Claire de Lune

Honestly this was a lot more fun than I expected from reading other reviews. The graphics, sound, and level design are all very beautiful. The puzzles were mostly fun, and the platforming parts are very easy (no idea why other users are struggling so much). Yes, you die instantly if you take a bad step or navigate a puzzle wrong, but you just need to alter your strategy and try again (and the game auto-saves A LOT so you never have to redo very much at all). The story was mildly interesting and funny at times. With that said, the game did have some annoying issues. [list] [*]not well optimized - running the frame rate at anything above fixed 60FPS causes extreme graphics lag, even with all other settings turned down. Turning it to 60fps and running everything else at maximum was smooth for me. [*]Invisible walls on some of the platforming puzzles - you'll spend 5 minutes reaching an area just to jump into an invisible wall and fall to your death. [*]very narrow view field that cannot be adjusted - could easily see some users getting motion sickness [*]The first puzzle where you have to get around the turret is absolute bullsh**. Wasted hours trying things and finally Googled it. Even seeing the solution to the puzzle it makes no f***ing sense. Every other puzzle I could figure out. [/list]

I liked Claire de Lune quite a bit. The voice acting & writing are outstanding, entertaining & genuinely humorous throughout the entire game. The nanogun is a fantastic tool that promotes creative thinking to solve physics-based environmental puzzles that are a true joy to solve. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack: a lot of very clean ambient sci-fi soundscapes with some more energetic tracks mixed in as well. In fact, I liked the soundtrack so much, that I didn't mind wandering around alien landscapes trying to figure out where to go or what to do next. Claire de Lune doesn't hold your hand, it's a bit old-school in that you have to figure out a lot on your own. This can be both very rewarding & very frustrating. Unfortunately, I got stuck on a puzzle partway through the game & could not continue, even after following a walkthrough; I just couldn't figure it out. But I did watch the rest of the game on a YT playthrough, because I wanted to hear all the dialogue, see how the story played out, & hear all of that juicy music. The game ran very smoothly, no freezes, no crashes, & no game breaking bugs. Actually I don't recall encountering any bugs at all during my 10+hrs of play. My only criticism of the game is that I think some of the puzzles are a little too hard (both latter platforming nanogun physics-based puzzles & logic-based puzzles). I would have preferred to see some sort of optional hint system or guide implemented, but I know this was made by a relatively small group of indie developers, so that's no small task. Maybe just an easy mode, where you have the option to auto-solve 3 puzzles or advance the game a few minutes 3 times, for some sort of penalty. If you like good dialogue, sci-fi, puzzles, juicy OST's, or games with tools that allow you to solve problems in multiple ways, then I recommend Claire de Lune; just be prepared to think creatively.

The gun was okay but i liked the riddles and the storys is very good. And i like the humor

Summary: The puzzle are mostly annoying, the game breaks its own internal logic, and does a poor job of guiding you where you need to go. Absolutely beautiful environment though. The game is very stable. I acquired it for roughly $20. That seems a fair price. I would not pay $40.00 for it. Expanded: Prepare to get lost... a lot, then hit invisible barriers. Then prepare to be killed by local fauna in at least one pure gotcha moment. Then prepare for the game to break it own internal logic. You'll watch the blue cube move a whole bunch, then expect to know that it is an unmovable force. You might think of a solution, try it, and for it to fail, but then find out that the way you wanted to solve it was correct, but you needed to one extra thing that's not obvious for it to work. Looking at you turret and also compactor. Oh, and early on you'll be told that you can only fire your gun on flat surfaces. That is a lie. To be fair, you'll be told how to solve this particular puzzle, but you'll struggle to figure out precisely how to do that due to the previous "game rule". The puzzles are mostly annoying, and it feels like you progress 5 seconds in order to do another annoying puzzle. On the positive, the game is very beautiful, and very stable. I've experienced zero crashes. I wouldn't buy this game for $40.00. I would however buy it at the $20.00ish mark.

Just bought the game and it doesn't even launch WTF...

I'm going to start and say that Spencer Cannon as John, and David Autovino as Arturo killed it. They did a fantastic job reading for their parts, with the pathos and silliness of their respective roles. Their dialog is the best written part of the game. And that's about where the praise ends. Here's how the game goes. You start off as a concerned dad in a space ship with your surly teenage daughter. For some reason, your ship's AI thinks it is a good reason to traverse restricted space and then somehow you are pulled down to the planet (this will never be addressed again). You put your daughter in the escape pod, and you ride out the ship crash by removing the AI's security shackles. You crash. Your daughter crashes. You get a puzzle gun to solve maneuvering based puzzles. You can make a cube, a boost pad (trampoline), push, and pull objects from other pads... and of course these can only be put on certain surfaces. I cannot overstate how many times you are going to die leaping across gorges and being SLIGHTLY too high to survive the hit, or you miss the cube, or the cube's spawn in time is slightly delayed so it pushes you off course. Seriously. You will see LOADING... a lot. Arturo, the AI, can fix your ship without your help. And if you hadn't sent Claire off in the escape pod, she'd be with you and you two could just sit there and wait. When safety equipment fails, it fails to fail-safe. Which means your daughter is badly injured in the crash and there's a log that says she was taken by medivac to a nearby facility. When you get there and adventure through it, you find out that it's full of mad scientists, the patients (held prisoner) have escaped and fled the planet, and there's a hostile AI that has no compunction about killing. Or hacking your AI buddy, Arturo. If you aren't using the puzzle gun, you're doing the most basic mind teasers: logic puzzles, hexagons with matching sides, tracing your way through a maze. John will comment on what you should do, and Arturo will just tell you over and over until you completely lose agency. You're just doing what you're told and nodding along. The plot, like the gameplay, is completely lost by this point. Still, it's egregious that the game takes the puzzle gun away from you. John gives it up, as if he's giving up a part of his shady past, ready to move on. And then the only living human you've found turns out to be a mad scientist and the last 10 minutes gives you a pulse rifle and turns the final level into a shooting gallery. It's completely counter to the plot, character development, and the game to this point. I mean, I was ticked at the physics puzzles but way to rob yourself of an ending. By this point, Arturo and the hostile AI have merged, you have a fist fight with the doctor, and you finally see Claire. Unconscious and paralyzed and apparently she's been heavily experimented on... but that seems unlikely since she's still wearing her only set of clothes. Maybe the mad scientist is a liar. In the end, you're teleported back to your ship and Claire isn't moving and the merged AI says if you remove its security programming, it will help. Some color blobs swim around, Claire's eyes open, she gasps, and the game ends. There should have been more to say about the human/AI relationship, as it's the only real one in the game. There should have been something between father and daughter. There should have been some sort of explanation for the jail break, other than that a few doctors and the patients were working together and sabotaged a science experiment for cover. Who is this mad scientist? Why does he get away with it? Where is his characterization? What the hell caused our ship to get sucked down to the planet? Wouldn't recommend. The puzzles are not good, the physics/platforming part is underdeveloped, and the story themes and beats needed more elaboration. This game would have been better as a visual novel or walking simulator, because then there would have been more of the ideas and less of the jank gameplay.

Fun little game, well worth it on sale. It's an interesting mix of puzzling and platforming. Indeed, there is puzzle platforming in abundance but there are a slew of standalone puzzles as well. I was impressed at the variety of said puzzles to be honest. All too often, a game will make something like "the hacking minigame" and you grow sick of doing it over and over so it was rather refreshing to have the diversity. The puzzles have a range of difficulty and some of the more challenging ones you feel quite clever for solving. That goes both for the explicit ones and some of the sleuth work you need to do at times. For the platforming, I'm sure folks will compare it to Portal but honestly, I think it's more similar to parts of Antichamber, though probably far fewer are familiar with that one (check it out too!). The jumps can be tight in places but checkpoints are frequent so it's never more than a moment's delay if you literally come up short. As you get more modes for the nanogun, the freedom to get around opens up and you get more leeway to solve things the way you want to rather than always finding one correct method. Be aware that there are a few segments where you must act quickly and precisely. It may look in places like a walking simulator but it will demand timing, positioning and accuracy often enough. The characters are likable and the dialog is quite entertaining, with very well-done voice work throughout. Like the game in general, dialog options are linear and while you have some literal say in how to proceed, the destination is always the same. This isn't an open world or a sandbox but it provides enough window dressing, back tracking and openness to make it not feel strictly on rails. The story is better than I expected and it neither bludgeons you over the head with the lore, nor does it hide everything in obscure notes and item descriptions: It says what needs to be said for the narrative and provides background and supplementary information to expand the world for you to find. There are notes and there are item descriptions of course, some hidden as a kind of bonus objective and the later especially can be quite funny. There's a thread or two I wouldn't mind if they were further expanded upon at the end (worry not, I'll say no more) but the main narrative does reach a satisfying conclusion so it's the good kind of wanting more. As for nit picks, the keybinds cannot be remapped, which is a disappointment I'm obligated to call attention to given how I'm the guy who always has to be nonstandard there. That said, the default controls aren't exotic and are certainly sufficient to get the job done. I did encounter a bug that made me restart a chapter as well (if a data pad in a cave gives you an objective update, DON'T touch it again after you move on to other objectives) but the chapters aren't terribly long, especially once you know what you're doing so it wasn't a huge deal. That leads me to the game length, it's on the shorter side for sure so mind the price point but it doesn't overstay its welcome stretching things out and honestly the pacing and length feel right so while the price is a little steep by default, it's well worth it on sale. Give it a go especially if you're a computer science kind of person, many of the puzzles will be a bit more natural and some story elements will probably land a little better. You'll also live the dream and exploit all the horrible security violations you read about in coursework and mandatory annual training so it's educational in a way. If folks did everything by the book and followed best practice, the game would have stopped around half way. So remember: Leave security awareness at the door and the good guys win! Huh. OK, maybe it's not so educational...

The worst Indie game ever! Bad graphics, ♥♥♥♥ mechanics, hard puzzles, loud piercing music. A waste of precious mula -_-

I really enjoyed this nice little sci-fi game. You just have to give it time since the start is pretty slow. Pros: - great characters and conversations. Arturo the ship's robot is great to have as a companion - nice and varied puzzles, which often include some physical elements similar to games like Portal, as well as platforming - nice environment, even thought some areas at the beginning can lack variety - auto save points are plentiful so you'll never be replaying long sections of the game Cons: - some platforming puzzles are quite tough, not impossible bur certainly take some tries - the starting levels of the game can be slow and not that varied, just stick with it

Nice puzzle game, maybe a bit short.