The River

Игра 'The River' – это спокойная и медитативная экономическая стратегия, в которой игроки строят небольшие поселения вдоль реки. Геймплей достаточно прост в освоении, но предлагает множество возможностей для стратегического планирования. Приятная графика и расслабляющая музыка создают умиротворяющую атмосферу, заставляющую возвращаться в игру снова и снова. Основной акцент сделан на управлении ресурсами, строительстве зданий и развитии инфраструктуры. Важно грамотно распределять работников и учитывать потребности поселенцев, чтобы обеспечить стабильный рост и процветание. Каждый ход требует взвешенных решений, а последствия кажутся не сразу, что добавляет глубины игровому процессу. Несмотря на кажущуюся простоту, 'The River' обладает реиграбельностью. Каждый раз возникают новые вызовы, а разные комбинации зданий и улучшений позволяют экспериментировать с различными стратегиями развития. Игра идеально подходит для тех, кто ищет спокойное и вдумчивое времяпрепровождение.

Generally a very interesting and good time for a game under an hour. The concept of the game is really cool exploring the theme of the human soul after death as your main character transposes themself as they explore the person they are or wanted to be. The music and art are a big plus for the game, I especially appreciate every encounter including a variation of the games main theme depending who you met and when you met them. (title screen music would of been nice though). The art I think speaks for itself, very simple (only black and white colours) but very striking and detailed which also serves to amplify a scene later on to make for a very memorable visual. My only gripe is the story, well entertaining and genuinely intriguing at times the mystery of the story seems to dissolve before you really want it too and I would of liked a little more reasoning to the main character's backstory. While it doesn't detract from the overall product of the game and to me at least the question it poses to the player at the end of the game, but some minor tweaks could of elevated the experience. Overall, I had a great time and would recommend trying it out if you got an hour to spare you won't be disappointed.

Los ríos son comúnmente asociados con el más allá en la mitología clásica. El río Estigia es más que conocido en la cultura popular por ello, una corriente de agua que separa ambos mundos: el de los vivos y el de los muertos; un camino recorrido por el barquero Caronte que guía las almas de los fallecidos hacia el inframundo a cambio de una moneda. Sobre esta simbología nada sutil se asienta The River, un videojuego point & click centrado en un alma amnésica recién llegada al más allá que ha de recuperar sus recuerdos. En The River las memorias se reconstruyen en base a otras personas conectadas de manera misteriosa al protagonista, lo que abre una veda a mi pesar quizá poco explorada en esta obra, que es la cuestión de la identidad: ¿somos nuestras acciones? ¿O nuestras relaciones con otras personas? ¿Podemos ubicar nuestra identidad en base a la percepción de terceros, en la forma en la que nos ven? ¿Es entonces la identidad un concepto que ha de erigirse en un contexto social o es algo que puede sobrepasarlo? Si bien The River se desliza de forma superficial sobre estas preguntas, no ahonda demasiado en ellas, aunque tampoco creo que sea correcto reprochar a un título que no sea como a mí me gustaría. Este videojuego cuenta una buena historia, con un giro de guion demasiado predecible, pero sólida, que prefiere centrarse un poco más en temas como la maldad humana. Creo que es también valioso el hecho de que gracias a él yo misma haya podido formular esas preguntas. Además, The River tiene varios detalles muy bien pensados que acompañan y refuerzan su narrativa, como el hecho de que tras cada conversación nuestra apariencia se revela un poco más y que al avanzar se vayan añadiendo más instrumentos y voces al solitario piano inicial. Junto a sus bellos gráficos pixelados y monocromáticos, The River es ideal para pasar un ratito corto.

This isn't a game. It is a digital e-book/visual novel masquerading as a game on Steam. There isn't any actual gameplay here, just clicking through some of the worst writing to insult the concept of literature. This is the kind of writing that would never be accepted by a real book publisher, leading to this being dumped onto Steam Direct for $100 as if it was a game... it's not. This point + click e-book is presented with garbage monochrome pixelcrap "art" (ugh) and of course the book plot and subject... yes, you guessed it, this is a high school anime club dropout fan-fiction about the author and his imaginary girlfriend experiencing the afterlife, because what could be more cringey? Visual novels/e-books are the worst way to try read a book (and they're always written far worse than real books too). Imagine reading your favorite book, be that War and Peace or The Davinci Code (are you ok??), but you have to click the mouse for every single sentence that appears. You'd hate it. It's a garbage way to try read a book... and even if it wasn't, this still isn't a game. Now take that annoying clicking and add utterly cringey high-school anime club dropout writing to it. Real authors are published in print and found in Barnes & Noble. This garbage only ended up on Steam because they paid $100 to self-publish, because let's face it, professional publishers would not only reject this garbage they saw it, they'd take out restraining orders. E-books are technically simple, and don't require any of the heavy features that actual cutting edge PC games need... in fact, the whole thing can be done in a web browser. There's no justification for charging money on Steam for what might as well be a webpage. We don't buy gaming rigs to spend money on something Chrome or Firefox could do. Even as a free e-book, this couldn't find an audience, not just because this is Steam, for PC games, not garbage e-books. With a peak of only 5 concurrent readers, it's clear nobody wanted this. They literally couldn't pay people to read it. Even more comical, to satisfy the global demand for this book, you'd only ever need to print 5 copies. And that's probably too many. While this e-book's free, you can get better quality books and comics for free online or from public libraries. Steam is for PC games. Your gaming rig is not a Kindle or a mobile phone e-book reader. It's impossible for me to recommend things to PC gamers that aren't really games.

Эх... Крайне смешанное мнение об игре. По началу думал, что будет очень грустная игра. Геймплейно все отлично, визуал и музыка очень приятны. Сюжет интересен только в начале до Мэгги и до эпилога. Все остальное по сюжету заставляет злиться из-за глупой логики героев и ГГ. ОСТОРОЖНО: СПОЙЛЕРЫ! [spoiler] Почему Фьо начал войну из-за одиночества? Почему его друзья отвернулись от него? Почему у него такие глупые оправдания перед Герри? [/spoiler] Из явных плюсов отмечу то, что игра бесплатная и есть 1 ачивка. 7/10. Рекомендую проходить под пивко. Душа у игры все таки есть...

Felt emotional while reading through the story. Would recommend.