Something about the coloring and the 3D model reminds me of Another World and Flashback, different genre but similar aesthetic, just has that peak old PC vibe to it, not to mention those camera angles that remind me of the Flashback intro. Pretty cool if that was intentional as I never seen an adventure game go for that specific look, I think I may have spotted Another World reference, but I am not 100% sure. Although for my own enjoyment, I like to pretend this game is some type of weird continuation of Flashback, also nice work there with those camera angles for individual scenes, very pleasing with the coloring and perspective.
The game didn't make a great first impression because of the weird ordering you have for the interactions (and by weird I mean traditional, I just don't really like it personally), but overall I still enjoyed the game, clearly you really love the adventure genre, and I liked the weird narrative craziness toward the end, I assume LOOM was the inspiration for the last chapter, which is kinda neat as the game completely changes its aesthetic from cyberpunk to surreal landscapes. As far as the puzzles, I thought you had a lot of creativity and variety for them, it's just that, a lot of the time the game would solve the puzzle for you the moment it was introduced, more so in chapter 2 and 3 where it literally tells you what to do most of the time.
So the story was not necessarily bad, although sometimes it feels like the game acknowledges the player too much to a point where you not allowing the dialogue and the world-building to do the heavy lifting, almost as if you are afraid that the player will get lost, so you constantly tell the player where to go, what he should do, as well as constantly providing exposition. I mean we have to take into the account the free admission of this game, and frankly I think if you had a little more faith in the player, and maybe writing the dialogue with less help and hand-holding, I think it would feel a lot better. There were a couple of interesting characters specifically with the red, blue and green where I think you had some interesting opportunities for playful dialogue, but at the same time I feel the writing was too gameplay oriented, you not really allowing the characters to stay in character, I am not sure if I am describing it well.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) I like the unusual Flashback/LOOM aesthetic of the game, never seen this specific combination, you had some cool backgrounds and camera angles occasionally, they were not consistently great, but decent for a free game for sure. Even though the game might feel a little cheap in some sections, there were a lot of cool small cutscenes which again remind me a little of Flashback, you kinda made it work.
(+) The narrative had some compelling craziness to it, even completely changing the tone and themes of the game. I mean I think you had some good opportunities there, maybe if the dialogue was a bit more in-universe, it probably would feel better, otherwise some emotional moments didn't connect with me because of occasionally poor dialogue, even though they were probably good on paper.
(+) About 4 hour game for a free adventure, not bad at all, had some variety to it with the locations and perspectives, also a neat "loop" set up for the story.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- You need to have a little more faith in the player, you often over explain the story and the puzzles, instead of just letting characters be themselves and letting the player play the game
- I thought the ending was a little awkward as you had better moments to end it on up to that point, you should at least draw like a "farewell" background perhaps, maybe have them chilling on the walk in the sunset, end on a good closure
- so you kept doing the traditional gameplay where you can't take an item until you inspect it or until it becomes relevant, which is fine, but honestly there is a good reason devs don't do it anymore, game flows better when you don't force the player to double interact with everything, if you make another game, I would recommend just letting the player take the damn item
- the "pi_____" item was a little funky to find
- maybe don’t keep the quest log with your inventory, should be 2 different panels
[b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b]
If this was released between like 1990-1994 it probably would place somewhere in the middle of the pack, it's a little janky, it's a little crude and sporadically written, but many adventure games were just like that, so there is a bit of nostalgic value there. You had some cool ideas with the visuals, and the story had many chances to be more compelling, but in the end it was just decent, which for a free 4 hour game, I can't complain. More on a guilty pleasure side, but if you had a bigger budget I imagine you probably could do better.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
