The Last Spark

"The Last Spark" is a bit of a showcase game from a hopeful studio "Electronic Revolution Studios", who never made a game since. Which I think is a bit of a shame because the graphics here look okay... but they failed a really basic IQ test for designing PC games. Seems the developers never saw a mouse before and demand you use a console peasant children's toy to play the game. Then they wondered why PC gamers weren't interested in their game. When developers screw up in such fundamental ways, well, I'm not surprised, I've seen a lot of bad games and developer failures. But usually without such nice art assets. Developers must learn that when designing PC games, it's vital to facilitate the wide array of inputs available to gamers, and of course, absolutely 100% must facilitate customisable KB+M controls that the vast, overwhelming majority of PC gamers use. Game developers must never dictate to gamers how a game must be played or how a PC must be configured. That arrogance almost certainly lead to this game failing. The graphics in this game are really quite good, which at least makes the game look more appealing. And while it's vital for any game to have impressive visuals (gaming is a visual medium, after all), there's more to a game than just the graphics. To be worth a gamers time, the game must match top tier visuals with top tier gameplay, and that's not happening here. Not every "free" game really is. There's often MTX, or content locked behind DLC, or donations being requested, or any other number of things 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. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 4 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? Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough.

Electronic Revolution Studios'un ilk oyununu tanıtan Spark the Last Robot, oyuncunun fabrikanın derinliklerine dalmak ve nasıl geri döneceğini bulmak için her odadaki denemeleri çözmesi gereken bir robot olan Spark'ı kontrol ettiği bir bulmaca platform oyunudur. robot arkadaşlarına elektrik sağlaman lazım.

never saves a game, it glitches, and crashes... all in all... its uninstalled...

Игра 'The Last Spark' приятно удивила своей трогательной историей и медитативным геймплеем. В роли последнего светлячка, мы путешествуем по угасающему миру, возвращая свет в некогда прекрасные места. Визуальная составляющая поражает своей атмосферностью: приглушенные тона, детализированные пейзажи и мягкое свечение нашего героя создают невероятно успокаивающую атмосферу. Геймплей прост и интуитивен, что позволяет полностью погрузиться в исследование окружения и решение несложных головоломок. Чувствуется, что разработчики вложили душу в создание этого мира, каждый уголок которого наполнен историей и печалью. Единственным минусом можно назвать небольшую продолжительность, однако насыщенность впечатлений от игры с лихвой это компенсирует. Рекомендую всем, кто ищет красивую и трогательную игру, способную подарить несколько часов умиротворения. Однозначно стоит внимания, особенно любителям нарративных приключений.

The Last Spark is a fun challenging puzzle platformer at its best, and an infuriating buggy mess at its worst. Before I get into it, I'd like to note that I did not complete the game due to running into a game breaking bug. [h1]The Positives[/h1][list] [*]The game starts of very well, with decent onboarding and a slow introduction to the type of challenges a player will face. [*]Mechanics are readable and most are used effectively and interestingly in the puzzles and challenges set. [*]Visually the game looks great, the character design is decent and the industrial aesthetic of the game falls somewhere between [*]Robots (the 2005 movie) and Ratchet & Clank, although lacking the colorful aspect of either. [*]There are also some nice technical achievements in the game, like the power cables and the chains you can swing from. [*]Resets are quick and checkpoints are given often, this reduces frustration when a challenge has to be repeated multiple times. [/list] [h1]The Negatives[/h1][list] [*]The difficulty of the game spikes greatly as soon as you reach the rising water challenge. [*]While the aesthetic looks great, the set dressing is often interfering with the precision required in certain challenges, and in a few occasions it can be used to circumvent some challenges completely. [*]While on the topic of precision, metrics are not used very well. From the very start of the game even basic mechanics don't leave a lot of room for error, and jumps require near perfect execution to reach required heights or distances. [*]A big reliance on physics for certain mechanics causes some of them to be unreliable and unpredictable in use. [*]Certain mechanics are not used effectively or interestingly at all, such as the flashlight. [*]Unless they are small enough, most puzzles don't have a clear goal until after you start interacting with random elements. [*]There is also no coherent connection between puzzles, there is no natural progression for the challenges, mechanics are introduced and abandoned before making a sudden and unexpected comeback. [*]"Return to checkpoint" does not reset certain mechanics, making it an utterly useless feature in some challenges. [*]The game does not save, you either finish it in a single sitting, or you don't finish it at all, especially frustrating when you run into a game breaking bug. [/list] [h1]Tl;Dr[/h1] The Last Spark is a fun and challenging little puzzle platformer that is compelling enough to sink an hour into it. Unfortunately the game falls apart because of its rather hostile difficulty curve, unreliable mechanics and lack of a decent save/reset feature. It feels like a well-polished student project that is just unfortunately polished in all the wrong places. I still recommend the game. Even though it feels incomplete in its design and execution, it still provides a good hour of fun.

[h1]Before I played The Last Spark, I had a small pp, no friends, no gf, depression, and no life. These things havent changed, but the game is pretty good[/h1]

☀️