Spirits of Xanadu

Spirits of Xanadu is a short and sweet simple game that plays like a very simplified System Shock 1. The atmosphere is surprisingly effective for the simplistic graphics, the attention to detail and environmental interactivity is very commendable, and there are a fair few secrets jam packed into the experience. It's a game that I feel I've thoroughly experienced (at just around 3 hours), so it's a very short experience. The first playthrough probably took me about an hour and a half, with subsequent playthroughs being much shorter. An enjoyable short experience that certainly reads like a simple love letter to the masterpieces of old. As long as you keep your expectations in check, I think fans of the first person immersive sim genre will be pleased.

1. The game has a lot more immersive sim elements compared to "horror FPS" or whatever; 2. Finished it while trying to explore as much of the ship as possible in an hour and a half. It is somewhat replayable / speedrunable; Overall I really do recommend this. Would I have paid 5 euros for it? maybe not (even though it's still really cheap), but at 1,24? it's a steal and I highly recommend it if you're a fan of immsims

I really enjoyed playing this game. I spent most of my time aboard the Xanadu in peaceful mode, exploring every room, reading every e-mail, eating donuts, and playing an arcade game. The story is simple and unfolds at a good pace. The graphics and music won't win any awards, but they get the job done. Full disclosure: I am not a FPS fan and I rarely play those games. I got killed a lot in easy mode. If you're an experienced FPS player, you'll probably survive longer than I did.

Very moody. I very much liked exploring the ship. the notes were well written, The idea behind hiding an ending behind finding almost every single note, i could do without, some were hidden a bit too well. I had fun, it's not really a challenging game, more of a walking simulator where you sometimes shoot enemies, the game might as well not have them, to be honest. Atmosphere carries it, but it does it well enough that i recommend this, if you like moody, slightly spooky little games.

4.4 It's an okay game, it has a fair amount of neat little interactables and it certainly doesn't overstay it's welcome. The 'best' ending is a little obtuse to get along with some of the achievements being secrets and also things nobody would likely do. The narratively (along with the game as a whole) is very small and rather limited. It's fine if you want to spend maybe an hour on a short little sci-fi im-sim super-lite.

An atmospheric exploration game that really stayed with me. The puzzles can be quite obscure and don’t follow typical game logic, which can be frustrating, but also fits the overall design. It’s closer to a walking sim than an action game—the combat is there, but it’s not the focus. What makes it work is the atmosphere. The ship feels small but believable, and the story told through logs and notes is engaging, even if it never gives clear answers. It’s a minimalist experience, both in mechanics and scope, but for its short length the atmosphere carries it all the way through. Not for everyone, but definitely worth it if you enjoy slow, mysterious exploration.

If Dead Space is System Shock 2 meets RE4 then this is SS2 meets Echo Night. Too bad the graphics suck.

Spirits of Xanadu is a loveletter to im-sims of old, specifically System Shock 2. It's DNA is all over SoX, from the audiologs to the protocol droids down to the dang grav-lifts. This is not a bad game, and if you can catch it on sale (it goes for as little as 0.99 USD!) it's worth a quick run through. I managed to beat the game first time in 2 hours. Realizing you have infinite ammo for every weapon (which never have to reload), infinite health (cowwadooty regen health type sht) and infinite stamina... the game wasn't particularly challenging, at least on normal. I might give it another run on higher difficulties later, but unless they start making you manage ammo and health it'll still be a cakewalk for anyone with a fast trigger finger. The end result is all the tension the game tries to build falls flat, almost comically so. I did enjoy the experience, even if I didn't quite get it, between all the messaging around Abrahamic faiths or the "antagonist". There are some secret tiddies though, so that's nice. There is one aspect of this game that makes me ALMOST not want to recommend it, if it weren't for the ridiculously low sale prices: the performance. The game is very basic, visually. There aren't a whole lot of textures being used, lots of flat shading. Yet, despite the simple textures and basic geometries, somehow the game still manages to run like crap. Half-Life 2 has more textures, more effects more geometry more shaders and yet it still runs buttery smooth, even on terrible hardware. Being that this game is from 2015 that would be an unacceptable level of performance loss considering the visuals. OPTIMIZE YOUR GAMES FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

This feels somewhat like if systemshock 2 was reduced to a fraction of its size and complexity, which I personally loved. The atmosphere is on point . The hook is very effective I really wanted to know what on Earth happened. Multiple difficulty settings mean that you can play this and get something out of it whether you're new or experienced. The world of it feels fully realized and if we are ever able to make a spaceship that can go this far away from Earth and function it would probably have a lot in common with this one. The smaller ship and crew mean that we can really get to know both and I really appreciated seeing The people both when things are going well and after they went wrong through the audio logs and emails. I was quite satisfied with the answers we got to questions and mysteries and the ending I got was great. If you've ever played an fps before You will pretty much immediately master controls features and such and it's not overwhelming if you've at least played a first person perspective title before. It's short enough that playing multiple times to get alternate endings doesn't feel like a chore but just long enough that it really gets to you. impressive acting. Strongly recommended

Shiny little gem! Particular praise for the best balloon metaphor I've ever heard. The voice acting is nicely wrought, blending the poetic with the cold calculus of insanity. I am not done with this one yet. Me likey.