LOST EMBER

Hoo boy. First negative review. . How is this game even 'very positive'? Where to start. . [h3]Simplified Rundown:[/h3] [b][u]Pro:[/u][/b] * Graphics * Change into decent variety of animals. * Environment is pretty, but still lacking in quite a few areas while exploring. (even saw myself out of map) [b][u]Con:[/u][/b] [list] [*]Story - cliche, way too slow, felt like two different stories half way through then finished awkwardly on a different topic to me. [*]Controls - So wonky. Camera and turn rate is slow/bad. 50% of animals aren't even like their animal in flight/movement. [*]Acting - Loved the voices, bad acting; or really, bad lines they sadly had to say awkwardly. [*]Many spots you can get stuck on looking for 'collectibles', having to reset checkpoint or level to get unstuck. [*]80% of animals are useless or a pain to play as. Bird, fish, & wombat was best ones outta 15 or so animals. [*]90% of animals dont even have a sound or 'action' that the few others do/might have. [*]Music - stops or cuts out -alot-. Idk if bug or on purpose. Either way, it makes exploring boring- especially if animal is silent. It also uses the same music in about every chapter, rather than each having a unique one. Music also doesn't really sound right for the game 50% of time; often feels outta place. [*]Ember knows 'wolf's' name- chooses to still call it 'wolf' all throughout (although yes, ending explains this. I still feel it woulda been best he said the name to make you think it. Cause I basically figured out the ending myself before it happened.) [/list] [u]More In-depth:[/u] Honestly, I think I covered most of it already -.-. Overall, the game was great at first. First hour or so, I felt like a wolf running, got to change pretty quickly. But the 'Duck' I think was the second or third animal after, that I started to decline in interest. The duck just doesn't 'fly' like a bird would. The camera was becoming more noticeably annoying to me even with sensitivity up- it'll still slow or speed up randomly in your moving to look around. Music cuts out way too much. The world is beautiful, but at least *some* ambiance or low music woulda been nice. Story had potential. I was invested in the first 1 hr or so. But it gradually declined with the voice acting. Sooo much pausing, overly forced emotion or out of place emotion that often made no since for the 'ember' to say. Not blaming VA as much as just the writer. The flow woulda been better if it was more consistent or frequent. It was close together in some parts, but then others you have to explore or walk a distance to get to next 'tiny bit' of story. Often those bits were better off if just put together. The story alone was going one way, then ended to a random cliche other bit, then came back around to being about 'this' instead? Ugh. Just wanted a unique story it was going, yet then ended on cliche. I honestly just did not care for the game. Of course, im a completionist. And it's an easy game. And i spent money on it.. So gonna get a 100% on it. But then never playing again lol. And I had hoped to be able to enjoy it after as just playing any animal I want freely- but then chapter worlds are too small in some parts to fully stay and enjoy. NOT worth full price at all. Def get on sale if still want to try it. .

I first played this game around when it came out, and came back to it today because of Rekindled. Unfortunately, Rekindled broke my rose-tinted glasses. The only reason I'm reviewing this version instead is because Rekindled is mostly just a graphics upgrade (and a performance [i]downgrade[/i]) and my main gripes were outside of graphics. Note, these devs still accomplished a great feat just by the fact the game exists, and I do have positives, I just want to point out the glaring flaws as well. -There are way too many collectibles. I am no stranger to indie exploration games having enough collectibles to make The Legend of Zelda blush, but [i]142 mushrooms? And no map tracking? The frick-[/i]. Even the 50 lotus flowers in Rekindled's Legendary Souls DLC have no map tracking or any real way of finding them beyond your own eyes, so clearly things haven't changed in 6 years. I originally beat this game long before I became an achievement hunter, but when I tried it again today because of Rekindled, I considered 100%ing it until I saw how many achievements and how many collectibles there were, and after about half an hour running around as the slowest creatures possible I just went 'Yeah I'm not achievement hunting this'. -The game gets very stale very quick, with only a few tiny highlights. I kept playing the parrot level and the final vulture level over and over because they were the only really fun parts of the game, the rest of the game is just a walking simulator (I did like the firefly sequence though). The maps are way too big since they want to encourage possessing creatures and exploring like a sandbox, but even the 'fastest' land creatures are slow as hell to the point that after the parrot level I always dreaded switching back to the wolf or a buffalo. -I really don't like to call acting 'bad' in any project, but yeah...the voice acting ain't great. The plot twist near the end has stuck in my head all these years not because it was good, but because the actor's 'surprised voice' was so bad it has been permanently burnt into my brain. And he's the only voice you hear for 99% of the game so get used to it. -The story is alright, Spirit of the North just does it better though. I legit can't remember any of it since most of the story is 'look at how cool the worldbuilding is' with a splash of a plot twist that is rather obvious. Like, I would write more in this section but I've already struggled a few times trying to recount any information that isn't the plot twist. Granted I played this a long time ago now, but at least I remember a rough outline of the plot for other games I played a similarly long time ago. -The graphics are nice, though after playing Spirit of the North and then coming back to this game in the Rekindled version, the graphics haven't aged well at all, even with an upgrade. Plus Rekindled runs like ass even with my somewhat high specs rig, so now we have dated graphics [i]and[/i] bad frame rate. +The soundtrack is beautifully excellent, but it's trigger/area based so you'll hear the same little jingle from going over the same spot of the map over and over. Normally that's not an issue in indie games but since I was struggling to navigate in Rekindled's DLC I heard the same three soundtracks multiple times to the point I could predict when they started. Aside from that I still have certain songs in my playlist I listen to regularly. +The art style is good, though mostly on the wolf. It's funny, I like how the wolf looks but I still find it kind of an awkward design, and it kinda looks more like a fox in some ways, but it still looks nice and the other animals are good too. The elephants have such tall legs though that it reminds me of the oliphaunts from Lord of the Rings. -[b]Rekindled:[/b] I tagged this one for the remaster because it's a base game mechanic, but it became more of a problem in the remaster's DLC. The game doesn't want you jumping down slightly raised slopes like this is Pokemon, and will respawn you with a black screen on the last 'valid ground' you were on. Normally this isn't an issue, aside from wasting time, but the remaster's DLC has massive cliffs and since the land creatures are so damn slow you will want a parrot at all times. I lost my parrot on the highest part of the map and completely gave up after attempting to take a short cut down with a ram but kept getting kicked back up to the start of the cliff just because I fell slightly too far, and I was not about to spend 20 minutes running across this desert at 5 miles per hour just to get down. Again, I respect this game a lot, but Rekindled has woken me up to the problems it has. Just play Spirit of the North. You can't shapeshift into creatures in that game, but collectibles respect your sanity, there's more engaging puzzles and it runs better. Thanks for reading

[b]Lost Ember[/b] атмосферное интерактивное приключение и настоящий визуальный шедевр, оставляющий сильные впечатления. Мы играем за безымянную душу, которая после смерти переродилась в теле волчицы и не помнит своего прошлого. Встретив одинокий дух-огонька мы вместе отправляемся к Городу Света, где души обретают покой. По пути мы вселяемся в разных животных, находим разбросанные по миру воспоминания и постепенно узнаём трагическую историю о вине, предательстве и надежде на прощение https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3730761064 [b]Плюсы[/b] * Уникальная механика перевоплощения в разных животных. Каждое существо обладает своими способностями, и это дарит огромное удовольствие — главная «изюминка» игры * Красивый и живой мир. Проработанные биомы, от которых захватывает дух — планета ощущается настоящей * Сильный эмоциональный нарратив. Трогательная история о падшей цивилизации, вине, искуплении и надежде раскрывается через диалоги и найденные воспоминания и заставляет задуматься * Расслабляющий и медитативный геймплей. Мы неспешно исследуем мир, находим секреты и слушаем историю * Атмосферная музыка и качественная озвучка. Саундтрек идеально подчёркивает эпичные, грустные и светлые моменты, а английская озвучка главных персонажей на высоком уровне [b]Минусы[/b] * Очень линейный и ограниченный мир. Несмотря на видимый простор, игра жёстко направляет по заданному маршруту * Потенциал перевоплощения раскрыт не полностью. Механика используется в основном для преодоления простых препятствий, а не для сложных взаимодействий с миром. А в облике гуся нельзя летать вверх, из-за чего на пропущенные места уже не вернуться https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3730760692 [b]Вердикт[/b] Если вы хотите полностью погрузиться в другой мир, послушать трогательную историю и на несколько часов забыть о проблемах и снять стресс — эта игра затронет душу. Подойдёт, если вы ценитель визуальной атмосферы, глубокого сюжета, ищете релакс и любите природу. Но разочарует тех, кто не любит линейные игры и ищет открытый мир

不推荐 [spoiler] 整个剧情像阿泰沃这老登的临终幻想，父女情深戏码恶心吐了 [/spoiler] [spoiler] 不是有病吧，这减除为啥能被救赎啊 [/spoiler] [spoiler] 女性主角？其实是老登自我原谅记 [/spoiler] [spoiler] 百合cp？出场就死了 [/spoiler] 除去收藏品，纯粹是个步行模拟器，景色虽然渲染得不错，但也不能细看 而收藏品则是毫无逻辑地散落在极大的地图中，不仅没有起到引导作用，反而强迫玩家绕远路，破坏玩家的游戏体验 大部分过程都比较乏味，有意思的部分都已经在宣传片里了

I liked the exploration, discovering new areas and the beautiful graphics, which was a good thing considering travelling around was mostly what you do. This was like a "walking simulator" adventure except you had different means of locomotion. Possessing the different animals beyond your wolf, including swimming fish and flying birds, was different and original. Lost Ember controlled relatively well with gamepad but not perfectly all the time. Didn't like the voice of the main actress, and that British voice for the spark wasn't the best choice in terms of world logic. Didn't care for the story much at first, but it got way better, even riveting. There were moments of wonder. The music was generally good but not stupendous. At the time I write this, the game was only available bundled with the remastered version, but from what I read, "Rekindled" is basically the same game with better graphics and more demanding system requirements. The game was too expensive for the amount of hours you get out of it (around 4 to 5 hours), but there are collectibles (too many) to encourage replaying. Recommended at 10 bucks or less, maybe 20 if you really like animals and exploring.

the story seems cute, but migraine sufferers and people with other light sensitivity issues beware. there are often plain bright white screens as if you are being flash-banged and they made me feel very ill. the time i was able to play was pleasant other than that

cried a normal amount

Zamanında bedava diyebileceğim bir fiyata aldığım oyunun şuan ki fiyatı biraz üzdü. $14.99 USD fiyata alınmaya değmez dürüst olmak gerekirse. Alırsanız da öyle öldüm, bittim, bayıldım bir oyunda değil. Oynaması keyifli kısa süreli bir hikaye anlatan hoş bir oyun olmuş. Oynamazsanız da emin olun hiç bir şey kaybetmezsiniz. Çerezlik bir fiyata denk getirirseniz alıp deneyimleyebilirsiniz.

genuinely very disappointed by this, looked like a beautiful and calm game going in but the (very large) cracks IMMEDIATELY showed - the camera slows down the faster you move your mouse. genuinely what were they thinking with this? it makes movement and gameplay as a whole incredibly infuriating - controls are stiff and clunky - voice acting is meh - story is badly paced and very shoehorned in - navigation is extremely confusing with you coming across objectives by pure chance and not by following any indication + the game allows you to activate objectives multiple times, resulting in you being able to get lost and do multiple circles back to the same place, think you've found where you need to go, and just get the same cutscene again (ask me how i know) - for as beautiful as the game is, it's horribly optimised and bottlenecks. i was sitting at ~50% cpu and gpu usage and still only getting 40fps all in all lost ember could have been an amazing artistic game where you can explore a massive and beautiful environment freely but instead they slapped on a mediocre story and wrecked the controls so that any and all hope of exploration is removed this feels like they saw what the witness did and wanted to capture the same magic, but instead became a much worse copy in a different genre