Taking Root - Academic Version

Taking Root is a lovely little puzzle game in which you help a rock and his companion overcome a series of challenges in their journey to find a new place to call home. The soundtrack and visuals are very atmospheric and even though you are meant to be escaping from a concrete jungle, the different locations look quite cozy at times. At the start, the game presents you with some visual clues, allowing you to piece together the backstory. The puzzles are not too difficult and the game itself is rather short. It is recommended to play the game with controllers but I had no issues playing with keyboard and mouse. Overall, if you have a bit of time to spare, like puzzle games and especially ones involving perspective, I definitely recommend you to try this little gem.

視点を切り替えると道ができたり見えないものが見えたりするパズルゲーム。短めなのでサクッと遊べる。 何か淡々としており、全体的に見づらい。パズルのわかりづらさというより、単純に見づらい印象。内容から考えてそこまでバリエーションを考えるのは難しいのかもしれないが、体験としても何かすっきりしない。逃避行というテーマのようなのでそういうものかもしれないが、もうちょっとなにか欲しいと感じた。

Taking Root - Academic Version is one of literally thousands of student projects infesting Steam. It's from University of Applied Sciences, Salzburg, in Germany. While student projects tend to be better quality than most "amateur" made games, we must still question what value such projects have for gamers. As with all student projects, this isn't really a fully fleshed out game, it's just the result of an academic exercise, and as such it has much more limited value as a game than a professionally developed game would have. Educational institutions should not be using Steam as a dumping ground for homework assignments (especially if the students didn't even pass the course). Sure, it helps their marketing and helps the students feel good about themselves, but this is another case of a business putting themselves before the needs of gamers. This is a somewhat mediocre and narrative heavy third person adventure game where you take on the role of a rock and his plant and try to "escape". In terms of visuals, this features fairly low quality low poly 3D visuals which will deter a lot of gamers, understandably. Gaming is a visual medium, and while some developers struggle with creating high quality visuals, failing to do so is a disservice to gamers. It's very difficult to recommend bad looking games. Insultingly, the developer insists that you should play this with a console peasant children's toy gamepad instead of KB+M. Developers should try to be aware which platform they're designing games for. It's the responsibility of the developer to ensure the game runs well on the platform they're selling it on, with the primary peripherals that PC gamers use. On the matter of pricing and value for gamers, most "free" games on Steam aren't really free. There's often nasty mobile app cash shops, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of shady pricing schemes that could mislead gamers, but in this case I'm glad to say this really does appear to be a fully free game. Nothing demonstrates a developers belief in themselves and their work than giving it away without any remuneration. This is a service to themselves, and the gaming industry, and should be applauded. Of course, just because something is free, doesn't necessarily mean it's valuable, or something you might want to spend your time on. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 2 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? This is a "maybe" experience... if you have a lot of free time on your hands and nothing else to do, why not? But for the purposes of a review, this isn't something I can say everyone must try. It's not quite there. Valve doesn't give us a "maybe" option in reviews, but if they did, that's what I'd choose for this.

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Игра "Taking Root - Academic Version" оказалась на удивление увлекательной для продукта, изначально задуманного как образовательный инструмент. Механика планирования города, с акцентом на устойчивость и взаимодействие между экологическими и социальными факторами, затягивает. Требуется не только стратегически размещать жилые кварталы и промышленные зоны, но и учитывать влияние этих решений на окружающую среду, а также на благополучие граждан. Порадовало, что игра не просто дает абстрактные знания об экологии, а заставляет активно применять их на практике, например, балансируя между экономическим ростом и потреблением ресурсов, инвестируя в возобновляемую энергию и разрабатывая эффективную систему утилизации отходов. Хотя игровой процесс может показаться немного упрощенным по сравнению с настоящими градостроительными симуляторами, это скорее плюс, чем минус, поскольку делает игру доступной для более широкой аудитории, включая студентов и даже школьников. Интерфейс интуитивно понятен, а наличие четких целей и подсказок помогает быстро освоиться. В целом, "Taking Root" - это отличный способ в игровой форме познакомить с концепциями устойчивого развития и научить мыслить системно, рассматривая сложные взаимосвязи между различными аспектами жизни современного города. Рекомендую всем, кто интересуется урбанистикой, экологией или просто ищет нестандартную стратегическую игру.