The Order of the Snake Scale

很难用一两句话表达我对The Order of the Snake Scale的惊喜之情。在看到steam评价只有10个、评论区贴子只有几个、并且没有社区指南的时候我还是犹豫的，后来在youtube检索到有个日本up主的通关录像我才下定决心买下它，因为至少这下我是能够保证通关的。 游玩的体验是非常良好、非常新奇的。有老生化那种蹩脚又复古的感觉，但是，又有一些完全不同于其他游戏的创新。首先，和一般的冒险游戏那种从A处拿到物品1、2、3，然后在B处互动拿到物品4，再到C处如此反复的模式不同，这个游戏增加了一些物理的解谜要素。譬如在垃圾场，当我想拿一个高台的物件时，必须将箱子推到高台边上，然后从旁边的斜坡上到箱子上再走到高台，从而拿到该物品。这个推箱子的过程不是通过点击交互实现的，没有一个点击的窗口可执行，而是直接操纵人去“推”这个物件的方式来实现。同样的，游戏中有的大门是点击进入的、但警察大楼的大门则是通过直接推门的方式进入，由于其他有些建筑的门是既无法点击也推不了的，这种必须点击互动的思维定式就一度让我忽略了警局大门。虽然这种设计看起来有点蹩脚，但反过来又会给人一种探索的感觉。 游戏的视角同样是令我惊讶的创新。在正常冒险时采用的是俯视角，而在瞄准时新开了一个第一人称的圆形窗口。这个窗口呈现的内容当然是完全和俯视角朝向的内容对应的，等于同时出现两个视角。这就表明游戏里面的建模是全3D的（尽管比较粗糙），而不是像一些等角游戏通过预渲染的方式搞了一些假场景，只有纸娃娃可动而场景完全扁平。 除了瞄准和更精细的观察环境外，这个第一人称窗口还有一个关键用处，就是可以发现可互动的道具，在瞄准窗中，这些道具会通过往四周发光的方式提示玩家——在其他一些游戏中，你可能能通过按tab键等方式将可互动道具高亮，但在该游戏中不能，你不清楚哪些是环境、哪些是可以互动的，那么通过打开这个瞄准窗口就可以实现甄别。 游戏的主题就不用多说了，非常的cult，非常正的克系风格，由一桩凶杀案引申到一个拜蛇邪教的故事，有借鉴但并不是照抄克系设定而来，此外还引入了一些反乌托邦世界观，虽然只是起到烘托背景的作用但是整体风味调得很好，并且和复古的玩法相得益彰。事实是大部分克系游戏压根做不出内味，而该游戏所效仿的这类以调查案件为起始、随着调查深入逐步接触到未知异象真相的故事则毫无疑问是呈现克系风格的一种最好的蓝本。游戏中所涉及到的血浆虽然有一些但没有到离谱的程度，没有像样的boss战，这点有点小遗憾。虽然说结局暗示了这只是系列的第一部，但如果销量不佳也许就不会有续作的可能，只售36元的价格相比其他独游来说还是十分良心的。 总结：纯正的克系游戏，强烈推荐。

Imagine if the T-1000 was a detective, hired to uncover a mysterious Cult. Futuristic top down view of a Lovecraftian horror infused nightmare, extremely original, especially the way the first person view works. My only problem with it is that you use both joysticks to control the character's movement, and unfortunately, I was never good at this so I slowly walked through it, like a drunken Terminator out of prom night. Absolutely recommended and it runs perfectly on Steam Deck as you can see by pressing the link below: https://youtu.be/wyLDjdCuQZE

It feels, looks, and sounds like a game straight out of the late 90's and I loved it for that. It's a narrative-heavy horror game that moves you quickly from one puzzle/mystery to the next, using quest items you find and acquire along the way. You play the role of a detective in a distant dystopian future, who gets wrapped up in an inter-dimensional cult conspiracy while investigating a murder. The game uses a 3rd person camera, but also mixes in a first person aiming/shooting mode which makes it feel quite unique. The first person mode also can help you navigate the environment and locate collectibles and interactive items. There's a lot of text to read, but unlike a lot of games, I didn't mind reading it and didn't get bored. The game is mostly linear, with a little bit of player option about the sequence of events that can be taken at certain points. There's very little hand holding when it comes to the solution/order of events needed to solve a puzzle and progress, which is actually something I liked. In terms of combat the game is extremely easy for any half-competent player. If you loot environments properly you'll have way more ammo and medical supplies than you could ever dream of using. Enemies also die rather easily. Your flashlight has infinite battery and you have no stamina bar so you can sprint as much as you want. If you enjoy retro horror games with a narrative driven story that focuses on using your brain to put clues together to advance the story then I think you'll find this a relaxing and enjoyable game. At the time of writing this I played the early access version of the game which is restricted to part one of the game. You can check out a (2 part) livestream I did here: https://www.youtube.com/live/wwsvJp1XcOg?si=StlfPj2AWfXml1ed

It's a really fun, compact, experience. The story is good, and the mood is excellent. The controls may take some getting used to (you can use the aim function for finer control) but once you do it really doesnt feel that clunky. It's largely puzzles, with some minor combat elements. it wont hold your hand, but it doesnt take much deduction to get where you need to go. I did brute-force one or two puzzles, but that is more due to my own stupidity than anything. Would definitly recommend it, especially for the price.

Genius puzzles, excellent conversations between characters, bizzare events and very authentic in general. Mabye lacks a bit in combat in the sense of too easy to kill them if you just spam them in the head (because they literally march into you in a straight line, but still, I'll give 9/10, thanks for an elegant breath of fresh air, that's how you do it!

I really enjoyed this little scrappy title. It's very much like an old school 90's, 3rd person, point and click adventure game with some fps thrown in. You'll do a lot of backtracking and the game doesn't hold your hand so location memorization is important while playing. Took over 6 hours for me and it has a good story with a worthy ending to your journey.

Interesting but tiresome, The Order of the Snake Scale combines the Twin Peaks pattern (government investigator called in to solve 'weird' murder of woman in small town) with some slight cyberpunk and cosmic horror elements. The writing has some charm and twists, but really needed a pass or two from a native English speaker. Puzzles are often obscure and frustrating, with related elements placed far away from each other, requiring onerous trudging across a dull, oversized map in order to test theories and find items. Traversal is fine, minimal jank. Combat is fiddly, despite the innovative camera-in-camera 'aiming view' when the player prepares a ranged attack. Ammunition is seems incredibly scarce, which is a problem for a game with this kind of artificial length - I can see players investing a lot of time into this only to be unable to finish the experience due to a lack of bullets. Sound effects are okay, music is passable, though it does tend to repeat and incorporates a number of stings into background tracks which will occasionally make you think something dramatic is about to happen... and then nothing does. Controls are mostly okay, though the pad layout seems a little unwieldy. There's some decent low-poly modelling, but textures are extremely dull and lifeless - they're meant to convey a miserable atmosphere, but just left me feeling miserable. Fixed multicam is mostly competant, though nearly every camera is a panning/tracking shot - you kinda wonder why you don't just use continuous third person at that point. Supposedly this is the beginning of a larger arc. If I have one wish for subsequent entries in the series, I'd request that the developer focus on concentrating their experience over a smaller area. The running time might be shorter, but it'd be easier to test, and would probably provide a more fun experience for players. Only for survival horror die-hards or fixed camera lunatics...!

Happy Rock isn't so happy. This is a survival game in the vain of the older ones. I didnt like how we couldnt use the mouse on the menus. The shootin' mechanics are interestin..it works. Goes to a first person picture in picture view. I didnt get too far mainly coz I was not sure how to get to the police station ha. Intrigued to continue tho. Gameplay Impressions: https://youtu.be/PRbLMhsPCtw

The Order of Snake Scale je jedna za dvou her, kterou vyrábí FM Simple Games Studio a je to mix retro adventury s fixní kamerou a FPS střílečky. Zasazení je do nevelkého městečka "Happy Rock" kam hl. hrdina přijíždí jako detektiv vyřešit vraždu. Později se dovídá, že za vraždou stojí kult uctívačů hada a ovládá celé město včetně zkorumpované policie a dalších. Mezi významné oblasti kam se detektiv dostane je továrna s laboratoří, stoky a doly. Gameplay se skládá hlavně s hledáním předmětů v herním světě, jeho kombinací na předem určených místech, nebo výměnou u lidí. Engine využívá fyzikální model, kdy věci na zemi (mrtvoly, krabice) můžeme odkopnout, nebo odtlačit (vozík, brána). Hra podporuje i akční režim, kdy se po stisknutí tlačítka přepneme do prvního pohledu, ale to jenom v omezeném kolečku, jakéhosi červeného spektra pro lepší zaměření nepřátel. V tomto je hra velice originální, ještě jsem neměl možnost vyzkoušet tuto kombinaci v žádné hře. Hrdina má asi implantát oka s rentgenovým viděním podobný jako u terminátora (T-800). Když jsem hrál hru dýchla na mě atmosféra starších titulů z 90. let a výrazně k tomu dopomohla i hudba, které se mi velmi líbila. Co se mi nelíbilo byly zvuky, které měly velmi špatnou kvalitu a přehrávají se jenom v blízkosti věcí, které je dělají a to bez ztišení a zesílení, což je velmi rušivé. Hru můžu doporučit hlavně hráčům logických adventur, protože tady každá kombinace předmětů dává smysl, problém je jenom najít místa, kde je použít, nebo sebrat a to zbytečné běhání kolem okolo. Akční režim je značně omezený, nepřátel málo a munice taky, takže tady bych to spíš nedoporučil. Zápory: - Po přepnutí do FPS režimu velmi padá framerate. - Zvuky. - Grafika. - Jedna zbraň. - Někdy zbytečné běhání po mapě. Klady: - Retro styl terminátora 90. let. - Atmosféra důlního městečka. - Hudba. - Logická kombinace předmětů. - Neomezený inventář. - Save pointy u monolitů. - Detektivní mysteriózní příběh. - Zajímavý konec příběhu a rozhodně se těším na pokračování.

Order of the Scale Scale is a solid little puzzle-heavy survival horror with unique mechanics and an interesting world. You are a detective investigating a murder in a small town, resisting the late stage capitalistic pull of the corporate government (which is hiding many secrets). You run around an interconnected map, solving puzzles and killing enemies, and it’s a pretty great time. The combat switches from a fixed camera 3rd person to first person, similar to what Holstin will be doing. It works pretty well despite a bit of clunkiness. But the main draw is the puzzles and world building, which I think were both done pretty well. I never got fully stumped, but was still often challenged on my observation and logic skills. Very satisfying game to beat. It’s not really high on the horror scale, it’s much more a strange cosmic horror detective game, but it borrows so much from the genre that I would still label it a survival horror game. But it’s definitely built for puzzle lovers, so if you like that aspect of the genre then definitely pick it up.