My expectation with Early Access is that I will run into various issues, puzzle bugs and other cosmetic problems, but I can reasonably experience the game because I am still paying for a product, and I can't say that I can do it right now without ruining the experience, which is why the review is negative, because it's not even worth testing based on what I experienced. There is also some drama associated with the developer, I will save that note for last if you care to read it.
First impression, the game looks beautiful, you would not expect anything less than amazing illustrations from this artist, your style is certainly something that is instantly recognizable, which under the circumstances, seems like you were always the heart of these games at least when it comes to their overall aesthetic and themes, because lets be honest, it's probably the most striking thing about them. Just about every location and character has some unusual detail or theme to it, making it enjoyable to make progress and discover various scenes. The game isn't voice acted yet, which is another thing, Wormwood is partially associated with the brand of Wadjet's high quality voice acting, so we will have to see what you will get instead since you burning that bridge. I mean personally I have no problem playing the game without voice acting because it's a double-edged sword (can make it worse or better depending on delivery), but I understand that the remaining fans you have might expect it by association.
Very enjoyable vibes and the atmosphere so far, the world feels very alien in the way it's presented, familiar but also very different, actually slightly reminds of early works from Hayao Miyazaki, having those war themed stories with robots and automatons, the main difference is that your game feels less whimsical, although there is just a touch of that as well. Obviously it's easy to draw a direct comparison to Primordia, but as you talk about it, it seems I might be confusing your natural way of drawing with the themes, at least partially.
In the current state, there is a lot of random stutter in specific* locations, which is never a good sign for an adventure game, likely not a graphics problem, but a coding one. Like, I can tolerate the bugs and polish issues, but if I get stutter in 2D backgrounds of all things, you might as well wait for more updates and not ruin the experience. I am not sure how much of it is that moving effect you have in some rooms, but I suspect it's a combination of bad coding, weird pathing, and the effect combined. To be clear, it's specific to some locations, the room with the crane for example, and the first part of the balloon room as well, with the second part of that room not heaving nearly as much lag. It feels less like Early Access and more like beta test phase, I can't play the game for 5 minutes without something distracting me, sometimes it's the dialogue that moves all over the screen, under the icon, next to the icon, over the icon, sometimes just not having all the sound effects, sometimes just lagging when you move around. And I am not trying to trash on the game, like I can see it's a good game, we just not there yet where it's worth playing it.
On that note, the game lacks a rather large number of random sound effects, I would like for you to add a lot of basic things, maybe add some signals like beeps to a robot, even some random noises for a pigeon would be nice, just for it walking or even when you click on it.
[u] Dev drama, not directly relevant, but as a fan of everyone involved it would be weird not to comment on it [/u] - As a fan of both Wormwood Studios and everyone under the Wadjet Eye umbrella I was very confused when I saw this Primordia looking game that nobody wants to talk about in the adventure community, and after doing some investigation, it would appear that the artist of Primordia(developer of this game), is in conflict with other Wormwood developers, as well as the former publisher. Personally I never had a negative experience with his coworkers (as a fan and a customer), I think everyone respects them due to many years of good conduct, so when they collectively say the same thing, I tend to believe it. Also adventure community is a very small group of people where everyone seems to know everyone, so frankly I don't see the benefit of pushing your friends and fans away, so hopefully you will change your mind, or at least come to a reasonable resolution instead of a legal one. Personally I don't really like the idea of conflict outside of the game affecting how I feel about it, so I'll just support them separately, but it feels like you trying to cut them from the world they helped to shape.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
+ Very beautiful backgrounds/illustrations, some nice light effects and moving parts to the scenes, and just about every location or character has unusual design, making it rewarding to navigate
+ The world feels mysterious, alien and overall compelling to explore, interesting theme for the game
+ Has some interesting mechanics, you also get a Pigeon as a buddy for puzzles, not a completely new idea, but certainly a very welcome one.
+ Dialogue will need more polish, but overall I like the grounded nature of it, feels like you get treated like crap by the other characters, which kinda makes sense when you talking to all these laborers in the airship tunnels
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- I get a ton of stutter in some areas, I assume it's combination of coding issues, as well as certain visual effects that don't flow well with the movement/pathing of the screen. I mean maybe it's partially on my end but I really doubt it. So that is number one thing, adventure games should not lag, especially when they are 2D, and I refuse to play the game properly until those are addressed
- Dialogue is all over the place right, next to the icon, over the icon, under the icon, or somewhere else
- Could really use more sound effects for ambient and small interactions, say beeps for the little automaton, some noises for the pigeon
- Bugs but, that part I can deal with, it's early access so. There are also some images that overlap poorly, or don't scale well when you walk behind them
[b] Overall Thoughts on EA: 1/26/2025 [/b]
In my mind early access should be a polishing phase, not something that feels like a beta test, and right now the game feels like a beta test to me, and a laggy 25-gigs one at that. If you actually manage to polish it, sure I think the game itself is probably amazing, the visuals and the world are very interesting to me, but right now, until you fix that stutter all over the game, I don't even feel like ruining the experience for myself, fix that, and then maybe I can run through it and report some bugs or other polish issues.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
