A Cure for Jessica

Now, I didn't hate the way the game was telling the story, as far as walking simulators go you can do a lot worse, and I have to take the low price into the consideration, but playing something so rushed is also not a good use of my time. I am not here to complain about the game, I just want you to see the issues with the experience from my perspective, and hopefully, you can take a few steps toward making something more* compelling. I actually didn't have many problems with the narrative, the voice acting was decent, I only wish you had more optional tasks to add extra context for the relationship, just more things to do in the station. For example, I like what you did with random tasks like going to bed and looking at pictures, just need more of that. One big problem I see in this genre is just having huge maps that don't have many points of interest, it only exists to collect a few items instead of creating some unique locations that would be relevant to the character. To be fair, the character often comments on her memories, but when you inspect the area, there is nothing there, and I get it's post-apocalyptic, but you should still create some unique assets to spike my curiosity. You might ask why I would expect anything from a game so cheap, well I would rather pay the devs more, for more effort - it's not that I don't like what you doing, but this feels like a framework for a game, not a fully-realized vision. There are a few places on the map where you can fall off, and since the game is meant to be played in one run, I had to restart it. By the way, no matter how short the game is, you should never assume that player does not need checkpoints, you could potentially backtrack in this game if you miss the flowers. Overall the convoluted pathing didn't add anything good to the experience, if you going to do that, you should try to create some unique locations as well so it's not boring for the player to explore. The last thing I want to mention is that I didn't get a good sense of resolution, perhaps you should have given the daughter something else to do so we could see the story from her perspective. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) As I said, I feel that unfortunately no part of the game is fully realized, but as for the narrative, I didn't mind the pacing and the tone, just needed more content and more things to do. The story is fine, everything around it, not so much. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] Content/Things to do [/u] - I would just say, spend more time on making optional tasks for world-building, go that extra mile to get more unique assets for the visuals, and I think you will make a much better game. Make sure the player does not fall off the map, and don't ignore the checkpoints. [b] Overall Thoughts: 5/10 [/b] I think what you doing is okay, but I want to see more effort on your end, just filling the basic map with some serviceable narrative isn't good enough, there are hundreds of games on Steam just like it. Try to take advantage of the player's desire to explore and interact with things, as much as possible, and it will help if you have more unique visual assets. [code]Review by: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

[b] A Cure for Jessica by Bern Games (PC 2022) [/b] A rather shallow 20-minute walking simulator where your simply required to find 3 vaccine components and 7 flowers and then finish the game. The game was developed by a Portugal Indie developer named Bernardo Argencio Fernandes and this is the first of his 2 games ever produced so far. There is actually a famous Portugal movie developer with the same name, but I don’t think it is the same guy though, due to the paper-thin amount of creativity presented here. We play the role of Dr Olivia who is desperately trying to keep her infected daughter hidden from the current reigning government who are trying to eradicate the X – Lan virus through extensive bombing campaigns. In fact, it was one of these campaigns which caused Jessica to get infected in the first place, as her dog Max became frightened, ran away from the lab into the Utah wilderness and got himself infected. Similar to rabies, Max became increasingly aggressive and bit Jessica transmitting the virus into her blood stream. With no cure yet available, Dr Olivia was limited in options, she somehow decapitated her daughter and then kept her daughters head in a state of stasis inside a large tubular glass full of chemicals back at the lab where they lived. Other than that, the game tells you absolutely nothing. What was Dr Olivia’s history before all this? The game does not say. Why did Olivia’s husband leave? The game does not say. What properties are in the flowers that cure Jessica? The game does not say. There are 13 achievements all of them unlock. However, the Dr Olivia memories achievement only unlocks when all the other narration points have been triggered and the game finished. The invisible points of interest which trigger the narration is in fact locations that aren’t really interesting at all and several of them don’t even visualise all that well with what is being remembered. For instance, when Olivia remembers taking Jessica surfing, when she remembers Jessica and Max sliding down a ramp and when she remembers bike riding with her daughter. All these places of interest are just vacant blocks of terrain which don’t match the dialogue being stated. Placing abandoned bikes, a ruined ramp, a grave for Max at these places of interest could have helped us visualise the story more. While the laboratory looks gorgeous, there is no day night cycle in the game to really show off the lighting. You can’t take fall damage jumping off cliffs and for some reason can’t jump inside the laboratory either as it has been disabled. You can also sleep no longer than a few micro seconds. It would have also been more interesting if the game showed more perspectives, such as the returning father, the perspective of other surviving lab partners elsewhere in the world, or even the perspective of surviving Jessica herself. The ending, seems bitter sweet as she was only 12 years of age when she died. Brought back, she would undoubtedly have PTSD about whatever her head was attached too. She would feel hopelessly alone understanding nothing about survival as the AI shuts down for no logical reason whatsoever and remember many years must have passed since she died, it’s now 2091 and there are no visible signs of the extensive bombing campaign the government did. No people. No animals. No real food. Maybe the game should be re-titled to 'Jessica your Screwed'... https://youtu.be/96fh4P8r-lA?feature=shared My Reviews: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6843548/ My Zombie Wiki Discord: https://discord.gg/cCCA44f

This is a good-looking but shallow walking sim. I'd rather give it a neutral review, but seeing as there already is a negative one (that I pretty much agree with) I'm going for a limited recommendation. TL;DR: Look at the price tag and decide if you're willing to spend this amount on an hour (or optionally longer) of walking around in the kind of landscape that the trailer and the screenshots show - because there isn't much more to it than that. The trailer actually reveals almost all there is to do in this game apart from walking around in search of two types of items, and I guess also most of the backstory. Starting up the game, I immediately got a bad first impression from the claim that it "can be completed in one sitting". As I suspected, this really means "If you can't complete this game in one sitting then too bad for you" - there's no save of any kind. This is also already a good indication that the solo dev doesn't know much about children or parenthood, which is unfortunate considering that's what he chose his game to be about. Not that it makes a lot of sense in other areas. Examples: With a narrator that obviously addresses the audience/player, she could have at least given me a hint as to how to get to that lab that she constantly told me she should get back to... Or wouldn't there be a trail or some kinds of tracks if she walks there a lot? Why would you have to jump to reach the entrance of a building? If you have to be so very careful about [spoiler]locking the door in the absolute middle of nowhere[/spoiler], why is [spoiler]the key card lying on the ground[/spoiler] (not much of a spoiler as the trailer blatantly shows this)? These just seem like half-hearted attempts to generate some kind of gameplay. And what kind of ending was that? Heavy spoilers now: [spoiler]How is that girl supposed to not go insane and probably kill herself if even the AI shuts itself down immediately so she's completely alone (with her dead mother?)? Surely a mother would have thought about and prepared for that. [/spoiler] So yeah, I found the story very lackluster. The world doesn't feel fleshed out, neither physically nor lore-wise. The sci-fi stuff was just cool to look at and a convenient excuse for why everything just somehow worked without you having to do much at all. This game could be a much better experience if more effort had been put into it. But I mean, if you're only looking for a beautiful little walking sim to relax to (apart from the dystopian story) or distract yourself with, or if you have low demands for stories, then this should be a fine choice. I did enjoy the panorama views outdoors, and the delicious sci-fi aesthetics of the building and interior. It's the only thing the game really has going for it IMO, but sometimes that can be enough. [i]Linux note[/i]: worked with Proton Experimental on my Ubuntu system. * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].

I really wanted to like this game. I enjoyed the voice acting. I thought the atmosphere--both the art and music--was beautiful. I was beginning to piece together the story. I was feeling sorry for the main character. I wanted to help her succeed in saving Jessica. But good lord, the walking is the worst part. One minute you can climb the world's steepest cliff and the next you're getting caught on a cactus. I ended up clipping on the building and getting an awful buzzing noise for about 5-seconds before it realized there wasn't an invisible wall in my way. I found myself wandering without a lot of dialog as I was constantly backtracking or unsure of where to go next. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but I very quickly lost interest in the game because the story lines were few and far between thanks to my climbing misadventures. I feel like this game is supposed to be story driven but the clunky controls really got in the way for me. I wish I was a more patient person but I'm not. So unfortunately I cannot recommend this game nor will I be able to finish it. I hope the developer considers adding additional tasks and/or marking the safe paths so it's a little easier to follow.

I loved the game. If I had any gripe, it'd be the short duration of the story, which isn't much of a detraction since the existing content is wonderful. Hopefully the creator does more work!

I very much enjoyed this short walk through a sad future, brimming with hope.

Klein aber fein. Dauert circa eine halbe Stunde, wenn man nicht unbedingt nach jedem Achievement aus ist. Ansonsten könnte es auch ein wenig länger gehen. Es handelt sich um einen kleinen Walking-Simulator mit ein wenig Narration. War unterhaltsam solange es gedauert hat.