PROVIDER

PROVIDER is an unusual and somewhat unique 2D retro pixel top down brawler/adventure game with lightweight RPG elements. You're apparently a Native American villager who is taken by a raven and given the job of being a "provider", which is, as far as I can tell, a bit like a reaper, tasked with guiding souls to the afterlife. Of course there's monsters and so on in the wasteland that you have to deal with. The game is quite story rich and has some refreshlingly deep and interesting mechanics, but is unfortunately let down by a completely woeful technical implementation. A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low as a result. There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customise the graphics settings. There's no way for gamers to ensure this is running at the native resolution of their displays... there's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. There's no way for gamers to try improve the low quality graphics. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers. Some of the defects in the game can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is often used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. So a lot of work went into game design, but the implementation itself was phoned in. There's also the problem of a whopping $10 USD price for a 2D retro pixel GameMaker Studio construction kit job, that's just not going to work for gamers. $10 USD will get you games like Skyrim or Frostpunk, for example.

Provider is a game about the dutiful Floyd, who is tasked with guiding lost souls to the great beyond. You at first aren't quite sure why Floyd is the one doing this and honestly... I still don't know. Perhaps it was written in the MANY notes left around for the player to find and read. I'll be honest, some of them are quite lengthy. This game also crashed on me a few times. HOWEVER, this was a fun game. The enemies in this game are pretty aggressive, but it was oh so satisfying to be able to read their moves over time. I found that the melee weapons were the most effective to use, over the rather difficult to aim projectile weapons. The bosses in this game are somethin' else. They were relentless but not impossible to beat. Every level in this game had something surprising in it. Only one level really dragged the pace for me...Caves. That's all I'll say. Also, if you're playing this, make sure your backpack has space in it at all times. When the pack is full, items will be sent to your storage back at base. This can also happens to items that are imperative to completing the level. Perhaps an option to send items to storage when pockets are full should be made. All in all, I am looking forward to playing more story heavy games from the team! I will definitely look more into the lore for this game, cause apparently it's based on actual Native American legends.

看商店截图，雪和血，白里渗红，血腥。 主题不错，但是玩法不够明快。 希望作者继续加油。

Provider ist ein Indie Adventure-Spiel mit RPG-Elementen. Zu letzteren gehören Ressourcen, Gegenstände usw. Und Quests. Als eine Art Übergangshelfer soll man Verstorbenen helfen, ihren Frieden zu finden, indem man in Welten abtaucht, sich durch Monster schnetzelt und letztlich den Auftrag erfüllt, sodass die Verstorbenen wirklich befreit sein können. Das Ganze ist eingebettet in einiges an Story und Erklärungen. Nur dummerweise ist das Ganze so völlig kompliziert erzählt, dass ich schlicht und einfach nicht durchblickte. Dasselbe gilt für viele Hintergrundinfos und -geschichten, die man entdecken kann. Vieles davon wirkt irgendwie zufällig und zusammenhangslos und damit letztlich nur verwirrend. Das alles wäre ja verschmerzbar, wenn der Rest des Spiels viel Spass machen würde. Spätestens hier merkt man aber den völligen Indiecharakter des Spiels. Das Gameplay ist einerseits sehr simpel (sprich auch nicht wirklich begeisternd). Zum anderen gibt es diverse Mechaniken, die schlichtweg viel zu schlecht erklärt werden, um wirklich spielerisch Sinn zu machen. Irgendwie hat man Energie, aber was genau das macht? Und wieso hat man die und ... Auch das Handling z.B. des Inventars ist superfummelig und auch hier gilt wieder: Vieles ist nicht erklärt. Das wäre alles kein Problem, wenn es selbsterklärend wäre. Ist es aber nicht. Und so wandert man herum und spielt halt irgendwie. Aber wirklich befriedigend ist das nicht. Zumal auch die Grafik alles andere als ansehnlich ist. Die Pixelgrafik wäre durchaus ok, wenn alles andere top wäre, was ja aber leider nicht der Fall ist. Fazit: Man merkt PROVIDER an, dass hier Leute mit Herzblut ein Spiel erschufen und versuchten mit viel Fantasie etwas zu kreieren. Darum tut es auch weh, eine negative Bewertung hinterlassen zu müssen. Leider aber sind Storytelling, Grafik und Gameplay alle auf einem zu tiefen Amateur-Niveau und mit zu vielen Problemen behaftet, um wirklich Spass zu haben.