Could be a decent 'fishing collectathon' but still needs some work, the game overall is very glitchy and the quest/rewards system could have been handled better as well. Honestly, even just adding some achievements would help the game a lot, you have so many hours of mundane collection content but no achievements for it, I would recommend adding at least one for completing each quest, buying each boat, and maybe one for doing 100% fish log and the taste log.
It's pretty straightforward, there are a few dozens of 'Fish Gods' that will ask for you to collect a certain type of fish, you travel between the islands, and try to catch the right fish by using the correct bait and the correct fishing spot. Technically speaking the game probably could take over 15 hours, but you can explore and experience most of the game in 4, everything past that would be mostly finding new fish, maybe unlocking a few new rods as well. If I am not mistaken there are 5 primary islands/locations to explore, including the forest, the beach, the areas around the oil rig, the swamp, the desert, and the areas that are in between like shallow and deep parts of those locations, so it's kinda like 5 times 4 for fishing spots, roughly speaking.
One interesting part of the game is that you can purchase different boats and slowly travel around the map, the boats also have some funny "realism" mechanics to them, you generally can't just hold forward, it was kinda fun to figure it out, granted they are the source of most of the glitches in the game as well. There are a lot of other interesting features in the game that are not fully realized, for example there is a time of the day cycle, some leaderboard and online features, as well as a few other activities not related to fishing.
The game has potential for getting lost and getting some of that feeling of 'escapism' but overall there are so many glitches, it's kinda hard to completely free yourself from that feeling like you playing something that feels unfinished and poorly tested.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) Probably over 10 hours of finding new fish, if you just want to grind for some fish pictures, I know I do, at least it has that going for it. The map is not huge, granted there is enough variety for at least 5 hours of mild exploration.
(+) You can unlock new rods with different qualities, and a few different methods of travel between islands with different mechanics.
(+) Has some helpful features like resetting the position if you get softlocked, or reducing the fishing difficulty to nothing for accessibility. Tracks leaderboard for biggest fish, and apparently even has online features, granted I am not sure how that works.
(+) I like the little superficial features you added like the day/night cycle, as well as some wildlife, I love those brick looking bugs you have.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- the game could really use achievements, I would add one for each quest, one for buying each boat, one for all fish, one for testing all fish, one for getting every rod, and whatever else you feel like
- all the boats are kinda buggy, especially if you stop to fish in the middle, usually will prevent you from moving, it's also often difficult to rotate if you parked the boat facing forward
- the game could use more uses for money, the currency becomes obsolete very fast, maybe you could have a store for boat upgrades, like speed, something that requires a lot of currency so there is always something to buy, perhaps some cosmetics to attach to the rod
- I kinda like that you have this surreal feature of interacting with the Fish Gods, but beyond that the locations feel very empty, the game could benefit if you just had some characters that just chill and talk to you. Say if the player finds the oil rig, do you not think they will want to go on top of it? Make sure the player has things to explore, and perhaps hide more features in some places, say add a way to get on top of the oil rig, maybe there is some easter egg
[b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b]
I would not say it's a good game in the current state, but It's alright for wasting time, if collecting fish makes the game good enough for you, you might just enjoy it. Otherwise it's very buggy, not always very rewarding with exploration, and kinda just, whatever to be honest. I do think if you could maybe make it a little more fun to explore, and find more things around, it could be more fun than just, collecting. Achievements is probably the biggest thing that I wanted, for some people it will be enough because you can kill so much time just collecting every fish in the game. There are a lot of interesting ideas here, it's just that most of them are half-baked, and barely worthwhile, so again, it just all comes down to collecting more fish, but at least the pictures are funny.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
