Hydrofoil Surfing

all bug no game

[b]Update:[/b] the latest build seemingly destroyed the performance of the game, so even though I somewhat enjoyed the original build, the game is now unplayable on my end. Original review below: .............................................................................................. This would not be so bad if the game didn't release in such a poor state because of the small but very impactful problems, not to mention that all achievements are disabled at the time of me writing this. Like I understand that you probably went to sleep, but you should be more active near the release. Also, what in the world did you map the "exit stage" to? I pressed every key on the keyboard and I have to ALT+F4 every time I want to leave. It's a bit charming in a very flawed kind of way, feels like a vaporwave surfing game with some unlocks like extra maps and characters, assuming you can tolerate some obvious problems with poor respawn locations which sometimes locks you in place. I am usually not nitpicky on default controls, but damn SIR, you literally need 3 hands if you want to see where you going, was there really no better way to do it? Use the mouse buttons or something. It can be a bit tricky to learn how to play, but it's not too difficult. You can pretty much do a full range of directional tricks and combine them together, such as backflips, frontflips, 360+ rotations, and adding additional elements to them. Now that I think about it, kinda reminds me of those dirt bike games, similar idea. That is pretty much the entire game, just a surfing sandbox with unlocks and various metric goals. I forgot the name, but there was another surfing game very similar to this, not sure what happened to it, I recall it being unplayable, you not the same person are you. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) Has some map/board/character unlocks (+) Nice goofy vaporwave vibes (+) You can spin the tricks in pretty much any direction and combine them [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] Quality of Life:[/u] - Fix achievements, not a single one works - You need to map EXIT level to ESC. Assuming there is even a way - Consider a manual way to respawn the player at the front of the waves (start of the level), like a button press maybe, perhaps with a time penalty if you want - You know if you would also map half the tricks to the mouse I could see where I am going - The camera respawn can lock you up, so you need a way to reset position, also maybe make it easier to use the back of the waves. BTW, maybe clean up the first story map, it feels like it's a mess with cameras and map artifacts [b] Overall Thoughts: 5/10 [/b] It's just a silly sandbox surfing with some silly unlocks, would not be a bad time killer if those things are fixed. $10 though, ehh, should be a lot more polished than that. Overall I still find it kinda neat, I like the full range of rotation and just how goofy the game is overall. Maybe wait for a patch. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

I wanted to like this game. I thought it looked super interesting as this low poly weird aquatic Tony Hawk style game. But the game just does not want you to enjoy it. The BIGGEST problem is the camera. It has nothing but contempt for your attempts to see anything. Any manual adjustments to the camera throw it careening around the screen and unable to focus on what you need. If you leave it to one of the 4 auto cameras, the view cannot follow you fast enough to actually be useful. Turning toward the camera just has you riding into the camera, preventing you from seeing where you're going. I took to having to go multiple waves out before turning so that the camera had enough time to circle around and let me see what I wanted to focus on again. Not to mention, it just bugs out and will zoom out further and further away, leaving you a little spec on the screen. Gameplay kinda works, issues with the camera not withstanding, but the feedback is so obtuse. While there is a speed indicator on the screen, it seems detached from reality. It would feel like I would slow down to a crawl, but the on screen number was still the same. The speed was also an issue with jumps. It felt impossible to do large spins. Getting a 720 was a harrowing endeavor and I don't even think it's possible to do a 1080. I don't see how you could get enough height for that. The level objectives are bland. It's way too easy to get your high scores, so that never feels like an accomplishment, and the only other goals that are "interactive" are the same Gap the Rocks and Hunt the Seagull. The game NEEDS variety in what the game wants you to accomplish. And some levels are just not made to be played. Micronesia is one egregious example of a level getting in the way of itself, where small waves make it hard to focus, and the crisscrossing land barriers make it hard to navigate. When I'm trying to focus on the objectives given and the game keeps throwing me off my board because of a rock that was covered half a second ago, I just want to stop playing. The LOL Random elements take away from the experience as a whole. The forklift is so obnoxious, and you'll find yourself pulling it out accidently and falling all the way to the bottom of the level before you can get out of it. And then trying to get back up and start surfing again takes so much time, it just lets me strew in the fact that I'm not playing the main loop for longer. The outside areas add nothing. I never felt the desire to go and get off my board and explore the surrounding areas. That didn't seem fun, and especially not when the issues with camera and movement were still present in the forklift. I feel that the time spent making those areas could have been spent on polishing the core loop. Again, I WANTED to like this. The music is fantastic, the art direction is goofy and fun. If it controlled well, I could see this as a great game to jump into whenever I just wanted to kill some time and mess around catching some waves. But the core issues of the game are a deal breaker. Not even including all the bugs. Achievements still don't work and I'm hesitant to think they ever will. Maybe after a truckload of patches the game could be fun. But for now avoid it at all costs.

The aesthetics of this game look awesome and the music is great. The game itself doesn't want to be played. The controls are horrible to play with on both keyboard and a controller. As far as I can tell you cannot rebind them. There also doesn't seem to be a way to actually close the game other than using alt+tab to get out of it and close the window itself.