Crashlands 2 Review (Sepulfly)
Disclaimer: I didn't play the first one. I played Level Head and got to know the BS guys through their podcast. I bought the game to support them. It's not really my genre.
The price is perfect. People complaining that they get ripped off because its twice the price on steam, misunderstand how mobile works. I would never pay more than 10 euro for a game on android. And I am not the only one. The game is not "scammy expensive" on steam, its "discounted cheap" on mobile.
It's a 30-40 hour game. Some of the 50 euro games i played, aren't that long.
On to my experiences.
I usually top out on games when i hit the 15 hour mark. If by then the end is not in sight, i break it off. Often not because of the quality, but because of the time investment. (a 60 hour game means i miss out on 4 other games, you know?). There's some exceptions. Main one being the latest two Zelda games. Where I just got lost in the world a bit, and kept doing stuff, and suddenly it's 4 hours later. Crashlands 2 has some of that.
That's a big compliment, right?! I look at my open quests, decide to do one, and couple hours later I figured out a weird mechanic about the big floaty whale guys. I did not progress on my quest. In fact, I probably got new quests added to the list. The list grew! That's the signs of something going right, i think.
So here I am, at the 15 hour mark. And I think i will push on for a bit longer. There's still a lot to explore. There's a lot of unknowns in the story. Not all my pets are fully grown yet. I need to push on. I will. I promise.
"Super plus things" are the colours, the atmosphere, the vibe, the shiney, the sounds, the music, the humour and the sadness. It works. I am not very far in the story yet, and it works.
"Plus things" are the combat, once you get used to it. The exploring, once you get used to it. The base building, once you get used to it. It all looks very much purposeful. Most things that look convoluted at first, I later realise there is a reason for it. And by then I am already used to it. It teaches you things at a good clip. And you never have the feeling like it is actually teaching you things. That's a pretty awesome quality.
"Neutral things" would be the length. I go into this blind. I don't usually buy games with zero indication of their length.
I think, if I were a fresh gamer, seeing this pop up on the HLTB dash with i dunno a 45 hour completion time, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have played it. Ever. But that's just me.
Also probably just me, but I think for a relative rpg-virgin these kinds of stats and buffs and craftings and options and choices is all a bit too overwhelming. Getting lost in the interface, looking for something, or confused about _what_ exactly the new helmet is going to do... it's frustrating.
"Negative things" i dunno. I think it is not perfectly clear what the main storyline is. It misses some focus there. If I decided right now that I just wanted to bee-line a bit to the finish I would not even know how to go about that. Everything seems important. And that makes the game feel too monolithic. It feels like I have to do everything.
It speaks to a certain sense of lack of agency. I am not sure anymore why Flux came here? Why are we not, you know, doing what she came here to do? Maybe we are... It is a bit unclear. We are helping an old person deal with their past? Okay. It's not that this isn't a beautiful story arc. It's that I am unsure, from a story-telling perspective why I am doing this?
After a while it's simply "because you are" and then it doesn't matter anymore. But at the beginning, it was a bit of a narrative force. Like the game was kinda saying "here's this person, best help them, that will start the game". Took me a while to get over that, I think. Not sure if I am over it completely. I mean. I am coming for a vacation, i think, right?? I have just built a house and have a couple of roommates and a bunch of pets. AND LAMPS. I have moved in. Was this the plan? It doesnt feel like this was the plan...
Anyways. that's the negative part.
Rest of it is okay. Great, even.