Claire de Lune

Too expensive for what it is. A lot of technical issues like launching on incorrect monitor with no option to change it to another one. Like others mentioned invisible walls. I like the computer puzzles at the beginning but no all the terrain puzzles they were extremely boring. I'm willing to give them a few days to correct the monitor issue which only showed up after their first patch but honestly it's expensive for what I've seen so far and just not fun. Oh and yes I played and completed all the Portal games this isn't doing it for me.

A beautiful but ultimately flawed game the concept is good in theory but execution is severely lacking pathways look open but you are ultimately railroaded to a single solution it's this way or death if you don't follow the path exactly though the path not made clear to the player at all

Claire de Lune is a fun and challenging puzzle-platformer. I have completed roughly half of the game (start of Chapter 7) at the time of this review. The first few chapters are short, but they get longer by Chapter 4. The puzzles are varied, with a greater emphasis on platforming- or physics-style puzzles (e.g., put block here and jump to there, use a booster to launch yourself over that pit, drop a block onto that square or enemy) than the logic ones. As such, people who don't like 3D jumping or positional puzzles may be disappointed (as some of the negative review suggest). However, the physics-based puzzles are still limited, so don't expect to be launching yourself and others all over the place without consequence. The game uses a check-point system that is very forgiving. For example, one puzzle involving three platforms to jump between (with plenty of cube placement or intermediary jumps along the way) brought me back to the last platform I was on after death, instead of the beginning of the whole puzzle. This made my frequent failures very fast to recover from. Although I'm bad at platformers, this game proved to be difficult early on so I expected to die a lot. I'd love to see a death counter, though maybe there is one by the end of the game. This is not an open world game, so I didn't expect to be able to climb every cliff or reach every location that I could see. The game uses the landscape to pretty clearly identify where to go next, and since falling past a certain distance means death I used that to determine when I needed to go around, climb up or down (when I got the attractor to do that intensively), and which jumps were going to work with better positioning of a booster or a run. And it's definitely fall distance, not an invisible wall, that can kill you since I managed to launch myself up way too high several times. There's an option to see where you will be placing blocks, and that helps to a certain extend with solving the puzzles. There was quite a lot of trial and error for me, but largely because I'm bad at platforming. The music is simple, atmospheric, and very good at it's job. Same with the sound effects. The voice acting is surprisingly good as well, at least for the characters I've seen so far. There is not much plot, as to be expected from a puzzle game. I loved Arturo, the AI that seems helpful and friendly with a constant suspicion that he's trying to kill you (like any good AI character in a sci-fi setting). However, I can see his personality being very annoying for some people. Thus, although I liked the characters, I can totally understand why other players disliked or hated them. There's the option to skip any dialogue, even if you haven't seen it yet, so avoiding annoying dialogue is easy. Subtitles are turned on by default (or at least they were for me), and there's a chapter select to replay areas you've unlocked as soon as you complete it. Overall, I've really enjoyed the game and look forward to seeing what the second half is like.

I can't help but applaud Claire de Lune a little bit. It made me curious about the story and convinced me that the gameplay could be good; and then it just... wasn't. To be a bit more specific: the voice acting is pretty good, the writing is decent, and the early puzzles involving the computer seem fresh and interesting. And then you get on the surface of the planet and things slow down a bit, but still remain decent. Using a spawnable box to climb? Okay, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/813630/Supraland/]Supraland[/url] did it first, but I still found climbing around with it satisfying. Then you get a second tool - a trampoline of sorts, and are put in a "floor is lava" kind of situation. And there the problems began. You see, there is the secret that the [b]Big Gamedev[/b] doesn't want you to know: all those puzzle games that you think you're smart after beating? You're being [i]guided[/i] towards the solution by clever placement of pieces, objects that draw your attention such as vistas and light sources, and character dialogue. And in this game there's [i]no such thing[/i]. If anything, it seems like those traditional "tells" are actively working against you - which actually is a genius way to train you to [i]not[/i] rely on them and instead try solving problems like you would've in real life. Except that doesn't work either - because of invisible walls that seem far too numerous for my liking. Okay. So you're giving me a traversal puzzle without an obvious solution and then you're punishing me for trying to do things my way? I feel like we have a misunderstanding here. After I noticed this issue for the first time, it only started getting worse and worse, and eventually I realised I'm not solving puzzles, I'm just throwing crap at the wall while asking myself "will the game accept this bulls**t solution?" And that's where the fun dies. You could say that I'm being unfair for giving up only an hour in; but if the game cannot make the simple, early puzzles interesting and fun to solve, then what hope do the more complex ones have? Maybe it indeed does get better, but the game busted its pick-up line, so I won't be following it home to see what it's got. Oh, and a disclaimer: There is no such thing as a big gamedev. That was a joke. I mean, there are those large companies which hold the market captive, but they have no interest in the indie world, since we'd rather spend 100€ on f2p garbage than 20€ on something that actually takes effort to make. Yes, I'm salty. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]Curator Page[/url]

It's not often I'd give a negative review, but for all the things this game gets right, the things it gets wrong are just unforgivable. The platform sections (many other people mentioned it and I thought they were just being salty) are some of the most infuriating I have ever played. Dying dozens of times (at least) trying to cross chasms because of the twitchy nature of the tools at hand killed any enjoyment I had from the more cerebral sections. If you are easily frustrated, steer clear or you may regret it. As I said, I hate leaving negative reviews, but I felt it needed to be said. I do hope the developer tries again and listens to feedback. I think they have the ability to create something better.

Currently the game has "mixed" reviews here on Steam, and I agree with that. Overall, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The story is okay, the dialogue is fun, the graphics are pretty, the puzzles are a mix of annoying or kinda interesting. The puzzles are either physics/platform-based (mostly finding a way across a chasm) or mini-games that were logic-based. There are far too many and too annoying platform sections. It's not new, innovative or fun, it's just incredibly repetitive. And while everything is pretty and nice, some annoying textures or invisible walls can easily put you on the wrong path/idea. Coupled with no hand holding and so many instant-death areas, it's far more frustrating than fun. The logic mini-games were pretty fun and mostly original, although fairly sparse across the game and too simple for me. I wish there were more of these puzzles and harder ones, and less platforming ones. In the end, my verdict is "not recommended" mostly due to the price coupled with the puzzles (which is the real gameplay, unless you are buying this for the story). It's simply too expensive for what it is.

Игра на ловкость и логику, с сюжетом и не сложным английским языком (некоторые задания требуют знания английского). Есть простые головоломки, манипуляция с полями и кубами (привет Portal), 10 секреток. Приятная графика и незатейливый юмор.

While I came into this thinking it would be more puzzle-oriented, this game has a balance of conventional puzzles, some detail-hunting, and far, far too many physics block jumping puzzles. I didn't enjoy the moments requiring quick actions. I found the outdoor traversal to be punishing, and boring. I was very tired of areas that look safe but are instant-death areas. Those without FPS skills will find several parts of this game difficult, with no accessibility options to just skip the combat and jumping to focus on story and puzzles. The charm from the banter is good, but it's not worth the price of admission. ZERO accessibility options for color puzzles, just no option for many many players to experience the whole thing on their own. The game took me two or three afternoons to finish. Steam holds playtime at about 8.5 hours, and YouTube playthroughs put this at 3.5 hours to complete cleanly. Those desiring more achievements may require several playthroughs to pick up collectibles and make different dialogue choices. The story is underwhelming. FULL STORY SPOILERS - You are a dad that has to rescue your daughter who is present at the start, missing after the first section, and then a confirmed damsel-in-distress for the rest of the game. After a SHORT few lines of dialogue at the beginning to establish Claire as your daughter (both of you getting past the death of her mother), she fails to serve any purpose other than to be the goal for the player to rescue. In the final scene, you unshackle an AI to save her life. Previous framing suggest this might be Very Bad, and that's when it's a matter of unshackling your friendly AI and not the SPOILER murderous AI that has killed people and shows a reckless disregard for human life. So, the story has some mirrors in Insomniac's "The Last of Us," where a Dad risks his life, kills, and risks the lives of all to save his daughter. However, "Claire de Lune" has no father-daughter journey, once you put her in the escape pod, she's done having lines or agency. Even when she's not on-screen, her escape pod crashes and her sustained injuries probably rendered her unconscious, and her resuscitation in the final scene shows how she's been unable to do anything for the duration of most of the game. Also, I feel like the symbolism in the game is incredibly scrambled. Flashbacks show our hero John had a job as a murderer, and now he's on the run from space cops trying to get a new space job in a new space town. His memory has him holding a nano-gun. This gun is used in the game to make a cube as your companion for jumping puzzles, bounce pads, and pull-push corridors to solve physics puzzles and traverse. Don't worry, you're taught and required to use it for violence, but it's for squashing bugs early on, and later on it's used for property damage and disabling guns. So, when our hero puts the gun aside so that the gun's power source can be used to unlock a door, we might think for a brief moment that our hero is putting violence behind him so he can move on. This is the gun that, in a flashback, is bloodstained and hurriedly tossed on a kitchen counter while John calls to Claire to pack up and flee for their lives. This is the very same gun that our hero took with him as he set out to create a new life for himself and his daughter. But he sets it aside so he can move forward. After a quick brush with death as we evade some turrets, we are quickly thrust into a situation where we face our first human opponent! When next given control of my character, I am handed a PEW PEW GREEN LASER GUN TO SHOOT AS MANY GUARDS AS POSSIBLE! Our guy has done this before, so it makes sense he can do this. But, with the weight of the previous scene with him putting the puzzle-gun aside (which we know to be a murder gun from his past, even if he used it as a bludgeoning weapon!). As for the parts of the game I enjoyed, there are some logic puzzles that are pretty neat, but the star of the show is the banter between you and your AI companion Arturo. The voice acting is charming, the Dad jokes are obvious, it felt like a natural and fun back and forth. It reminded me of The Journeyman Project 2/3, where our hero Gage Blackwood is assisted by Art....hur.. ARTURO / ARTHUR, that can't be coincidental! I had to look up Arthur's name since I was so used to Arthur saying "Gaaaaaage." But that's *gotta* be the reason behind the name, But yeah, if your FPS jumping puzzle skills are up to par, and you want to relive the experience of going on a space adventure with a chatty AI companion, this is certainly a few hours of entertainment. Not sure I could recommend at full price, but if you're looking to fill a Venn diagram center space between Portal / Journeyman Project 2+3 / Every "Dad" game EVER, this is certainly seated comfortably there. As it stands, $40 seems a little steep, the story is forgettable, the jumping and traversal puzzles are lackluster, the technobabble is overwhelming to the point of me relating to the dude reframing the technological crisis as a simple color-based puzzle, the banter is fun and reminds me of fond times playing another better game, the themes of AI restrictions seem unresolved, the story is about the futility of escaping a life of violence? The "main" villain taunts you to say he's going to torture and maybe kill your daughter, and after VIOLENTLY VAPORIZING MANY MANY GUARDS, you punch him out and grab your daughter. The scientist who's breaking interstellar law and all but twirling a mustache over human experimentation gets like 3 punches, but people who see you in a hallway can suck INSTANT HOT DEATH LASER. I know more character models and more voice acting takes time and money, but there's a sequence of flashbacks where John is recalling his daughter's life, and it's all about him walking into her empty room unannounced, but it's the same house layout every time even though they've been on the move a lot as per story dialogue? She was tired of moving, right? So why is the house the same? And why isn't he remembering her at those formative moments? He's remembering furniture that represents her aging... I feel like the structure of the game speaks to the developer's urge to make a puzzle game with feature creep. Play Monkey Island in a spaceship, then play Portal / Half-Life outside on the planet, then some Portal indoors that gently turns into 11th Hour. Make the story a Dad-game to rescue your daughter (with no agency) while you have partner AI banter from Journeyman Project 2/3. Every good part of this game is done better somewhere else, and I can't wrap my head around the "point" of the game. What's the core message? Maybe I'm being uncharitable, maybe I'm just in a bad mood, maybe I'm getting old and grumpy. I loved how many animations were lovingly hand-crafted. I enjoyed having some options for how I engaged with Arturo, I liked Arturo merging with the facility AI and having two AI banter companions in a neat twist (as long as you don't take it seriously and consider the consequences of what you're unleashing). I liked feeling clever by solving some classic puzzles and some coding puzzles and number puzzles. One hexagon puzzle had me stuck for quite a while, it was satisfying to overcome it. Some puzzles were fun in that I could solve them immediately and feel clever (having already enjoyed harder instances of the basic puzzle provided), and keep the dialogue going at a good clip. I liked how the graphics were much better they were in the 1990s, even at medium with the frame rate high as can be. I liked the generous checkpoints that somewhat reduced the frustration of being unable to perform a physical jumping/stealth challenge appropriately. I purchased this for half off at $20. If I could have taken half off the gameplay too by skipping the jumping outside, that would have been even better. I'm not impressed.

On one hand the game could be compared to "portal", but on the other hand it has its very [b]own[/b], [b]specific mechanics[/b] and its own, well done [b]storytelling[/b]. I really liked the storytelling and the regular conversations with the AI "Arturo" which is very sarcastic but still funny (I do not like funny). With such feedback the player gets entertained and is also able to go through a linear appearing level design without the need of extra tutorials. I did not like the parts where the player had to interact fast with different objects to overcome obstacles (but others may like it). It looks like there are some "invisible walls" at places where the player isn't supposed to be. I also assume to have solved some obstacles with a not intended methode, using some tiny polygons on cliffs etc. The puzzle-mini-games were really fun. I was positivly surprised how well those were implemented. "Programming skills" and "math" could be partially handy in sovling those but are not mandatory. It just may take a little time longer. But that could be the point. How it appears in the discussion section the developers are overduing the specific parts of the game and will patch the issues. I wrote an email with some specific points I was assuming that could frustrate players. (E.g.: Errors in texturing at places where you should not be. But exactly those "errors" were a sign for me of being on an unintended solution) All the parts I really like, I do not want to mention here because of spoilers. The kind of storytelling and how they handled tension and engagement in the story was well done. [spoiler] Example: They give you piece by piece more options with this nanomattergun. I really liked the storytelling by Arturo and his... "companion". You still get the whole story from the first-person-perspective... with specific flashbacks... which make the storyline even more intense. At the beginning there is no much cursing, lower tension, no (violent) human interaction... but being so "economic with tension" makes the second half even more interesting.[/spoiler] I really would have wished for more exterior cut scenes... but this could belong to the theme of storytelling. Because of the very reason that this is an indie game with only some reviews at this time and because I assume that some ratings go down because of those not-yet-patched-issues, I decided to write this. I am [b]estimating[/b] that a regular player who knows some specific solutions could walk through the game within 6h-10h. I really enjoyed playing this game.

Revised: Ignore my play hours. I had to walk away multiple of times and forgot to quit the game. This is a short game. Without any trouble you can expect roughly 4 hours. I found the puzzles very frustrating as they required key timing (too precise and short window). Despite all of this I enjoyed the story. --4 hours of game play --Story Rich --Frustrating Platform Puzzle --Frustrating Shooting Target Mini Game --Choices Don't Matter