Desert Child

Предельно концептуальный симулятор жизни гонщика на ховербайках, двигающегося тернистыми путями к вершине успеха на фоне проспектов и переулков марсианского мегаполиса. Под нетривиальный грув [b]Desert Child[/b] погружает в будни талантливого хаслы-андердога, который в погоне за кэшем балансирует между выпасом кенгуру, гонками и криминалом, а в перерывах мучается выбором: испытать желудок на прочность сомнительного вида закусками у лоточника, потратиться на миску горячей лапши или же и вовсе раскошелиться на сочную пиццу и пару бокалов вина? Это круто: [list] [*]Добрую половину атмосферы всей игры делает великолепно подобранная музыка. Местный саундтрек - это любовная ода той самой изысканной части андеграунда, которая смешивает в себе lo-fi hip-hop, синтовое звучание, фанковые сэмплы и даже немного джаза. Важность этой составляющей аутентично подчёркнута даже тем, что на одной из улочек можно найти магазин с виниловыми пластинками, покупка которых пополняет вашу фонотеку, звучащую во время передвижений по городу. Как говорится, собери их всех! [*]Пиксель-арт слегка схематичен, но даже при таком визуале нельзя не отметить внимательную проработку внешнего вида всего и вся. Марс в [b]Desert Child[/b] обладает своей собственной эстетикой и причудливой культурой, в которой сошлись ближневосточные рынки, афро-трущобы, типично западные небоскрёбы, а также пестрящие тут и там японские иероглифы. Каждая локация при этом подаётся с совершенно иной перспективы, что добавляет знакомству с местными видами солидной кинематографичности. [/list] Ни себе ни людям: [list] [*]Игре отчаянно не хватает лора. Окружение, архитектура, технологии - всё здесь буквально кричит о том, что этот мир живёт по весьма интересным правилам, но единственное, что даёт нам разработчик, это возможность пару десятков раз купить местную газету, которая в реальном времени рассказывает о судебных дрязгах корпоратов. [*]Объёма не хватает и мегаполису. Он необычен и красив, но в то же время статичен и не имеет лица. А всё из-за того, что все немногочисленные локации в нём подвязаны под гриндовые точки интереса. На заднем плане видны интересные районы, но попасть туда невозможно. Побочных квестов нет. Даже пара-тройка интересных NPC с фриковыми диалогами спасла бы ситуацию, но нет. Город при всём его колорите вышел каким-то номинальным. А ведь это колонизированный терраформированный Марс! [/list] Это не круто: [list] [*]Гоночные соревнования здесь представлены в виде сайд-скроллера с препятствиями. Ховербайк главного героя несётся вправо, а игрок может контролировать только дистанцию от камеры, стрелять в дроны с бонусами или же таранить их боком, а также периодически прожимать ускорение, если только персонаж не слишком оголодал. И проблема даже не в том, что ощущается это как флэш-игра, а в том, что всё это практически ни на что не влияет. Соперника не получится оставить позади, продемонстрировав скилл, ведь он намертво приклеен к рамкам экрана. Финиш появляется из ниоткуда, так что смысл что-то предпринимать появляется лишь на последних пяти секундах гонки. Рейтинг с бонусами в конце зависит не столько от первенства, сколько от количества уничтоженных дронов. Прокачка байка почти не ощущается. Гран-При в финале, к которому шёл герой, вообще выглядит как насмешка: противники резко становятся непрерывно газующими читерами, которые способны унестись за пределы экрана, заставляя героя глотать пыль, а у финишной черты игра вдруг рандомно сообщит, что вы победили. Проще говоря, ни гонок как таковых, ни работающих механик, ни баланса. [*]Чем дольше играешь, тем явственнее осознаёшь, что весь игровой процесс [b]Desert Child[/b] сводится к нещадному фарму денег, которые и потратить-то особо некуда. Абсолютно все активности здесь выглядят как заезды, в которых меняются лишь спрайты и фон. Изредка в них пытаются поставить какую-нибудь новую задачу, но от одной половины этих задач клонит в сон, а суть другой половины никто даже не пояснит. После получения гонорара вы отстегнёте часть средств на еду, починку байка, а затем неспешным шагом отправитесь повторять схему. И так раз за разом. [/list] [b]Desert Child[/b] - стильная игра-эксперимент. В некотором роде даже игра-настроение. Однако, эти полутона, скорее, работают игре в минус. Она могла бы получиться куда более яркой и захватывающей, если бы больше старалась быть именно игрой, а не зарисовкой, поскольку в результате в игре про гонки как раз сами гонки реализованы хуже всего остального, а цепляющий в первые часы вайб быстро скатывается в репетативную погоню за валютой в рамках примитивного гринда. В общем, лучше зацените саундтрек.

[h1] Pixelated arcade racing game with interesting aesthetics and retro like atmosphere. Game have side view perspective. Controls are ok for the most part. You boost and fire your weapons to get those coins and to fill up the nitro gauge while avoiding obstacles. Goal is to win the race with your AI opponent. Keep in mind that you can't pause game during the race - it's prohibited! Music is ok and sounds a bit crunchy. You can eat ramen or repair your bike between the races. Collect parts and upgrade your machine in order to have handicap. Story is set in the future and based around some dude trying to get to the next planet to win more races. Worthwhile some of your spare time but don't expect too much. [/h1]

Eu poderia passar um bom tempo aqui citando os defeitos de Desert Child, defeitos esses que ofuscam um pouco do brilho deste game, no entanto seus pontos altos me trazem um sentimento dúbio diante desta obra. A saga de um jovem rapaz com o sonho de fugir da terra em busca de uma nova vida, seguindo rumo ao seu estrelato como um corredor de motos é cativante. É fascinante acompanhar a jornada do protagonista para além das corridas, desde precisar fazer bicos como entregador de pizza até se envolver com o crime para arcar com sua jornada. Eis aí um dos pontos mais altos de Desert Child, andar pelas ruas de uma marte marginalizada, conhecendo cada uma das esquinas desse lugar, ilustradas com uma pixel art de tanto esmero, onde cada lugar reflete suas inspirações fundamentais em Cowboy Beebop é fascinante. Sua trilha sonora corrobora com essa experiência de maneira vital, composta dos mais diversos gêneros, como jazz, lofi e rap, eis uma trilha que me fará companhia para além do jogo. No entanto, em contraponto ao seu lado estético que tenta segurar o game, o seu lado mecânico lhe afunda, tendo em vista que as corridas são seu ponto mais fraco. É sempre a mesma coisa e seu resultado parece não depender da habilidade do jogador. Foi realmente desafiador zerar esse game, não pela sua dificuldade, mas pelo quão difícil de palatar é sua jornada nas pistas. Desert Child ao final foi uma experiência um tanto quanto cansativa, mesmo tendo uma curta duração, eu acabei desistindo dele 3 vezes até tomar vergonha na cara e decidir zerar ele. No entanto, sua atmosfera, seu mundo e sua jornada ficarão guardadas para sempre em minha memória. Eu escolhi absorver oque tinha de melhor nesse jogo, tolerar suas dificuldades e experenciar uma linda obra visual que Desert Child é. Ao final, valeu a pena, sua arte me cativa e me inspira, no entanto não sou capaz de recomendar esse jogo sem ressalvas antes.

"Style over substance" is so true with this game, the art direction and soundtrack are awesome but the actual gameplay is very shallow and boring Once you've completed your first race it's just going to be that same loop over and over to grind for the next part of the game, unfortunately the racing isn't all that interesting or mechanically dense so it grows tired very quickly and the characters you interact with between money grinding have no real personality The only reason I have 6 hours in this game is because I left it running when I went to the gym, I put the game down after about 4 or 5 races because it's just not fun. This concept would do better as an animated short than a game

Nope. Slow, boring, main gameplay is lost in a very bad decision to make the game a slog. Is there meant to be a story-based game? It's too boring and slow. Is this meant to be an action racing-shooter? Very little reward, and difficulty/gameplay is bad. Stay away.

this is a vibe over a game. i'm not quite sure what is being aimed for here, but i'd still recommend a cautious look. there's not much meat on the bones of the actual, more gameplay-heavy part of the game (the racing) and my impression is that they wanted to build an interesting world, but i think this would fall flat for most people.

This feels more like an art project than a game. While its art is consistently well made, it has way too many game design flaws, leaving players wondering what they are supposed to be doing. First of all, you are dropped into a tutorial-like screen, where you are introduced to do the core mechanics: walk (extremely slowly), race, fix your vehicle, eat and sell energy cores... except that selling cores is not really something you will be doing a lot (the major influx of cash comes from other activities). Now onto the racing aspect, which is supposed to be the 'main' mechanic. The objects appear at random positions, and you have very little time to react. You are supposed to destroy the TVs (why TVs? no context, or whatsoever) to get some boost, ammo and cash. You should use your boost to get ahead and win the race. Yet, it feels that the player has little to no agency, and that winning is very luck reliant. This is due to the fact that the enemies are hard rubberbanded. Keep in mind that there is no in-game reference to what you are explained in the quick mini-tutorial that happens on the first race, so if you don't understand something, good luck trying to figure it out later. But fear not: the developers added a FAQ that explains everything... to their website. After a couple of wins the player is sent to the main map, which contains multiple interconnected screens. This map's design is probably the worst I have ever seen. The idea seems to be to showcase the art design, by showing each scene from a different perspective, which, in theory, can be interesting; however, this makes it so much harder (really) to get acquainted with the paths. Every day you start at the same location, which is usually quite far from where you want to go (remember the bad map design, and sluggish character movement). It would be extremely convenient to have fast travel here; however (and this is just speculation on my end), in order to keep the police mechanics relevant, you are forced to walk everywhere. Again, design problems being 'solved' with bad solutions for the sake of the style. Speaking of police, there does not seem to exist any warning that it will appear while roaming the map, so you end up having to keep your money in the bank at all times to avoid risking it all. After all, you will likely fail to escape the police when racing it, as the racing aspect of the game is so poorly designed. The user interface has a couple of duplicate values, and understanding your notoriety level is not intuitive due to the poor UI. I will list some other examples of how very inconvenient the UI is: - In order to run the grand prix, you have to withdraw $10000; however, the bank UI only allows withdrawing/depositing either $10 or everything at a time. This means that to avoid running into the random cops and losing it all, you have to click withdraw 1000x. This is insanity. - If you make a mistake when placing your energy cores, you can only fix it by removing all cores, and placing them again - When you enter the race screen, it is written 'race chill'. These words are so close together that I managed to win the GP before understanding that they were 2 different buttons, and you could click to 'chill'. To sum it up, it was the worst 'pretty' (I don't like the art here, but I can understand the appeal) game I have ever played.

The aesthetic is extremely nice. But as a shmup racing game, this is very boring. The control scheme was also very obtuse and bad at communicating how to do simple actions.

19 minutes was all it took to know this game is trash

As a purely mechanical experience, I'm not quite sure I can recommend Desert Child. The core gameplay loop (hoverbike racing) is fun enough, but also fairly simple, and while the bike customization options add some much needed depth to it, it can't stop it from getting a little repetitive, especially given how much you need to grind in order to progress. With that said, i don't think you play Desert Child for the mechanics, I think you play it for the vibe: You play it because you like the artstyle, the music and the general aesthetic it's going for. You play it because you wanna walk around the streets of Mars, hitting up your favorite eateries, fuzzing around with your bike, getting up to no good. Racing's technically the focus of the game, but at least for me, after a while, it really took a backseat to going about my day to day in this cool, interesting and colorful town. With that said, while the content here is extremely compelling, I do wish there was more of it. The environments are a joy to look at, but you spend long enough in them that they become monotonous. Maybe this wouldn't be a huge deal if you had various interesting ways to interact with the NPCs, but most of them act as pretty straight-forward vendors. Even something as simple as varied, randomized dialogue would help a lot with keeping the interactions fresh, but as is, after a while, I started seeing them as menus to get through instead of characters, which is a shame for a game with so much character to brag about. Also, I know asking for extra features from indie games is a bit gauche, and I understand things like different outfits for the PC or visual customization for the bike might be out of the dev's reach, but even something as simple as being able to pick out which track is playing while I'm walking around the overworld would've done a lot for me. With that said, I'm still going to hit recommend on this, because while I think a lot of people will understandably bounce at the lack of substance, the people for whom the game's style hits will find that it hits hard, and scratches an itch not a lot of other games can. Here's hoping the dev gets to build on the ideas we're seeing here with future games.