Distortions

Distortions A visual and audible treat with an interesting and memorable story, unfortunately marred by stability issues. Curator Info: [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7871885/]Follow our curator page:[b] OCG-Curations[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [h1]Overview[/h1] Distortions is an adventure/puzzle game set in a beautiful but strange world of memories where you reminisce about past relationships and try to overcome your demons. With the help of your violin you begin to piece back the memories you have lost and navigate the strange and wonderful environment. [h1]Game Breakdown[/h1] The game has three large chapters and should take around 10-13 hours to complete. I have seen walkthrough videos completing it in 5.5 hours though. There are quite a few puzzles in the game which can be solved using the ability of music. The main character has lost her memory and as she progresses through the story she remembers that she can play the violin. As she plays the violin the world is affected in different ways by her playing. The land begins to change in good and bad ways. As she continues her journey she remembers parts of her memory and acquires special powers which she can use by playing certain notes on her violin. Special abilities include a protection song which helps make you invulnerable for a few seconds; a barrier song which can stop evil things attacking you or hold back falling objects; a bridge song which can help you cross large gaps and a force song which can move objects out of the way. To use any of these abilities you must play the correct notes in the right order for the right amount of time. Throughout the world are scattered journal notes which help you remember your past and also guide you in solving puzzles. There are also white apples which you can collect that give you extra health which you can use when in trouble. [u]Gameplay:[/u] 🕹️ The gameplay is the weakest element to the game. The controller is far too sensitive which makes navigating narrow ledges and tight gaps frustrating, and the camera angles are sometimes bizarre. This sends your character jumping or running in the wrong direction. At times I was pressing down on the controller to go forward and visa versa. These moments are fleeting though and you soon get used to the situation and what you need to do. To be fair the game is programmed with a keyboard and mouse in mind so a controller is just an added feature. I found in the main that a controller was fine but in a couple of instances with very narrow ledges I switched to keyboard to complete. The way the game saves your progress is a bit annoying. Throughout the game there are small caves where you can save your progress. At the moment this is the only place you can save your game and then load. If you die whilst playing the game you usually spawn pretty close to where you died but if you quit the game it will load the game from the last cave. Be careful and mindful when quitting the game. I think this would be fine but due to some stability issues throughout the game I did experience the odd crash which sent me back to the last cave. I had to complete the scene again. I have spoken to the developer about this and he is very keen to help. He spent a few hours going through logs and bug reports trying to find the issues I was experiencing and offered me a save game. The crashes did not appear to be fatal every time though and with perseverance I did manage to navigate through the places where it crashed the second time. It appears that some people do experience crashes and some people do not. Although annoying at the time I am still glad that I didn’t give up and miss out on such a wonderful game. The developer is very willing to take on suggestions and has agreed to look at adding more save places. The main mechanic in the story is your violin. You have free play where you play the notes as you like or you use your violin to cast powerful abilities. Pressing and holding RB brings out your violin. Pressing up, left, right on your d-pad and the B button plays the notes. The notes you need to play are quite easy and you won’t have much difficulty in getting the notes right. The process is a lot like a very basic Rocksmith where you press the corresponding direction button when the cursor is over the note. [u]Story:[/u] The story is where this game really shines. If you can look past the minor irritations of joystick controls and crashes then you will be rewarded with a well told and memorable story. The story probably means different things to different people and I imagine it can be interpreted in lots of different ways. Love, loss, regret, fear are all explored in very unusual ways aided by a strange narrator in a mask. Who is he? Can she remember her forgotten memories and let go of the past? The story is told very well through action scenes within the game and then cut scenes. The art style is beautiful and very unusual. I really enjoyed the ending to the game. [u]Sound:[/u] 🎵 The sound is amazing. I suppose when you build a game around music it is important to have a good soundtrack. This game certainly does not disappoint. From great wind and special effects to the haunting soundtrack played at key moments. It all adds to the emotion and ambience. At moments of high tension and danger the sound is used to create a sense of panic and horror. At some points the music got louder and louder and louder until I had to turn it down. It’s all there to create an effect though and it worked. [u]Graphics:[/u] 📺 Stunning graphics. The scenery is amazing and it has the best cloud and water effects I have seen in a game. I just liked looking at the suns reflection in the water as the yellow glow bobbed up and down with the waves. It was beautiful. The creatures were excellently drawn and the movement was very realistic. The visuals are a huge plus for the game. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] I loved this game. It was original, unusual, sensitive and scary in places. The excellent graphics and sound created a wonderful environment to explore and solve puzzles in. I’m glad I stuck with the game and replayed the sections that crashed. It was annoying but well worth the effort. It’s such a shame the stability issues exist as I would have quite easily given it a 9 without them. [u]Pros:[/u] 👍 Amazing visual treat Wonderful soundtrack and special effects Memorable storyline with unusual and original ideas [u]Cons:[/u] 👎 Controller movement is too sensitive and hard to keep character running in a straight line or navigating thin ledges. Stability issues especially on chapter 2 for me. Had a few crashes during the game.

An interesting premise. Reminds me of games like Remember Me and Hellblade. Beautiful art and music design. Terrible Camera: It variously jumps from first person to top down, to Resident Evil style Camera switching to side-scrolling. This is all touted as a feature but in its current state, it is very much a bug. I haven't gotten very far into the story yet because the tutorial alone is about 45 minutes. Might be a tad expensive in its current state. https://youtu.be/fNRsJ6oHkSg

[b]Distortions[/b] сюрреалистическое приключение-платформер, где музыка является основным инструментом для исследования мира, состоящего из обломков памяти. Мы играем за девушку, потерявшую воспоминания, и с помощью скрипки собираем воедино картину прошлого в мире парящих скал и бескрайних океанов https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3649494570 [b]Плюсы[/b] * Уникальная художественная задумка и атмосфера: игра представляет собой интерактивную поэму о памяти, потере и принятии. Сюрреалистичный мир из парящих скал, руин и бескрайних вод завораживает своей монументальной, меланхоличной красотой * Великолепный саундтрек и звуковой дизайн: музыка — это душа игры. Саундтрек идеально передаёт настроение и создаёт мощное, гипнотическое погружение * Глубокий и многослойный сюжет: история, рассказанная через метафоры, фрагменты дневника и встречи с загадочными существами, предлагает пространство для личной интерпретации * Новаторская механика игры на скрипке: использование музыки для создания мостов, барьеров или взаимодействия с миром — это свежая и красивая идея, которая является сердцем геймплея [b]Минусы[/b] * Отсутствие русского языка * Катастрофическое состояние геймплея: физика персонажа «скользит», прыжки непредсказуемы, а камера бесконтрольно меняет ракурсы в самые напряжённые моменты, что превращает игру в борьбу с управлением * Технические проблемы: наличие багов (падения сквозь текстуры, застревания) и неудобная система сохранения (только в определённых пещерах) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3648663257 [b]Вердикт[/b] Амбициозный художественный эксперимент, доказывающий, что игры могут быть искусством. Её техническое несовершенство меркнет перед масштабом замысла и силой воздействия. Эта игра оставляет после себя не просто воспоминания, а глубокое ощущение меланхоличного, прекрасного и абсолютно уникального путешествия ✔️ Понравится, если вы цените в играх уникальную атмосферу, поэтичный сюрреализм и художественные амбиции и готовы проявить терпение к техническим недостаткам ✖️ Не для вас, если вы цените в первую очередь стабильную работу, точное управление и полированный геймплей

[h1][b]”Despite of design flaws, Distortion is unique ride of remembering and music”[/b][/h1] Indie games always come up with something we used to like or overlook with unique settings. It’s a reason I want to support their idea and share to the others. Distortion is a story-driven adventure developed by Brazilian team which caught my attention last year, not by graphics, but musical gameplay and settings. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Coexisting Worlds[/h1] Distortion brings your adventure to unparalleled world. You play a girl wakes up in imaginary place who suffers from amnesia. The only way is to explore and fine fragment of memory from each place and journals. The world of Distortion lives up to its name. It’s surreal, mystery, and connects to event of girl’s past by real-world entities. Yet, it has breathtaking landscape from broken bridge to sky tower built around shaped stones. As you advanced through the story, you will encounter giant masked creature that hold the secret of this world and the violin as the girl learns the power of music to shape up the world. With powerful intro, the story becomes intriguing as the game lets player to learn backstory from environment and set of messages as piece of memories. It’s quite interesting and can be interpreted in different meanings even though it can be confusing at a time and lack of proper to explanation to some players. It still keeps me engaging from memorable scenes to the finale. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Adventure of Lone Musician[/h1] The gameplay is involved around exploration, power-based puzzle, and chasing sequence. As musician, your main tool is old violin use for solving puzzle. You explore the area and gain access to power for unlocking another area. Using power is very simple, you equip violin and press/hold on correct note (Do, Re, Mi, Fa). Each power has fixed preset and effectiveness based on your play. It’s not hard and easy to master compared to most rhythm games. There are not much of power types due to simple design of puzzle and platforming. Moreover, you can also play freely or specific note to trigger story event. You will later encounter shadow creatures. They will chase and attack you in certain area and chase sequence. It forces to use approach carefully for exit route and use noise power to avoid detection. Some can be bit tricky and require almost perfect timing where you need to use multiple powers to escape. Luckily, the checkpoints are forgiving, but don’t forget to manually save the progress in cave spot before quit the game. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Shaped up by Melody[/h1] The sound designs are quite good and play accordingly to environment. For example; the gusts sound on high ground and indoor echo in water cave. In contrast, shadow creature sounds are terrified and disturbing in good way. There might be some big drop when the action affects various prop and environment and weird audio cut. The original soundtrack is very well composed. It’s charming, powerful, and motivated to keep the feel of wondering and travel despite of looping in long sequence. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Stumble in Gap of Darkness[/h1] Although, Distortion has great visual design and interesting gameplay, but technical problems and flawed design can drive some people off. The problems are inconsistent and subjective that some might experience game-breaking bug or crash with certain action. It doesn’t happen in my playthrough, but visual and animation bugs can be visually annoying. For example, the game accidentally drop player during moving platform causes player stuck in loop animation or movement glitches due to geometry design and stiff animation. Transition between sequence (cutscene > third-person) can prevent player movement for few second, this becomes worse when you are in middle of chase sequence. The game also lacks visual guidelines in some areas (especially where you encounter shadow creatures). With timing and lack option of defense, you are mostly overcame by swarm and blindly forced to do trial and error which is frustrating. --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Performance[/h1] I found the game run quite solid and optimized on my 7 years old hardware with max settings. The game uses dead engine called c4 Engine (probably personal build). It shows impressive render of terrain and keep details from far distance. Unfortunately, it has few frames drop in some area due to amount of additional effects, no option to tone down bloom, and many unpolished levels (floating foliage/trees). --------------------------------------------------------- [h1]Verdict[/h1] In my opinion, Distortion is not a bad game; it’s quite above an average adventure for 7-10 hours experience. It’s ambitious project with many interesting elements, but it requires more testing and polish. If you’re interested in surreal adventure game despite of design flaws, I could give this game a try as it rewards you with powerful consequence and idea about life. [quote][i]If you found this review helpful, please consider and give a thumb up or feedback to improve my review[/i][/quote]

In Distortions, the good and bad moments mix up so strongly that when one is happening it totally overshadows the other. It is easy to notice that the conception of the story, the script, the dialogues, the creation of the universe, the message, both the main and the small texts scattered throughout the world, was written by someone wich writes well and has excellent ideas. The game in its history is interesting from beginning to end, it does not lose pace, it keeps catching all the time, with absolutely incredible moments like the Museum. The language, the metalanguage, the concepts, and the psychology behind all of its history (which may even be interpreted as an allegory of something deeper) are absolutely fantastic. Aesthetically the game is also wonderful, the surreal elements applied in the nature of mountains, caves, and lots of water give a simply unique aesthetic quality, in several moments of the game you NEED to stop and observe the scenery, it is clear that the care with this part was great, each stone floating, each mountain shape, each irregular path was beautifully done, visually this game is a rejoice to the eyes. Some moments (thankfully few) you need to escape from "shadows", the creatures that inhabit this "world" are aggressive and try to kill you if you get too close, the idea is not so bad (but would not be bad if it did not exist) but the mechanics of this situation are so ridiculously poorly made that it seems to us that the game makers did not bother to play these parts, and I do not say this because it's a difficult part, King Dice in Cuphead is difficult, Nightmare King Grimm in Hollow Knight is difficult, the shadows in Distortions are only unbalanced, poorly timed and very problematic on the controls. They hit on choosing to put a few moments with these creatures, but these few moments are so frustrating that he can put himself in a position to completely ruin such an incredible game. A game concerned with aesthetics and message does not have to be something difficult to be memorable, it would be no problem none if it was, since control, programming and balancing were well done. And the biggest and worst part of all is, undoubtedly, the final escape of the monster that besides having all these problems (even more problematic) still has something extremely annoying that, in scape, you have in several moments the camera changing angle, which makes the control get totally messy which makes you get caught by pure programming problem. I find it sad that I can not recommend a game as unique and captivating as this, but I would feel bad for getting people to go through some bad experiences in it (note that I'm completely ignoring the bugs I've seen a lot of people complaining about). I do not know if it is possible, but if they did an update fixing these issues would be fantastic, be able to recommend and revisit this game. To be able to walk for hours through such beautiful scenery without thinking of the discouragement that is the part that the shadows appear. Even if they relaunched the game by changing ONLY these questions, I would definitely buy, because fixing the defects that so much damage a work of art like this one is not at all shameful, on the contrary, it is putting the game at a very high level.

Game is completely unplayable as all mentioned commands are not working. On the discussions, dev is giving an incredible complex solution that I do not know how to do it. Blaming Windows for not working commands. Strange thing about this explanation is that Windows is only doing this for his game and not for any other game. Sounds like BS to me. Hopefully this game gets fixed as it looks beautifull. DO NOT BUY untill it gets fixed as you will only be able to walk a little bit. All other commands as open note book, run, get violin etc don't work so you will not be able to progress at all.

Gameplay from 1997's Resident Evil 1 but done much worse. Story and graphics 8/10 Gameplay -10/10 is almost unplayable. Would you recommend this game? NO.

I am baffled at how this can come to be on Steam and how some people call it "game" and give it positive reviews. First of all, this isn't a game. The amount of issues I encounter is so vast that this can only be classified as a project, a concept, something that is a work-in-progress and has barely reached the alpha stage. Don't let the positive reviews for it fool you, there is no game here, all you are going to see are cut-scenes and 3D environments full of assets that serve no purpose. + (There are no positives so moving to negatives so you can get an all-around idea what this is.) - Animations are bad, unnatural, they clip through everything. - Visuals are appalling. All the people claiming they are "amazing", top-notch", "stunning" must have never seen an actual game in their lives except for League of Legends or Fortnite. Proper lighting and shadows are almost non-existent, they are essential for building a game that relies heavily on visuals. Textures are super-low res in many places. Colors are off and weird, especially when all other effects are awful or non-existent. Background and scenery(like mountains rivers etc.) - I can't even find words to describe how awkward and unattractive they look, clouds, distant objects, trees, water and all sorts of details suffer from constant fade-ins and fade-outs, there are no shadows even, there way too much blur, bloom and lens flares it hurts, turning them off makes the game look even worse if you can even imagine that. You can see the universal skybox surrounding the environment, mountains and everything floating above it, ground disappearing often. Another aspect of the visuals that is a huge turn-off is the main character as well, animation are so out-of-place and wacky but not in a good sense, - Sound effects and music are out-of-place, the volume differs from section to section, the music itself makes absolutely no sense in the sections where its being used. Music is essential to create an atmosphere and impact on you in something like this and here it does absolutely nothing, it's being used just for the sake of being used so there is music so you don't play in complete silence. I won't be surprised if it's copyrighted music(used illegally) or some royalty-free music you can get off of youtube. Not saying the music itself is bad, it's nice to listen to, relaxing, it just doesn't fit anywhere at all. - Story is essential in something like this and the way it's being presented is absolutely confusing and a trope(not even done properly), 2 people talking, you don't know what they are talking about and you don't actually care, their conversation doesn't go anywhere to capture your interest and make you want to know what's going on. It's a generic conversation, with terrible voice acting, which only implies that the female model, that you are controlling and is supposed to be the main character, is mentally challenged and sees weird ♥♥♥♥ everywhere. The story makes no sense, it's dull and you forget about it the moment you exit. - Controls are wacky, mouse movements are not smooth, and camera moves on its own in some places or you are forced to play using a fixed camera. The puzzles(if you can call them that) are there just for the sake of being there or there wouldn't be any gameplay in the game, just walking around collecting objects that have no meaning to them. - Physics are terrible but not in a good sense. Jumping, climbing clips through textures, sometimes they don't even work in places where you clearly should be able to use them. Objects, like rocks, metal structures and whatever, are randomly flying off, moving and doing whatever while you walk around them or even when you look at them from a distance. - Cut-scenes, oh yes the cut-scenes, cannot be skipped, you are forced to watch "B-movie"(for the lack of a better term) cut-scenes. Most of them are always about zooming-out on the section you are in to give you some sort of grand scale, what a trope, not done correctly apparently. They fade-in and fade-out in a strange manner, abruptly cutting you out of the gameplay itself. Some are unnecessary and meaningless. All in all though, the only score I could possible give this is [b]not a game/10[/b]. Do not under any circumstances buy this, it's waste of your money and your time. It's perplexing how at first glance a lot of work went into this yet this is still such a technical mess and not even close to resembling an actual game. And if you decide to troll by saying things like "your opinion is subjective", "you don't know what game and art is", "you need to appreciate the effort", all I can say is I have presented you with facts about this "thing" above and they speak for themselves. You can also notice how some of the positive reviews had the game received for free - they are clearly fake reviews trying to appeal to the game "developer" perhaps others too hoping to get more games for free. Furthermore, I won't name anyone but there is a certain curator who always gives positive reviews on every single game they receive so that more games are being sent to them. This is AGAINST the Steam TOS and just selfish to promoting junk just to appeal to publishers. Such fake reviews must be reported and I do so when I see them. Unfortunately they have build their "communities" with many zombified followers who upvote their fake reviews without thinking. To those who actually bought the game and liked it - well, good for you. But that's like seeing a child having fun playing with a rock or a stick because it doesn't have anything else in their life, can make you sad thinking about it. There is more to gaming than this, literally thousands of other REAL games on Steam, pick any of them. On the flip side when you try to actually read through the positive reviews you come across things like "Reminds me of games like Remember Me and Hellblade." which is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy, I don't know if I should die laughing or use the "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" meme. What I didn't encounter is crashes or freezes or fps drops so there is that. [u]P.S. I will be adding more information to the review later, I don't have the will to do so now. Usually when a game is bad I just write it's bad and give reasons why. In this case though the many positive reviews which clearly describe unrealistic and simply unexisting features and whatnot trigger me. I've seen my share of asset flips and trash on Steam but this is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Nobody in their clear mind can give this a positive review and this is not just my opinion, it's literally a scientific fact. Anyone who actually tried to play this will see that this is more like looking through someone's project in whatever engine this is done, and not playing a game.[/u]

[h1]疑似全男制作组[/h1] 具体可以点击以下文字直达链接 [url=https://www.mobygames.com/game/154368/distortions/credits/windows/?autoplatform=true]Distortions制作组credits链接[/url] 官网：https://www.amonggiantsgames.com/ 官网没有具体成员介绍，只有合照，合照中出现4男1女，但我怀疑这名女士不是制作组成员，而是cos成女主的宣传工作人员。 抛开制作组成分不说，这个游戏也不太行。 [h1]有bug,直接导致卡关没法玩剩下的游戏[/h1] 好久之前玩的了，记不太清。大概是女主要跑到一个山上，我操控女主跑过去，女主直接穿过山的图层掉入云层中，然后game over了。查了游戏实况视频才发现不是我的问题而是存在bug，当时我尝试了退出重进和下载重装也没有修正bug，就懒得继续玩了。 游戏叙事也比较偏向谜语人的那种，大概是女主的男恋人去世了，她拿着男恋人的小提琴战斗的场景大概是克服心中悲痛的具现化？太老套了懒得过多解读，总之不推荐