Arctic Awakening

В общем, после firewatch эта игра не вызывала у меня каких-либо завышенных ожиданий. В итоге так и оказалось. Те же переговоры по рации без встреч с другими персонажами, только с примесью современных и будущих технологий и ботом по имени Альфи. Большую часть времени ты просто ходишь из одной локации в другую, абсолютно никакого геймлея, простенькие головоломки, а о главном антагонисте и чем все закончится я понял еще тогда, когда нам первый раз пришлось приложить руку к сканеру и нам любезно объяснили, что требуется именно человеческое вмешательство - после этого запустился один из отключенных модулей. К концу второй серии я практически уснул, насколько однообразны эти переходы между локациями. Понравился более менее только короткий эпизод с Альфи в самолете, когда шла долгая буря. Финал якобы открытый, но любому разумному человеку понятно, чем все закончилось. Подытоживая, могу сказать, что игра может понравиться людям только из-за сюжета. Молодому и неискушенному зрителю возможно даже зайдет. Но я уже в своей жизни видел и прочел немало, поэтому все твисты сюжета не вызвали у меня ни малейшего восторга. Стилистика напоминает the long dark. Иногда можно полюбоваться красивыми видами. На этом все.

Науково-фантастична історія просякнута людською драмою і надією, що неспішно розгортається серед засніжених просторів Аляски. Геймплей максимально простий, з невеликим колекціонуванням, і акцентом на діалогах та динаміці між головним героєм і роботом Альфі. Місцями не вистачало мелодії на фоні, особливо під час довгих переходів. Загалом історія лишає теплі враження, відчуття пригоди і світлого смутку. Затишно і життєствердно.

Interesting concept, original story, excellent voice acting. This game has it all, except good writing. For about three episodes this game held my interest, it has an interesting setting. But good concepts and good settings always get undone by terrible writing. And this game is chock full of that.

What a waste of time this game is. So many instances where there is no guidance and you can't tell if there is a bug in the game or you are just going in the wrong direction.

This game is a masterpiece. I felt invested from the beginning in the story. This game is more then just trying to reach your co-pilot and get rescued, it is an emotional journey. As the story progressed and I learnt more about Kai the more I was invested into finding Donovan. [spoiler] Learning more about Will and what Kai failed to do to save him made me more invested into finding Donovan, refusing to make the same mistakes again. When I was faced with hard choices I always prioritised moving forward and getting to him sooner. The story gave us clues and info about what was really going on with Holly's recording allowing us to doubt and question reality leaving us to question what was going on. When we heard back from Donovan after he disappeared I felt something about him was off, how did he know about certain info or to know where to send us. I started to speculate about what had happened to him, believing him to already be dead. When I found him I was left shocked that he was still alive and didn't expect the hardest choice ever at the end. I was left emotional at my choice I had to make. [/spoiler] This game has been an amazing journey from start to finish. I recommend you play this how you feel you need to. Make your choices and make your mistakes. These choices and mistakes matter and will make you feel more invest and help you to connect with the characters. Do not be afraid of the mistakes you've made on your journey, embrace it. 10/10 IGN

SUPER!!

I bought this game to support the developer, and I don't regret doing so, but I would be hard-pressed to actually recommend this game to someone else. To be fair, I was not the biggest fan of Firewatch, which is the point of comparison most of the reviews reach for, so those who fully enjoyed the earlier game might have a better chance of enjoying this one. Still, I feel there are too many problem points here for me to feel satisfied. I don't have an inherent dislike for walking simulator games, but despite the genre name the act of walking itself is not the point. The game has to pace the player experience like a museum, clearly guiding me along the path it wants me to walk while providing points of interest at regular intervals for me to look at, whether interesting scenery or dialogue or story developments or modest interactions or atmosphere or something to keep me engaged. In Arctic Awakening, this experience design felt lacking on a fundamental level. Too often I was confused on where I was supposed to go next and ended up wandering in circles. Even when I was on the correct path, there were several large gaps between events with nothing to maintain my interest as I was pushing the analog stick forward. Without a tighter control of the player experience, the game ends up feeling unbalanced. Some of the design decisions were simply baffling. I suppose the survival elements of hunger and stamina were put in to provide more things the player has to pay attention to and thus make this feel more game-like, but they felt very pointless. Finding food or cairns to refill your meters was mere tedium that further bogged down the pacing of the game. I also question the decision to break this game into episodes like a TV show, complete with multiple credit rolls. Perhaps this was originally intended to have an episodic release? Or maybe they felt having "cliffhanger" episode endings would enhance the feeling of a puzzle-box TV show and increase engagement with the story? As is, it didn't really add anything to my experience. The moment-to-moment writing is fine - the therapy bot is a cute idea to have a constant dialogue partner while not needing to worry about animating a human character model - and the voice acting is quite good. The story as a whole doesn't really come together though. The mysteries of the puzzle box are only vaguely elaborated on - not the worst I've seen on that front, but nevertheless they don't live up to how much they're teased - and the arc of the main character doesn't work. The protagonist feels like he's stick in the same place for the majority of the game until suddenly towards the end he has a moment of character growth artificially forced on him to give a story a sense of purpose. I didn't buy it. If you look at this game as the efforts of inexperienced but growing developers, I think it shows some promise. While there's lack of polish throughout - I ran into several bugs during my playthrough, a couple of which required me to restart from an earlier save - the developers have been putting out regular updates to fix things, so they're paying attention to feedback. I don't think the fundamental design issues here can be fixed with updates, but if the developers build on what they've learned here with a fresh project I think there's the potential of making a game that succeeds where Arctic Awakening falls short.

Firewatch sequel this is not. It tries, but there is a lot of so-what and random time doing nothing like finding cables to string up a musical instrument so you can sing to a robot. Some folks might enjoy that type of gameplay, but I very much prefer Firewatch. The story doesn't feel as connect as Firewatch. Honestly, I think this game would have been better if a bit shorter with a tighter story. It somehow feels more on rails and also more lost in direction as compared to Firewatch. Visuals and voice acting is pretty good. I just didn't find it engaging, and got frustrated wandering what to do sometimes. I spent the better part of chapter three just following a guide. That's when I knew I was done with the game, and it wasn't for me.

Really quite enjoyable especially on the first playthrough. It's one of those games where I couldn't wait to get home from work so I could play more. Definitely recommend to anyone that wants to scratch that Firewatch itch too.

Story – 10/10 If you are a fan of The X‑Files, then this is the game for you. The story feels like a lost episode of that seminal sci‑fi series. In other words, it’s a sci‑fi mystery wrapped in the guise of a survival tale. If you want a summary, watch a trailer—point is, this game has a great story. Graphics – 10/10 The graphics are exactly what the game needs: good enough to convey the atmosphere of the setting without being so demanding that you need a god‑tier rig to run it. Level Design – 10/10 The game features many mountain regions that feel rugged and natural. They have an organic layout that, while occasionally confusing, are still fairly intuitive. If you get too far off track, your sidekick Alfie usually says something to point you in the right direction. The sci‑fi locations also feel sufficiently high‑tech but still recognizable enough that you understand what you’re looking at. In this way, the man‑made areas help develop the story almost like another character. Gameplay – 9/10 This is the one area where I have to deduct a point. You don't do much in this game in the way of interacting. Mostly picking up food and drink and meditating. There are however a few puzzles, but they bring the pacing to a halt—like hitting a brick wall on a highway. Traditionally, puzzle games introduce mechanics gradually so that when players encounter a challenge, they know how to solve it. Not so here. The few puzzles that exist are simply thrown at you with no explanation, and without any clue what to do, you can get stuck quickly. While there is some repetition it just isn't helpful enough. Moments that should be tense and exciting instead become tedious and even frustrating. Conclusion – 9.5/10 (Must Play) While the game suffers from some frustrating puzzles and the level design can occasionally be a bit confusing, the compelling story more than makes up for these minor issues. Bottom line: this is an excellent narrative game that anyone who enjoys the genre should play at least once.