Ben Lunato has a talent for making walking simulators with relatable narrative and intriguing visuals, I think he does it better than a lot of the $20 games in this genre, but the scale and technical limitations of those games are completely understandable. I played a couple of his indie games that generally work as short aesthetic experiences, and even though they may lack in content, they always have an emotional impact on me. I will say that I didn't enjoy this game as much, mainly because I found the environment a little hard on the eyes, often causing me to walk in circles and backtrack to previous locations, unsure where the next event was - not to mention getting stuck on invisible artefacts. If this was like a $10 game I would say it's probably not worth it, but luckily Ben prices his games dirt cheap, so I would recommend this strange journey if you enjoy a psychological experience.
This game takes about an hour or so to complete, with some of the events being optional so you should fully explore the island to get the full experience. As far as the gameplay goes, you just walk up to different structures and listen to the monologue with occasional teleports for playable cutscenes. I love the voice acting in his games, I just find it very cool how resourceful some of these indie devs can get. The actual writing is really good, it's not meant to be hilarious but it always is, there is just something really funny about the insane roasting going on in Ben's games (loved that part with the 'shopping list' lol). However, this time around I didn't find the game visually striking as some of the previous titles, there were a few neat ideas with the animation, some of which could be missed if you looked the wrong way, but the black&white aesthetic did not work for me this time, I thought the last game you released was a lot more compelling in that regard.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
+ fun narrative - sad, hilarious and deep
+ admittedly homebrew voice acting, but you make it work
+ some cool psychological visuals to explore
+ not sure if that last song was made for the game, very beautiful
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
[u] Hard on the eyes & Confusing Navigation [/u] - Personally, if I am playing a game in this genre, I am simply looking for that narrative and visual spectacle, I don't need or desire anything else, so when I find myself in a situation where I am trying to figure out where the next point of interest is, it doesn't add anything to the game aside from just ruining its pacing. Now don't get me wrong, it's perfectly fine to have some optional exploration but if you do that, I think you should remove any unnecessary areas, then you end up with players getting stuck in some holes trying to navigate. Also, if your walking simulator is not funnelled and perhaps confusing, sometimes people don't finish your games - those blurry effects that you use sometimes Ben to blind me, I still don't like them no matter what the context is.
For example, I think if you just designed the Island with a bit more visual clarity I think it would make for a lot better game, maybe if you observed it from elevation and descended with clearly visible locations, as opposed to having a partially hidden path behind some rocks in blurry forest.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 [/b]
I love indie devs that try to create a unique psychological experience, developers like Rail_Slave, Arkhouse and now Ben Lunato as well - with a particular talent for narrative. Frankly, I can easily see Ben making something like Firewatch or Virginia, his games have a story to tell just as compelling, but maybe they are less accessible and perhaps look gimmicky in comparison. I do think 'Beyond Crimson Stars' was significantly better paced and designed, and it had a lot more going on, so while I enjoyed this game, I don't think it was nearly as good as Ben is capable of.
[code] Review by: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
