Caffeine

Not Fit for Human Consumption Full disclosure: review copy provided by developer/publisher! Caffeine is a “quirky first person adventure game with environmental puzzles and a touch of psychological horror.” Right. That's what the synopsis on the Steam store reads, anyway. What I encountered was a less competent Dear Esther with physics bugs shooting out the wazoo. Just another indie horror title rushed out of the indie horror oven too soon, never to realize its potential... potential. I'll add it to the pile I'm using to build a hellish throne for personal reasons. Here's the story: you're a tiny child in the not-too-distant future, livin' it up on a space station. Because people are so addicted to coffee, Starbucks has literally conquered the stars themselves, mining planets Dead Space style to synthetically produce Pumpkin Spice lattes for your UGG sporting girlfriends. But what Space Starbucks™ failed to realize is that once you start mining entire planets for synthetic caffeine it isn't long before Natural Law™ flips a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ table in defiance. I spent the first 20 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ minutes of this game attempting to grab a keycard to progress past the first door. See, it was placed lovingly in a crate on top of a monitor for... some reason? Perhaps this is one of the touted environmental puzzles? I'm not sure. But with every attempt at grabbing said keycard the crate would kind-of-sort-of coalesce with the monitor, making it impossible to retrieve. And then I'd have to exit out of the entire game (because quitting back to the main menu is for suckers apparently) and try all over again (Edit: upon subsequent playthrough this weird issue has been fixed). When I did finally manage to pull the damned thing through the monitor I was off to explore this derelict space station, tiny keycard spinning desperately in my grasp as if to say, “Spirit, don't! Can't you see I'm trying to stop you from playing this ♥♥♥♥ game?!” And I was like, “This is just a little glitch – I'm sure the rest of the game isn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!” Then the keycard flew from my hands, never to be seen again, choosing the sweet release of death over playing Caffeine. Damn my hubris! What followed was another 40, 50 minutes of wandering around a claustrophobic, gray, circuit board of a space station covered in ♥♥♥♥♥♥ sticky notes saying things like “Why won't he open the door?” and “Can't do it/Can't do it/ CAN.” That's... pretty much it, I'm sorry to say. You wander about a less interesting, less populated, less optimized, not scary Alien: Isolation filled with shimmering amber jello water and chairs that defy the very laws that govern reality as we know it. There's also, like, space coffee stations but it's empty and everyone ran away or went crazy or something because of caffeine withdrawals! Or something! It isn't super clear! I'm just not impressed. Terrible physics, no save function, no quit to menu function, walking speed as fast as a snail's fart, bad flashlight mechanics, virtually no gameplay, absolutely no directions on how to progress (unless I'm supposed to read every stupid sticky note littering the environment), I could go on. I won't, because your time and money is precious. Is it episodic? Yes. Are the future two free, longer, puzzlier episodes promised incentive to pay for the dull-as-dishwater first entry? I guess. Cynically I would call this Early Access without the contentious label. You can look forward to the next two episodes sometime in... 2016. There might be some patches to address the more ludicrous ♥♥♥♥ I mentioned (again, looks like the first progression bug has been addressed) but it won't save this game from being as lame as a lukewarm cup of black coffee with a pube floating in it. You can fish the pube out but I've already seen it. The damage is done.

I've been following the development of Caffeine for some time now. The developer, Dylan Browne, is probably one of the kindest, most transparent and hardest working indie developers I've seen in quite a while. However, there are several unmistakable flaws regarding Caffeine that, at present, would prevent me from recommending this game to friends, especially at its current price point. Caffeine is a sci-fi horror game set in the near future on a (seemingly) abandoned spacecraft that mines caffeine for earthlings in deep space. You play as an unnamed child protagonist, and you wake up on the ship and search for answers. Seems like a great concept, and I will admit that. However... Please save your money and wait for Incandescent Imaging to straighten out the bugs and refine this game. For starters, I would go on a limb and say this game is very poorly optimized. My rig can run Mad Max, Battlefield 4, and Alien: Isolation maxed out at 60fps, 1080p, and no framerate drops. I am lucky to get 20-30 with the lowest settings on this game at 1080p. From what I understand, this game was intended to be ran at higher resolutions such as 4K, and running it on low (which is the only way I can get stable framerates) resolutions just doesn't make for an enjoyable experience. Next, I would like to say that the physics in this game are beyond any level of comprehension. Picking up any assortment of objects is a spell for a glitchy, ragdoll disaster. Regardless of size, items don't always do what they're supposed to, sometimes walking with a keycard will send it spiraling into another room, sometimes it'll move a chair next to you. To me, this totally ruins the immersion factor with laughable physics. Going along with poor optimization, there are some areas on the ship that have missing textures, and you can see through parts of the hull. I was not able to capture screengrabs of this, but near the beginning of the game and further in, it is apparent that there are some glitches. Some bugs came up, too, such as doors not opening and closing properly, the player character clipping through chairs, being stuck in doors, as well as items thrusting you across a room. One funny glitch was that my character shrunk in size further while crouching in a water-flooded area. L O L There appears to be no real goal in hand apart from exploring the spaceship as there is no HUD or objectives or anything, you just have to do guesswork and hope a keycard is lying around. I can appreciated the immersion attempt at forcing the player to read the sticky notes and listen to audio logs, but in the end, I got frustrated by walking around for about an hour and making no real progress and quit the game to write this review. This game has potential, but that is sadly spoiled by all that's wrong with it. I hope this can be fixed. Due to the poor performance of this game it's hard to really enjoy it as it was intended which is a real shame, as I had incredibly high hopes for Caffeine. You can zoom in on notes and monitors to get tidbits of information on the crew and a window into what happened aboard. However the fun ends when computer monitors with text boxes end up being a jumbled, pixelated mess. Also, the flashlight in the game is essentially useless, sometimes it won't even turn on, and when it does, it doesn't last for more than 30 seconds. Ruins it for me. Unsure if this is a bug, or what. The game is, at present, a glorified "walking simulator" that borrowed some pages from games such as Alien: Isolation, System Shock, SOMA, Routine, and Bioshock, but without the real sense of doom that those convey. I had not, in 90 minutes of playtime, encountered a single threat or enemy type apart from the game's glitches. There were a few "enemies" and scares in the various tech demos of Caffeine, but they have since disappeared. This isn't an issue to me-- if the concept of Caffeine had more time on the drawing board, and a bit more time for revision, I would say this game is a perfect candidate for Early Access. At present, it is nowhere near a complete episodic game and needs plenty of work. Finally I notice i'm not the one having issues saving graphical settings in Caffeine, they seem to reset every startup and there are no save points in the game (that I'm aware of.) However, there were some things about this that I did enjoy, notably: -Native controller support for Xbox gamepads -Wonderfully constructed level design creates sense of dread, isolation, and claustrophobia around every corner -Oozing with atmosphere -Even if it is poorly optimized, the graphics are incredibly beautiful -Sound design is arguably the best i've experienced since Alien: Isolation -Plot leaves a bit to be desired but takes a unique spin on the tropes set forth by Slender, Among the Sleep, and SCP. -Chilling concept (but poor execution) 6/10, honest rating. A lot of hard work went into this, but, alas, not enough. I have waited quite some time for this title, only to be let down. I will be uninstalling Caffeine from my PC after submitting this review. I'm anxious to try it again, but not until the bugs get sorted out. I am totally excited to see how this game pans out. Dylan, if you're reading this, please don't take it to heart, I believe in you, I just can't recommend this game right now.

Caffeine is an interesting idea, but has a few problems to work through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC6HPCIfL10 The main premise behind the game is interesting. Everyone on Earth has become addicted to coffee. So much, that now space stations are mining minerals to create synthetic caffeine. The game does a decent job at building up atmosphere and creeping you out, but the overall experience is hurt by a lot of annoying mechanics and bugs. As it is, the game needs to iron out a lot of annoying glitches. My progress isn't saved, nor are my graphical settings. Meaning everytime I boot the game up, I need to restart from the beginning and change my settings again. Not a huge deal seeing as the first episode of the game only lasts 1 hour, and I'm sure it will be patched out, however it's still something that shouldn't be happening. I ran into a few other immersion breaking elements. When holding the forward button, my character will ever so slowly drift towards the right as well. I could move objects from the distance, which is easy to avoid if you want to stay immersed, but still a bit silly. The biggest problem of all was this first episode wasn't entirely eventful. The dev has said it's meant to be a small taste of what is to come, and that the 2nd and 3rd episodes (free updates in the future) will have more puzzles and be longer. That's good to hear, because apart from a few notes to read here and there, as well as audio logs, there wasn't that much to do. I personally enjoyed the environment quite a bit, looking out the window into space, and exploring the station with the beautiful Unreal Engine helps immerse you. Overall, I can't completely recommend the game because it's an interesting idea, but frustrating at times due to the glitches. Also, as far as episode 1 goes, there isn't enough to make the game interesting enough to warrant its price. I'm hoping the bugs will be ironed out, and the future episodes will add more interesting gameplay. That would possibly change my review to a positive one. EDIT: Some of the bugs have been cleaned up, and the dev is continuing to fix up the game.

If one of the only actual gameplay elements of your game is using keycards to unlock doors then it might be a good idea to have an actual inventory system instead of having to awkwardly click and drag the keycards along with you as a physics object.

There’s a solid premise on offer here, and some terrifying sound design that oozes tension – but none of it leads anywhere. There’s no payoff, no feeling of achievement, and there are only fleeting glances of a narrative to grab onto. It’s baffling that this is supposed to be an episodic experience. An opening episode is supposed to hook you in and leave you hungry for the rest of the series, but Caffeine Episode One doesn’t even have enough substantial material for a single instalment. Plagued with dozens of bugs, some of which break the game, this is a dull, plodding exercise in monotonous walking, which offers up no sense of purpose or progression. Full review: http://www.gizorama.com/2015/computer/pc/all-cream-no-coffee-caffeine-episode-1-review

When you look at the credits and see how many people crowdfunded this game just for it to be one hour long and abandoned 5 years ago... I feel bad for all of them, they were probably expecting an interesting horror experience not a walking simulator were you go around in circles until you figure out where to go next. Oh, also this game doesn't save so you need to complete everything in one go or you start from the beginning. Likewise, if you encounter a glitch that kicks you out of bounds, to the beginning you go.

Was kann man wohl zu Caffeine sagen? Nicht viel! Meine Stichpunkte in Postiv (+) und Negativ (-) Positiv: + Unterstützt Dx12 + lässt sich starten + Man kann sachen aufnehmen und sich bewegen. + könnte hübsch aussehen. Negativ: - Stürzt auf dx12 mit der Fehlermeldung ab, das mein VRAM voll ist. (Egal ob auf minimal oder maximalen EInstellungen) - Mir definitiv zu dunkel. - kein Horror (oder Psycho-Horror wie der Entwickler es nennt) - man glitcht durch den Boden. - Kein Inventar. (Sachen werden vor einem her getragen (einzeln)) - Kein Speichern möglich. (Beendest du das Spiel, fängst du von vorne an) Fazit: Coffeine ist definitiv zu unausgereift und zu verbuggt. Ich bin froh, das ich es damals im Indie Bundle und nicht hier gekauft habe. Es langweilt mich und machte mir keinen Spaß. Die Performance ist so ziemlich das einizige am Spiel was an Horror heranreicht. Davon abgesehen rennt man nur rum und weiss auch nicht so recht, was man nun machen soll. Caffeine ist damit das erste Spiel, was ich freiwillig aus meiner STeam Bibliothek raushaben würde. Von mir gibt es eine klare NICHT-Kaufempfehlung. Meine Specs: i7 4790K (4.0-4,4GHz) 8GB RAM Sapphire R9 290 Vapor-X OC (4GB VRAM)

I don't have anything to add to the detailed enumerations of this game's problems in other reviews. I will stress one point, however, which is that this game feels [b]unfinished[/b]. It is also unpolished and buggy, but I could live with that if the game was complete. Caffeine, as of this writing, v118, looks like what I imagine games in progress look like when they are about 60% complete: the basic artwork is done, coarse world map is drawn, simple sound effects and background music prepared. What's left? Story, narration, combat, gameplay, NPCs, puzzles, play testing, optimization. This game is being sold well before it is ready for market and not labeled as early release. Know that if you buy now, it is in the hopes that this will eventually become a playable game.

Caffeine... I'm not even sure how this game ended up in my library; I don't recall purchasing it, or getting a key for it. Either way, I decided to check out this psychological horror title out of sheer boredom. Released in late 2015 by Incandescent Imaging, Caffeine has already had quite a few updates in order to iron out some of the performance issues it has suffered since its release. Although the store page refers to the game taking place in the "near future", the game takes place around 2100. You wake aboard a coffee mining vessel, alone, with nothing but post-it notes to convey communication between your coworkers and yourself. Since the game gives you absolutely zero sense of your goal, or who you are, you are presumably Jon, searching for his girlfriend; this information is pieced together through, yes you guessed it... post-it notes. There's an obvious quirky sense of humor within Caffeine, the fact that you're aboard a mining ship that mines coffee of all things, and the various post-it notes located around the suffocating corridors are usually rather funny. However, in most cases "funny" doesn't work with "psychological horror", and quite honestly I felt zero suspense or fear while I was playing the game. You even find out that part of the ship gets flooded, with coffee of course. The graphical glitches sure didn't help suit the horror mood, and caused the game to lean more toward the funny side once more. When I attempted to load the game up in Direct X 12, I was met with a blank screen. The game loaded fine in Direct X 11, but about 10 minutes in my game crashed and I had to start over. Initially I was playing with my Xbox One controller, but the movement was so slow it was neigh unbearable. I started again, this time using keyboard and mouse, and found the turning mechanics a little more greasy, but you move sooooo sloooooooow; to make it worse, there is no run button. The framerate was rather steady, even with everything on high I was maintaining about 80 FPS with no dips; so whatever patches they released to update the optimization must have worked. So, can I recommend Caffeine? Not in the slightest; do not buy it in a bundle, do not buy it from Humble, do not get it on sale, do not get it for a friend as well. While the graphics and sound are decent enough to look at and hear, the complete lack of story, or even a sense of what your goal is, really tears this title down. Not to mention, it takes forever to get from point A to point B, much less the back tracking if you didn't see a switch or missed some obscurely placed thing you gotta hit in order to progress. I've played better, I've played worse, but Caffeine is a severe waste of time better spent elsewhere. [h1]Rating: [b]2.5/5.0[/b] - It's not awful, but it's not great.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore

A pretty decent atmospheric game - it's a shame that the physics are totally broken.