Project Vesperi

I was hooked while playing the demo! The atmosphere that was being created, the build up of the back-stories for the characters, the visually stunning dialogue scenes, the whole premise felt fesh and mysterious. I would have been fine if the game was about 2 hours worth of progressive story building with an impactful ending, but this whole game is just repeating the day's events with subtle variations in decisions that ultimately lead to 1 of a dozen different endings. Basically just repeating what I already played through in the demo! The team did some amazing work here and they really have great talent, but somehow this feels like they needed to rush the game along at some point and then pivoted to what we endup with. The story is my biggerst let down, they had such a great buildup in my view, but just went nowhere with the main concept being this mysterious geode. Sorry guys, I hate doing this, but this was not a great experience and I am not recommending it at this point.

I like it. More cutscenes than gameplay but still includes things like quick time events and make cutscenes more interactive. The cutscenes are also very well made, the audio and quality of the game is impeccable for an indie game studio.

[h2] Feels like Act 1 of a movie with a great start but never leaves the ground [/h2] So I know. This started as a student project. But maybe it should have stayed that way. The story revolves around this "geode" on Venus. Or does it? It allows the main character to repeat the day twice because there is only 3 chapters. But... [spoiler] In the end, nothing comes from that, The game just abruptly ends with either everyone dying, or someone leaving with the geode. We never learn about it, which is the SOLE reason for the visit to venus. Literally. Once you hit one of the 10 ending variations of death, or escape, it just rolls credits. I got 3 endings. How do I know all endings are like this? Because i read the achievements lol. So much setup in chapter 1 with back story just to not lead anywhere. [/spoiler] Which is very unfortunate because I liked the idea behind the story. [h2] The Good [/h2] [list] [*]The sound and Music design was really good [*]The voice acting was pretty good for this cast. [*]The visuals were mostly good. Until I got the one ending and it looked like we were flying away on a painted ship from a painted venus. [/list] [h2] The Bad (but hopefully can be improved) [/h2] [list] [*]Leaves you feeling empty and the endings feel rushed [*]Sometimes there is a good delay from dialogue from when you press the response. Or when you finish the camera slowly pans away and you can't skip this. [*]Speaking of skipping, you cant skip dialogue you already did but clicked by accident. Then with each ending, you need to watch the credits over again. They aren't long but you cant skip it so hopefully that's fixed. [*]You kind of see it in the trailer. But its mostly cinematics. A few QTE's here and there, some walking around. I think for QTE's I had like 4 buttons to press in my whole playthrough. [*]The main reason behind the story. The geode and why humanity is there, feels like an after thought, its not fleshed out. 10 endings might of been way too much just to pad extra time. I played 90 minutes and got 3 endings. Yes my steam profile says 2 hours but I sat there for 30 minutes feeling disappointed and thinking wtf was that. It sucks because I saw the trailer and was excited for this project. But it feels like a 90 minute demo. Most of chapter 1 was reading about backstory. Chapter 2 & 3 was repeating the main event of chapter 1 but trying to figure out a different variation. [/list] I love choices matter games, love fantastic stories & worlds, I love supporting indie devs and teams but this was just not it. I saw it was in development for like 4-5 years which surprised me. And honestly, maybe it should of stayed a student project that maybe cost $5. Because I have played games from solo developers for a little cheaper with tons of story telling and fantastic gameplay. If you want to donate your money and just randomly support an indie team then sure go ahead and buy it, otherwise wait for a very good discount.

impressive character animations and performances. game looks good. characters sound good. mostly satisfied with the ending I got, but will have to try a few other things and explore alternative options.

"movie-length branching narrative game..." If that line pulled you in, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. It took me roughly an hour and 10 minutes to finish. I feel like movie-length would've at least been an hour and 30 minutes. Anyway, let's get started. As a guy that loves most of anything space related, this seemed like a particularly interesting game. Life on Venus? The fact we even have people on Venus was enough to pull me in. Unfortunately from a story perspective it's like being given a bite of a moderately tasteful cheesecake and never getting more. In the land of metaphors and analogies it might be better to say we never leave the tip of the iceberg. Or that the story feels like someone came up with a prompt "There's life, probably, maybe, on Venus!" and didn't come up with much more to fill in the gaps. Basically, the story feels incomplete and rushed. There's just not much to it. Not enough depth of the characters, more questions than answers, and an ending that provides no satisfying answers to the events that unfold. The game's core game loop is talking to characters, reading lore, interacting with a handful of objects, and some one-button quick time events. The game is also a [spoiler] Time Loop scenario [/spoiler] so you'll [spoiler] do a lot of the same things over the course of up to 3 attempts[/spoiler]. There's this odd pan up to characters when you talk to them, as well as a pan down when you finish. Are the scissors important at all? No. Not even once. But they get a lot of emphasis. There's also often a delay when talking to characters, giving this long awkward silence that certainly kills the immersion. There are no puzzles or anything like that. It's all about reading/interacting with anything you can get your grubby mittens on. That'll unlock conversation options. In a game where "every choice matters," it doesn't really feel like it. And, yeah.. I get it. I'm coming off harsh. I don't mean to, but the game certainly falls short of what they're selling. It doesn't live up to the ambition. In a game that encourages you to play through it multiple times in order to achieve different endings - that core gameplay loop better be embracing the heck out of my brain to keep me engaged. This just doesn't do it. You can't skip dialogs, which would have been a fantastic quality of life feature given the game's mechanics. Voice acting is alright. It's amateurish, but there was certainly effort in making characters fit the scenarios. Music was surprisingly good. There's not much in the way of sound effects, but that's not too big of a deal. Graphically the game looks fine. The small area of Venus we get to see looks cool, even if it is essentially a narrow corridor of rocks. The station you're at is reasonably designed and feels believable. So, what do I think really? It feels more like a tech demo or student project than a commercial product. The story isn't fleshed out, and the entire purpose of your visit to Venus [spoiler] never gets fully explained or resolved[/spoiler]. The long camera pans, and pauses during dialog are distracting. The whole thing is very much "tip of the iceberg," without ever leaving the tip. Still, despite what might seem like a harsh review - I mostly liked the game.

This was promising. but it is little more than a demo.

For $15 this is both insanely polished and optimized for an indie undergrad game! Cutscenes are solid, models and textures look good. Soundtrack is really good too, worth the extra cash for the soundtrack. Hope they continue making games, very promising initial title by Last Praetorian Interactive!

Pros: Extremely well optimized, played at maximum setting with zero issues. Atmosphere and themes are tightly knit within the short, but engaging storyline with a surprising amount of narrative endings, providing significant replayability Feels very "Telltale-like" for all the good reasons. If those are your kind of games, this will be for you! Bads: Too short :( Overall, a promising product, and a great first entry for Last Pratorian Interactive, and look forward to seeing their future projects!

This is a very frustrating game to play. I wanted to like it but just can't recommend it at all. The graphics are fine if you have a good GPU, the voice acting is bland and unconvincing. But the whole "multiple endings" hook is totally overstated. There are basically two types of endings with some very very very minor variations. Unlocked dialogue choices do not necessarily result in anything significantly different and in some cases different choices lead to the same ending. At first I couldn't believe it was so short a game and thought maybe there are other endings that I was missing, so I went on youtube to make sure. No, there really are just a dozen or so endings that are basically the same. Also don't get me started on the whole premise. It feels not well thought through. What's the point of the geode? What's the point of the intruder? What's the point of all the different factions? No answers to any of these questions. Refund requested.

Can't recommend this. The game is absurdly short (about 1.5 hours of gameplay), barely any content — you're basically exploring a single building and all the game has to offer is replaying the same experiences on a loop (aside from the prologue). Full of bugs. It's more of a curiosity than anything, and honestly should be completely free...