I honestly really don't know why this game has the hate it does, people are really being harsh on it based on this concept that the "controls suck", so I wanna talk about that. . .I gave the game a chance despite the mixed rating and I'm really glad I didn't listen to the reviews. . .
- the controls themselves:
the "controls" are not bad, I'd say they are actually quite good once you get used to them, they make the deer's movements feel more weighty and complex as opposed to the usual "press forward and you win" sort of ordeal, I never had a problem with them once I got used to it, I think it just comes down to people forgetting this is a deer, not a call of duty action hero human, the controls function just fine although a bit of a tutorial wouldn't have gone amiss to help people get used to the movement, what people are trying to refer to is the game play. . .
(by the way Mr dev, real quick, the one thing I really did not like was the lack of a pause button, the escape button just quits back to the menu upon touching it, that is not good, and if you get time I would implement that)
- The game play:
the game itself isn't about surviving, it has survival elements but I found those to be actually not as impacting as it would be in a survival game, though I would say I feel the water meter does drain a little bit too quickly, and if I was to implement this I would make it so when you run out of food/water it starts taking away your health, not instantly killing you, it would give a more sense of urgency and a little more time to obtain resources, wanted to address that since a lot of reviews mentioned this and it is a little unclear from the store page what this game is, I will say the description could do with a little bit of info about that, since it does lack in that department.
the platforming itself is some of the most fun I've had for a long time, when I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, 9 out of 10 times I felt it was my fault, I was going too quickly or I wasn't aiming the jump properly, the only issue I had with this was that the area where you do a full jump vs where you jump straight down was a little bit poor, my deer kept "jumping down" instead of across in certain areas where jumping down was the worst possible move, a little advice would be to programme it so the deer doesn't try to jump down if there is no reason to, as in nothing but a death trigger at the bottom, the only area I really had a problem with this was in act 4, the part after the green and black wolf where I seemed to keep falling off that rock because of this area where they jump straight down instead of across.
The combat I really don't like, it felt clunky, I feel like this game could have benefited more from being a stealth sort of ordeal, being a very young deer combat shouldn't exactly be your forte, but it is possible in this game to run away from nearly every fight and there were bushes that you could hide in (more about that later) but if you do choose to engage in combat in this game, unless its a single animal attacking you it really felt like RNG whether or not you win, especially in the caves the spiders really do gang up on you, and they can be quite tanky (the big spiders and the black spiders come to mind here) and you can kill a group of them before they kill you but it really felt like luck.
Another thing I do not like about this game is how it does not really tell you much about what to do, I did not figure out there even was a sprint option till act 4, the game does not tell you that you can hide in bushes, it's a thing you haft to figure out for yourself by random chance you notice things stop chasing you when you enter bushes, I never got lost in this game apart from 1 time, 1 time I usually blame myself so it's no biggie there since the map is quite linear and guides you pretty well.
each level had a different challenge to it too, which kept the game play fresh, the only section I did not like at all was the sky act, where I died the absolute majority of times, where there was that one spot with the clunky jump mechanics and that invincible wolf, I didn't mention that, there is an invincible wolf that chases you at the begining of the level, the game doesn't really mention it's invincible, it's quite hard to tell actually, and I spent an hour trying to kill it or to get past it, before I figured out you could sprint, looking back though it didn't tell you how to sprint and I thought the untitled controls it shows at the beginning of the act were showing you you could attack left right and behind now, there were also 2 parts of the game where your objective was to find a lost animal and bring it back to it's parents, which was a fun change and also worked into the objective on one of them, also a nice reminder of your own objective to find your own parents.
- The design:
I'm a sucker for more cute designs so this might be a bit biased. . .
I really like the art style of this game, I never looked at anything and thought to myself "that looks ugly" with the exception of the level limits, but we will get to that in a second, I wanna talk about the positives first.
the art style is akin to more of a blocky, simplistic and cute style of expression as opposed to the usual HD texture, and it actually really works, on top of that the animations for the deer moving, the jumping, idle, eating and drinking animations are all really exceptional, it made them feel like a real deer as opposed to a block you move to the goal.
the map design itself really could be better, most of the map design is really good and works well with the art style the developer appeared to be going for here, the only thing I really do not like is the level limit walls, they just feel too out of place, vertical, unnatural, and didn't work well with the rest of the design, it is, however my only real complaint in terms of the map design, there is a lot of versatility to it throughout the game as well, every level had a different theme and it kept it quite fresh.
- The sound:
the definite weak point of the game was the sound design, I'm aware it can be challenging especially when you don't have access to a lot of resources, but I haft to address it and say it felt like it wasn't really that great, there is 1 damage sound per animal and it gets repetitive very quickly, there wasn't really footstep sounds, the music is decent but there could have been a few more tracks, not really much in terms of environmental music.
- The story:
if you played this game for a rich lore story you will be disappointed, this game doesn't have much of one, it is more akin to a single objective story is not important kind of ordeal, the only objective is to find your parents after you get separated following a volcano eruption, for a game of this type I am not expecting a LOTR tier high density story, but I felt like it was lacking, however I will mention it did not ruin the game for me, story is not required for every game as long as there are other elements to back up the lack of a story, however at least the main character has an actual motivation other then "wanting to do the right thing" he wants to get back to his parents, that is motivation enough for any character to advance.
- Conclusion
for the low price of £3.99 I will say this game is more than worth it, it's a fun game, the negative reviews are mostly from people who really don't like the controls which yes can be subjective but I really don't think they are bad at all, I enjoyed them personally, it's a fun indy game and I would recommend scraping out your pocket change and giving it a go.
