses gameplay). It's not like that matters here though, my rant about these mechanics is a waste of time in a world where enemies are this easy.
Combat is almost entirely spamming attack and skills as they go off cooldown, with the occasional need for the legendary "move out of the way" maneuver. Why did they even add the shield and stamina bar lol?
The game is short (which is something i always enjoy), but it's still padded through it's quest design. Don't worry, it doesn't get to the point where you are ever like "let me play the game agaain"... especially since the combat itself feels like padding anyway.
This game makes me appreciate the way levels in other games feel like places. Seeing the hedge maze in the background at the beginning made me quite excited to explore there. Jokes on me, it's actually just 3 rooms.
The other locations are pretty much like this too. This game has no sense of navigation or traversal. I'd be happy to see some games get away with that, here it just feels like a shame.
The more i think about it, the more i realize the non-visual components of the game are bad not because they are flawed or annoying, but because they are so utterly uninteresting. Bleh that's enough of writing this review, i'm not built to be negative on games
Amnesia: Justine
2011
Sort of a precursor to today's Itch.io horror microgames. Too slight to leave much impact despite being a cool idea that's theoretically well-suited to its short runtime, and includes one of the worst, most esoteric puzzles I've encountered in a while. The moral choices, supposed to be a test of character, are so obtuse it's hard to even parse them as choices on the first run let alone for them to feel meaningful.
On the other hand frantically opening a door and then locking it again while something closes in on you is the best part of these games and there's an extended, multi-room instance of that in here which is further heightened by the permadeath. Worth a spin if you have the collection.
On the other hand frantically opening a door and then locking it again while something closes in on you is the best part of these games and there's an extended, multi-room instance of that in here which is further heightened by the permadeath. Worth a spin if you have the collection.