I downloaded this game after it suggested it to me, and I thought, "How funny. I actually had an occupation as an optician, once upon a time. It'd be kind of neat to see how accurate this is!"
First impressions: The game starts off with a cartoonish titled look, but quickly moved into a story with real-to-life scenes and gave me a bit of whiplash. The start has you standing in an empty room, aside from a plain looking twin mattress on the ground and a small side table with an alarm clock. You can't afford much more than this, since you've sunk all of your funds into buying a store to make glasses from.
You are told to navigate to the building with some simple navigational instructions, and end up at a very plain looking store that says, "Optical Shop", or something there abouts. You've seemingly forgotten to buy simple things like chairs, lights, shelves, or much else. You do have a desk with no chair, and a computer, though. Without even having to do so, your shop has opened. It'll open with or without you standing inside, so no time for dawdling! You are meant to get RIGHT TO WORK! Starting with your first customer, you merely click on them and they've come equipped with their RX in hand. Who knows who the optometrist is that did the work of obtaining the RX, but here they are and they want glasses now. I don't know how they know what they want. You're not showing them a selection of available options, and you're not advising them on anything at all. Maybe I have a contract with the optometrist in town? I don't know. Either way, knowing the RX matters not. I was stressing a bit at trying to remember the RX so I could do the proper measurements, but it turns out, that it doesn't even matter. You're just meant to use two sliders that will turn green when you've got it right. I think that's more frustrating than actually getting the measurements done correctly on the focimeter. Once you've done this task, you move over to the edge cutter (lenses cutting), and play another little mouse clicking mini-game. Get that right, and you move to assembly, where you then drag and drop lenses and frame together. What happens then is pure magic! A brand new, perfectly measured and cut pair of glasses has appeared and is ready for delivery. Well, maybe. That depends on so many things. Did your glasses disappear from your inventory or hands? Did the glasses decide to float in the air? Has your customer grown impatient and decided to get stuck walking into a wall and you can't deliver the glasses to them now? Did you get stuck walking inside of the wall of your shop? As long as none of these cursed events take place, then you are gold!
Final Judgement: The game is, for sure, unpolished and needs a tremendous amount of work before it's worthy of public full release. Between the guesswork of how the focimeter actually works (giving full instructions of the mini-game you're intended to play), and how to progress to each step, the clipping of terrain and walls, the pathing that gets bugged of everyone, including yourself, and the lack of lights... it all needs work. I did request a refund on this, as I don't see myself playing this further, until more patches are made and the game is fully developed. For now, though, it has potential. I can see the concept, and respect the attempt, as well as the in game scenery, like the night sky, the people, buildings, and even the slots casino across the way that you can actually play in. I just think it's not really worth the purchase with the current state of the game, right now. However, I will keep an eye on this and if it becomes something more? I'll be back. For now, I give this a 3 out of 10.
