Prominence

Not to be missed if you enjoy a casual pace and a super engaging story in an atmospheric space ship/station environment that includes some - but not too many puzzles with light to moderate challenge. Best €5 I've probably ever spent on the Humble store (current sale). It makes a weak first impression while you get used to the controls and the plot ramps up, but as long as you don't give up early it won't let go of you until the credits roll. [b]Pros[/b] [list] [*]Great gripping story overall, with some moving moments [*]Surprising turn of events affects the player character [*]Quite atmospheric [*]Good music and ambient tracks [*]Excellent voice overs, I got System Shock 2 vibes from some [*]Great sci-fi environment design [/list] [b]Cons[/b] [list] [*]Turning the 1st person view with the mouse has momentum to it, to a degree you can adjust in the settings. This takes some getting used to. Lowering the momentum slider all the way didn't do it for me as it made mouse speed inconsistent when passing over interactive objects like doors. Once you find a comfortable setting you'll get used to it rather quickly. [*]To move, you have to use the mouse to click on where you want to go. Even near the end of the game, I still occasionally forgot and out of habit tried to use WASD to no avail. [*]One or two small objects needed to progress are easy to overlook. You have to scan each scene thoroughly. [*]It seems to run in 1080p and upscales if your monitor's native resolution is higher. [*]While you can edit the config file in C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Prominence\ to change the RATE setting (=refresh rate) and turn v-sync on/off which is on by default, as soon as you go past the main menu the fps is capped to 59 which seems to be hardcoded, so even if the refresh is set to 60, v-sync will not work to eliminate tearing and perceived stutter. [*]I can't get G-sync to work with this game. Best you can do is set RATE=120. Much smoother than RATE=60, less laggy too and much better than at 144, probably because it's close to 2x 59 fps. It still microstutters a bit but it's not something you notice when actually playing because of how movement, scene transitions and mouse momentum work. [*]I was not able to play 100% walkthrough-free. Almost though, so it's nowhere near as bad as the old Lucasarts adventures in that regard. There's an excellently worded walkthrough PDF included in the install directory. [*]While ending B feels satisfying, game development around the story's conclusion felt a little rushed compared to the higher quality midgame storyline and gameplay, regardless of which of the two endings I chose. (I saved first so I could try both.) [/list] I am typically quite harsh on games that have technical flaws. Only in some cases do they get a free pass. The criteria for that are: the issues don't affect gameplay for the type of game that it is, and it makes up for the flaws by being excellent in other areas. This is one of those cases.