The Gunk

Hmmmm. I enjoyed the game - Some good ideas well executed, and some good ideas not so well executed. It was fun, but short (completed in ~6.5 hours with some back and forth. I may play again just to complete the encyclopedia and... another tool slot?) It has a clever idea (erasing the gunk), but that mechanic was limited and inconsistently implemented. Tools \ actions were simple, but again, inconsistent. I liked the maps. Some very good use of colour, and on the whole, well laid out. Some simple puzzles, and some simple puzzles let down a bit by inconsistencies elsewhere. Inconsistencies? Yes - Left mouse for suck, right mouse for aim. unless you look towards the camera, or get knocked down, or sometimes finish dialogue, then sometimes neither works. Or suck fails. Or aim fails. Usually at the wrong / worst time [spoiler](elevator ride \ fights)[/spoiler]. Some frantic clicking or running around and its back to normal (not a programmed mechanic issue, suck should work all the time, until it doesn't). Pulling buttons to make something happen worked well, until you could not see all the items being affected. Minor issue - Just scout the area well first to find the likely movable objects... Maps are good but sometimes difficult to identify the path from an alternative route until too late and the next scene loads - Quite a few times I headed back to explore previous environment further. Nice placement of nooks and crannies for 'secrets', some sense of accomplishment for finding some of them. Good use of colour and grey (does anyone remember WizBall - Grey \ monochrome until you collected the paint - Same here when gunk is cleaned) - Cheerful and well placed colours for flora and fauna, suited the vibe very well. Good animal model (early on) - Looked good, animated well, and moved fluidly... [spoiler]But just the one animal and only in 1 or 2 scenes? Place did look sparse \ lifeless.[/spoiler] But, shadows were very dark (especially inside) - Quite a few times I could not see the gunk in dark shadows and could not progress until all gunk was gone. (Example - remaining gunk was "small amount, outside the room, beneath the door - it took multiple sweeps and 30 minutes to find it). Mid-act (desolation) was.... [spoiler]disorientating. Did I do the previous bit correctly? It felt a little "bolted on".[/spoiler] I don't want to knock the game. It's good, but it felt a little unpolished. I feel that there are lots of opportunities to expand this game with DLC or a phase 2 mainly due to lots of very good ideas (used by other titles, but worked well here). If there was an expansion or DLC, I would likely buy it.