I love psychedelia, either in music, art or playing psychedelic looking games, unfortunately I was quite disappointed in TRIP: Steam Edition after experiencing it for nearly 10 hours in bite-sized chunks over the last 24 hours since I purchased it; that is, at least in its present state. As it is early access I may change my opinion as time progresses, but that will depnd on what the developer does for the game. It says the artware is an open world environment; for me that conjures up the thought that you are able to explore every part of the world you find yourself in. Sadly I found there were many places I wasn't able to explore, for example trying to get from many places via hills, you aren't able to climb anything steeper than about 45 degrees, this basically locks off loads of area of the world so far created. I tried for hours to find ways to access certain area's, but was always held back by the inability to climb anything too steep.
The actual artware/game (I include game because Steam imply that its also a game when it asks the question, 'Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?') is basically an exploration game, nothing else, just wandering around looking at the weird shapes and colors. For several minutes I found this quite exciting and stimulating, but eventually found it a little bit too much after an hour of wandering around. I was determined to contine, but had to break the experience up into chunks.
I know the developer has said they intend expanding the game and adding different worlds. I'm sure those additions will add a little more interest. also they said that the game was a visually tantalizing open world artware that culminates the player to relax and enjoy a safe enviroment for them to explore at their own pace and that there are no objectives, no rules, just beauty and art. Yes, I can agree with that, it does definitely help you to relax, but why are we calling it a game , or more truthfully selling it as a game. As a piece of experimental artware, I'd be happy, but I wanted a game.. Okay, I read the description and still purchased the 'artware'. Still I wasn't expecting it to be so tedious. Lets hope the additional content the developer has promised will materialize and expand on what's already here and in fact evolve it into more than just artware; lets see an artware based game with some substance to it.
for example:
I really think think the game/artware needs a little more than just more places to explore. We need some incentives to carry on exploring the world; maybe some puzzles to unlock hidden area's, mini games, or even a mode that allows some sort of co-operative play or PvP. These would certainly add interest and IMO would increase the numbers buying this game three fold or more.
Thankfully the price of the game even without the initial release discount is quite cheap at £4.49 (probably even cheaper in the US), but, unless you really like games with little content apart from weird, colorful and pretty visuals, I'd steer clear unless it goes on sale or the developer adds some thing more to do apart from wandering around. To be honest, I can't believe I've spent 10 hours on this game. (Maybe I was enjoying myself so much i didn't realize the time, though it's more likley I fell asleep at times at the keyboard. :)
To the developer. If you do read this, I'd like to say, I really want to like this game, the color palette you've used is excellent, the visuals are pretty awesome and the game has loads of potential, but please please please add some content (some examples quoted above) that gives the player an incentive to carry on playing, or at least add the ability to interact with other players or NPC's, maybe make the odd characters and animals (eg the camel) that I found in game actually animated rather than just statuesque. I really did loved the visuals and look forwards to seeing more, but I can't recommend this to my friends as it stands.
