Spate

I greatly enjoy artsy, story-driven "walking simulators", and this seemed right up my alley. It definitely got the artsy walking simulator part down, but the story is really... boring. It's essentially "gosh, absinthe/alcoholism sure did ruin my life, but now it's the only thing keeping me going. Also I'm sad that I lost my wife and child." repeated about 30 times with different wordings. The ending bashes you in the face with symbolism that would make an English teacher proud. "Climbing this tower represents his struggle with alcoholism. The boss at the end sustains his life by feeding off the souls of those around him, just like the main character destroys those around him with his alcoholism." The platforming bits are alright, but nothing particularly special. And though it might seem petty, I really didn't like the narrator's 1920's New Yorker accent - just didn't seem to fit the character at all. I like these kinds of games for their interesting stories, and this one's just too shallow and unengaging.

Spate is a fantastic experience and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The game takes a very original approach to gameplay story telling and it pays off wonderfully. A deep and insightful story told through a man's journey in an unfamiliar environment. You'll laugh, you'll feel alone in the world, you'll cry and you'll do all that as you navigate the most amazing landscapes. The graphics, sound and narration combine to make a surreal and irresistable setting. I found myself unable to stop playing it right through to the end as I wanted to see what was coming next. I won't spoil the game by giving any part of the story away as you really need to play through it to appreciate its originality. I highly recommend this game.

Spate - неоднозначная игра. Это платформер в антураже постапокалипсиса. Неоднозначная по простой причине. В противоречивости геймплея. Но хотелось бы сначала сказать об атмосфере. Звуковое сопровождение гармонично сочетается с визуальным рядом, создавая аутентичную атмосферу постапокалиптического мира. Музыкальное сопровождение также заслуживает похвалы за свою ненавязчивость и способность поддерживать общий мрачный тон игры. Пейзажи в игре разнообразны и порой впечатляют своей красотой, хотя в основном они имеют психоделический характер, что соответствует общей стилистике игры. Ну а теперь о геймплее. Он очень прост. Вам предстоит много бежать и прыгать, избегая немногочисленные ловушки. Преодоление препятствий не составляет особого труда, а ещё больше всего оказуаливает игровой процесс чекпоинт, сидящий у вас на плечах. Упали в пропасть? Не беда. Появитесь на краю этой же пропасти. Таким образом, данная игра не про преодоление трудностей, а про незабываемое путешествие по сюрреалистичному миру постапокалипсиса. Периодически геймплей будет разбавляться другими механиками, но не часто. То с пушки надо пострелять, чтобы уронить мост или активировать подъёмный механизм. То полетать на воздушном судне, точнее передвигаться по воздуху прыжками, что создаёт эффект, схожий с игрой "Flappy Bird". Сюжет в игре имеется и подаётся в начале игры газетными вырезками, а в дальнейшем диктором на протяжение всего игрового процесса. Последнее очень раздражало, мешая вникать в аутентичную атмосферу. В общем, данная игра может быть интересна тем, кто интересуется платформерами. Она, в целом, заслуживает внимания, но не может быть рекомендована для тех, кто ищет продолжительную игровую сессию, так-как проходится она за 1-1,5 часа. Да и рекомендую я её тем у кого она есть в библиотеке и кто думает запускать её или нет. Ведь игра снята с продажи.

A short, mild/slow platformer with good graphics and a basic story. This game is mostly about visuals and atmosphere. I don't think there is enough or difficult enough platforming to recommend it to someone who is mainly looking for a platformer and I don't think there is enough of a story to recommend it to someone looking for something closer to a visual novel, RPG, or adventure game. Also, there are no puzzles or problem solving in Spate. If you are looking for an atmospheric game with good visuals and a very basic story, then I would reccomend it.

Press X to drink. Basically, you are Christopher Walken and you're slowly losing your mind from drinking too much absinthe after the loss of your daughter. A brilliant set up for a story and nothing more needs to be said about that. Spate is a nice little platformer that you should have no trouble finishing in around 2 hours. There aren't really any enemies to speak of in the traditional platforming sense; Spate is more about platforming and then interacting with characters and objects. Does that make it a puzzle platformer? Not really, no. I wouldn't call anything I came across in this game a puzzle, and to be honest the controls didn't feel particularly tight so it wasn't particularly good as a platformer either, but since nothing too much is expected of you it doesn't really matter that much. In terms of gameplay Spate isn't sounding that good on paper, but it still somehow manages to be a good game. There are a few things that make Spate a bit special. Being able to drink a seemingly unlimited supply of absinthe as you navigate through the world adds an extra element I haven't seen in many games. The effects of the absinthe warp the screen and environment around you. It makes jumping a little floatier and can affect how some environmental objects function too. While drinking isn't really necessary, you'll find yourself doing it often just for the hell of it. Just like in real life ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) What really goes a long way towards making Spate a good game is the fact that it has well thought out audio. The moody string instrument soundtrack adds to the atmosphere of the dark and deranged art style. Spate is narrated by a Christopher Walken sounding man - it's actually Jack Bair, but I've not heard of him before now. Just imagine someone that sounds a bit like Christopher Walken. The only thing I wish was done differently in Spate is that they could have voice acted the dialogue as well as the narration. Having a well done narration (although Jack Bair lacks emotion in some parts where he's meant to be quite upset) makes it seem quite jarring when dialogue appears and it is text only. I played the game through using only my Xbox 360 controller and it worked very well. There aren't many buttons required, but controller support was good. I'd recommend Spate based on the art style, the drinking effects, and the narration/music - although it only just scrapes in on the recommendation line for me. Spate is a fairly simple little platformer, but it shows a lot of promise and I look forward to seeing more games from Eric Provan - Ayyo Games. 6.5 out of 10 - Would press X to drink again.

Gorgeous visuals. Nothing else. PROS: -Great visuals. NEUTRAL: -Controls are just barely ok. For a few parts that have actual platforming, they are not tight enough and result in some frustration. -Absinthe (and alcohol in general) aren't psychadelics. Not really to the gameplay, but a cheap cop-out to use alcohol to make the game "socially acceptable." CONS: -Walking simulator: the level design is pretty much as bad as it can get. Huge stretches of just walking to the right (some have narration, but lots are just in silence). -Nothing happens. I played for about 40 minutes and all he does is mention his dead daughter, his exwife, and the drink. There is no character development or anything resembling a story; he just keeps mentioning them over and over.

Spate... If I was asked to give a list of examples of how to make a so-so atmospheric platformer, I wouldn't hand over Spate, because that would imply that this game was good enough to even be considered "only" mediocre. No, Spate is the epitome of what people who hate the genre believe it is: creepy/trippy backdrops to make up for a dearth of actual gameplay elements. Spate is the story of a detective who ventures to an supposedly uninhabited island that was once the scene of a mass disappearance of its citizens, and is now covered in a layer of fog and precipitation. His goal is to find some missing entrepreneur, but that quickly resolves itself to make way for heavy handed existential talk of him losing his daughter. You really begin to feel for the good detective when transparent photos of his deceased daughter are superimposed in the background. It looks as terrible as it sounds, but sounds nowhere near as terrible as the voice actor who portrays our detective. More often than not, Detective Hevyhans sounds like one of the more hilarious Christopher Walken impersonations littering youtube. It's as if the actor who portrays him truly means to do his best to destroy any remaining potential for solid exposition, at least any that the highschool level monologue that runs ad nauseam fails to deal with. Levels typically consist of overly long straight and narrow pathways, and occasionally these turn into overly long platforming segments where the platforms barely differentiate in height, size, or distance from each other. And don't worry, equally mediocre jumping controls complement these mediocre jumpways. Some areas introduce more puzzling elements, and I don't mean that they in any way promote thought on the part of the player. An early example of puzzling elements include machinery (usually controlling buzzsaws) that may try to throw a wrench in your plan to move rightward. There is no rhyme or reason to their inclusion in the game, and they don't even match with the surrounding scenery. So why are they here? Likely because someone played too much LIMBO whilst developing Spate. Another puzzling addition to the game is the inclusion of a "drink" button. This lets you take a swig of absinthe whenever you please, because your daughter's dead, which twists the world a bit, adding oddities like eyes to trees and giant floating fish in the sky. It also allows you to jump really high, because absinthe is apparently a very powerful hallucinogen, now. From what I've played, there's no point to the function, other than to break up the monotony of moving right for minutes while nothing happens. I've never needed the high jump, and the "hallucinogenic" effects wear off in a matter of seconds unless you smack the "drink" button between every couple of breaths. Spate [i]does[/i] do one thing right. It gives me an even higher appreciation of games that absolutely nail the whole atmospheric bit, like LIMBO. I remember first playing LIMBO years ago, thinking how easy it would be to make a similar game. After all, how difficult could such a minimalist experience be to create? If Spate is any indication, I clearly gave the creators of LIMBO far too little credit.

Very much a flawed gem, this isn't as strictly gameplay focused as some might hope for and because of the story focus with simple, even bland gameplay it's no wonder a lot of people expected more, but for me Spate was a short, visually strange and interesting journey that only suffered from a few minor annoyances and delivered a lightly moving story. Because of that I'd recommend it as a flawed but good, or at least interesting game worth an hour or two of your time. [h1]Highlights[/h1] The balance of gameplay with the narrative/story was what stood out most for me in Spate. Thrown into a dark damp and rough visual art style, you feel slightly out of place and isolated when you first begin your journey, and that matches the point at which the story begins, which is a good example of the multiple instances of putting the narrative ahead of the gameplay, for better or worse. Throughout the stages you'll pass through relic and forgotten structures and visuals from the past, just as the character does. In many stages I felt as though the game was far too simple and I was simply being carried along, later realizing this was intentional and even emphasized during a long slow water stage. Everything tries to feed the story in much the same way Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons did, and while this game is in no way as well polished and designed as Brothers, it does have its own charm and some interesting design points. The narrative and art style are also beautiful and solemn, the strange mix of rough low-res textures and gloomy but vivid lighting are different enough to stand out but not enough to take away from the story or feeling of the game. [h1]Mistakes and Annoyances[/h1] There's plenty wrong with Spate and that mostly come down to lack of production value and polish. As a short simple platformer you'd expect the controls to be a priority, but they feel floaty, slow and frustratingly inaccurate. You could argue that this is intentional to help feel out the story, but it still feels cumbersome and when mixed with poor stage design where you might need to repeat a section a few times or repeat the same action 10+ times to proceed and faulty graphical artifacts and clipping, it really sucks away some of the immersion and takes away from the game as a whole. The other concern is the length. At just an hour or two of gameplay Spate really needs to offer something well crafted and refined. I'm glad there're no false gimmicks like jaunty collectibles or multiple characters and I understand that every section of the game attempts to represent a part of the characters journey, but with the fairly simplistic design of the game and the one line story it needs something else in terms of gameplay to keep it going long enough or make it challenging enough to have an impact and they've missed a beat. [h1]Recommendations[/h1] At just $4.99/£3.99/4.99€ Spate isn't overpriced, but due to the very short length and lack of technical care in design it's a game I'd actually recommend waiting for a sale on to keep you from feeling robbed out of a more traditional gameplay focused game. If all you want is a short interesting journey, this is very much worth a play, just don't expect a puzzle/platform title like LIMBO and be prepared to forgive some poor design and you'll enjoy what this has to offer. http://store.steampowered.com/app/269810 * There are a number of hidden [spoiler]bunny's (Easter Bunny's = Easter Eggs) throughout the world which usually offer a line of dialogue, spoilers [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tURgLdwPwQs]available here[/url][/spoiler] [code]Unedited review notes 27/12/2015 for Spate: -Poor menu system, have to switch between mouse and keyboard multiple times and backtrack etc -Really lacking in polish, multiple small jagged bugs from artifacts to timing, big problem for such a simple game +Good narration and fairly good writing that match the art style +Rough indie art style makes it feel more personal, like a student art movie +Moves slowly and gameplay always seems to match narration in terms of pace, point in journey etc [/code]