[h1]#tinygamereviews[/h1]
[code]The worst English translation I've encountered obliterates what could've been a neat story. Makes me wish I knew Russian so I could play/read in the original language, because the potential's [i]there[/i]...[/code]
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[*][b][u]Overall Score[/u][/b]: 1/5
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[h1][b]Curator: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42137521/]Nostalginauts[/url][/b][/h1]
[h1]Full Review[/h1]
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[tr]
[td]Playability[/td]
[td]3/5[/td]
[td]Bugs sometimes show up making parts unplayable (cursor will disappear, dialogue will freeze...), so you'll need to close and reload a save. Some of the English text is nonsensical, so it can be difficult to understand what's going on or what you're supposed to do at times. Some puzzles show up without explanation or context and can be left mysteriously-unsolved.[/td]
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[td]Difficulty[/td]
[td]1/5[/td]
[td]Besides some bugs and poor translating, it isn't a difficult game at all.[/td]
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[td]Graphics[/td]
[td]3/5[/td]
[td]I [i]like[/i] the graphics, for the most part; they work for the format that the story takes and enhance the overall experience. They're not [i]beautiful[/i], but they're appropriate.[/td]
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[tr]
[td]Sound[/td]
[td]3/5[/td]
[td]On the lower end; the sound usually helps create an appropriate ambience, but it's repetitive. Best experienced with headphones, in any case (people you might live with will thank you).[/td]
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[td]Story & Writing[/td]
[td]2/5[/td]
[td]This is hard! The Russian-to-English translation completely sucks. For the most part, it's generally understandable what's going on in the big picture, but anytime a character's dialogue continues beyond one sentence, whatever character revelations, backstories, and subplots that may have been intended, evaporate. It started pretty strong, but quickly became awful, and I [i]wanted[/i] it to be good. There are some parts where the text doesn't parse [i]at all[/i], and nonsense characters flood the text boxes. I can tell there's a good story there, but it's not something that I can clearly understand as-is. If I could, I would volunteer to help re-translate it somehow. [b]Developer: I'm volunteering help if you think you need it.[/b][/td]
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It's frustrating that I couldn't give [i]Colorless Life[/i] a good review; just about as frustrating as it is to see that it came out in July 2017 - five and a half years before I actually played it - and to see that it hasn't been fixed.
I guess that's fine, though. I don't know what demands are placed on what looks to be an independent developer, but since they've put out other titles since this one, it's (again) frustrating to see that such a developer didn't seem to care about going back to correct their (tremendous) mistakes that could make their game more-understandable/playable by an audience that they thought to include in the first place.
I began without any expectations, which was good; I saw that [i]Colorless Life[/i] was tagged as "adventure," "action," and "indie," which are all in my wheelhouse, and watching what little the screenshots and trailer provided led me to think that I was in for something neat. And I see that it [i]could've[/i] been neat, and it [i]probably is[/i] if you can understand it in its original language (Russian), but I can't sidestep that this information is misleading.
It's [i]not[/i] an "adventure" game - and [i]certainly not[/i] an "action" game. It's a visual novel with some walking-around (usually in a straight line without different routes). I've been to some [i]real bootleg[/i] bookstores in my day, and if I'd picked up a novel in any of those places, opened up to a random page, and seen a garbled mess on-par with [i]Colorless Life[/i], I'd have placed it gently back on the table and walked away. Buying [i]Colorless Life[/i] so-uninformed (I mean, just read the game's discussion board) is [i]my[/i] fault.
It's cheap, which is a boon, but it also looks like early-onset abandonware at this point (the year of our lord 2023). [b] Developer: You have the makings of a really-neat, widely-relatable story, here, but it's not as widely-[i]accessible[/i] as you might've wanted it to be. Fix the English translation. Please.[/b]
[table equalcells=1]
[tr]
[th]BEST[/th]
[th]WORST[/th]
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[tr]
[td]The story, or at least the [i]intent[/i] of the story.[/td]
[td]The translation. See above.[/td]
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[list]
[*][b][u]In-Game Purchases[/u][/b]: None
[*][b][u]Learning Curve[/u][/b]: Easy, once you know that the game has bugs that closing and re-loading will fix.
[*][b][u]Replayability[/u][/b]: Medium-Low. There are multiple endings, but again - the translation severely mars everything past the first five minutes.
[*][b][u]Recommended Purchase Price[/u][/b]: On sale for $1 at most in its current state. If it ever gets re-translated and bugs are fixed, the $1.99 price tag is fine.
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