Publisher: Hello Games
Developer: Hello Games
Platform: PS4, XB1, PC, Switch
Genre: Puzzle-Solving
Hello, what's this? Am writing from a different account? Yeah, apparently my primary is kind of caught in some odd mislabeling from coughH!@#watchercough. Since appealing is taking very long I've decided to use this for the time being. I'll also publish about tech and cultural intricacies surrounding that. Now, please enjoy the read of an unexpected release from No Man's Sky developers
Games these days are just mashed into similar categories together. Sure, there's something unique, quite unique in fact that it makes them sort of stand out. This isn't exactly that. The indie game scene has grown a lot and there's so many ways you can sell your games these days even with notoriety of such like Hello Games.
But then again, real question is, did I enjoy playing this? Well, somewhat. I wouldn't exactly call it a head turner, especially now that games themselves have evolved far past the early 2010s phase. Even then, playing this, I can tell they've tried to be unique and it does blossom in a few moments even if it diminishes as well in others. As derivative as this game can be, thematically and because of the story and music, it does a good job standing out for a bit.
I did somewhat lost my interest after the halfway playthrough even for a game of this length. But it does payoff in the end, there is a decent story here. Let me get to the nitty gritty before I bore myself trying to finish this paragraph adding more interesting tidbits.
Story
You play as a lost Forlom called Ember, as a bunch of you and your fellow Forloms got lost on their journey and so you, awakened from your slumber, must find his friends and return them to life by solving interestingly complex yet simple puzzles.
That's actually it. Most of the atmosphere is set as this lost adventure where the protagonist rekindles life into his friends and reunites them from faiths worse than death. The narration sounds like some girl in her preteens reading a storybook. British style storytelling. Lot of nice subliminal subplots thanks to its folklore approach to introducing them.
It's nice wholesome experience of traversing areas, interacting with characters with majority of it being just exploration and puzzle-solving.
If your kids played this or younger siblings, they'll enjoy this. It's good for a whole night playthrough since the game is short. While I like what they're doing here, it's definitely not fitting for adults who played too many games and got caught up in the post-modernism of it all.
Am giving this game some flack but the writing and dialogues are really good. The story and world is well consistent thanks to its charms and characters. Just doesn't push grounds or break the mold entirely. Least even go further.
Gameplay
This game has two things mostly going for. Puzzle solving and interaction based events. You explore areas to look for other lost Forloms and restore their essence back. Easiest way to put it is that you explore different areas, interact with certain characters till they open pathways or give you directions. Sometimes it takes a bit to interact with them in order to progress through the story.
Sometimes you'll get pickups from chests like codex messages from the beyond. These are written limericks about lost Forlom or other beings experiences.
Other stuff like you'll be able to do is talk to giant frogs. Engage in conversations with 2-3 dialogue choices on the bubbles above. Though, it's pretty much as you'd expect, nothing too subtle just direct about what the dialogue incurs.
Exploring levels with the main objective of finding lost Forlom and rescuing them, sometimes you need to find items like locks or important items that are given to you after engaging in dialogue with several characters.
There isn't much of a side-content that's in this game per say. It's a direct game where you save your friends and free yourself from this pish posh adventure game. It's not entirely defeating the purpose of the game if you get sidetracked but it feels like lost cause in a sense.
This took me around 6hrs to complete, it's pretty short. I did like the ending, but after bearing with the boredom a bit, I did wish for more. The initial impression for this game was pretty great, it kind of went downhill right after the rescuing was done.
There's no fights, there's just specific prompt based events for immersion, you interacting with characters, exploring the map, finding passages, solving puzzles and that's it. Not a bad way to go off, but I've gotten weird Dontnod kind of skeptical feelings where the potential was there, the first impression got me but right after hook and sinker, it was started to feel a bit dreary.
Production Value
Yeah, for a game with good lighting affects and wonderful post-processing, the textures can look really muddy sometimes. Like I've seen 2012 games look similar yet little more polished. It's disappointing, somewhat. No mention of game engine, maybe I've missed something but I can't find info, maybe made using their No Man's Sky engine.
Despite the video quality(gee, no support for Xbox bar recording or Radeon ReLive), the sound design is actually pretty good. Whole quirky feel to it with the nice soft tap every time I use the menu or walk around the grasses. It works as a gentle reminder of the games timid nature.
That being said, this is a lousy port too. Not much to change in graphical settings, no vsync on and off and doesn't support overlays from recording softwares besides one like Xsplit because they don't use in-game overlays the same way ReLive or GeForce does.
Verdict
Ok, this was a good attempt at making a game this touching. Like, there's a lot of charm, good writing and decent story to back it up. The gameplay stays fine with challenging puzzles to solve, but the whole thing wears out right after the 4hr mark.
Because of its charm wearing out at the last end, the pay off didn't go well for me. Nonetheless, it is a good experience. Maybe am being too picky, but yeah, there's too many good fish in the sea atm. This is a fine one at that.