Heaven Island - VR MMO Review (Kyzka)
Apparently when we die our soulless body is off to an island where we can gather sea shells and apples for eternity? Seriously that's your idea of heaven Mr Developer? Personally I tried everything to free myself from the monotony of this walking simulator. I looked around everywhere for sharp corners I could impale my wisp on. I tried drowning myself. I tried climbing the tallest mountain and free falling to make a sand angel. Alas a soulless body can't seem to die.
There isn’t really anything to do in this game other than pick up mundane objects that continually respawn for zero purpose and to walk around being preached to about Buddhism quotes which are found on various pedestals. Every quote you read will eventually change the colour of your soul as you become more enlightened in the ways of Zen which serves also zero purpose as it just randomly changes colour with no ultimate goal.
This is a MMO which means it’s supposed to be massive multiplayer, which again serves zero purpose as there is NO interaction you can do with anyone other than watch their wisp float around the island looking just as lost as you are.
This game started out with a LOT of controversy where the developer tried to bribe someone to change their negative review by handing out free game keys, when this was publicly advertised with proof, that's when a tsunami of negative reviews hit the steam store. Most of it has been covered up by the developer deleting various attacks in discussion and flagging reviews, which only strengthened everyone's opinion that the developer couldn't handle constructive criticism. There is still proof in the back of the discussion board of this happening, but a LOT has been deleted.
Since the developer likes to preach advice in game, here is some preaching in return. When people criticise you or product, raising your hands, voice, going into a tantrum is NEVER going to stop the criticism from coming towards you. Since none of us are perfect, we ALL will at some point be criticised in our life. So, would it not be more wise to examine any criticism to see what points are VALID? All a critic wants is to have their voice listened too. Personally I feel you have let your emotions get the better of you in the past and you ignored MUCH of the constructive criticism.
People have frequently complained about there being no END goal. Changing your souls colour does not serve any purpose, maybe change that so that once your soul is enlightened enough you can move on. Secondly people have complained frequently about not enough interaction. There are many objects that appeal to someone like a piano, or a playground, but there is NO interaction to be done with such things, which make them boring and turns a person’s experience with the game into a disdainful one. You constantly preach about sharing and caring and that small things are a 'function' to the overall worlds function, but can you create meaningful tasks in game that actually demonstrate this? Certainly it would make each statement stand out that whole lot more.
People have constantly complained about the controls, and I myself found the looking around to be very, very awkward. Game pad was practically unplayable. Can you also introduce a crouch feature? Hundreds have literally informed you that the game glitches or breaks forcing a person to restart. This is still the case there were MANY, MANY places I was able to glitch my soul on. For instance jumping into the playground from entering it, will break the game.
I understand that you may be just trying to share a relaxing atmosphere along with some inspirational quotes, but in all honesty I saw nothing here that a genuine walk in a park or along the beach in real life would not equally, or serve as a more productive task. Likewise a trip to the local library and reading some books, would be more inspirationally productive than what this product offers on a whim. Because of a lack of 'end goal' and no 'example of statements' any nobility here is as transitory and forgotten as a glance of a morning mist. The message therefore soon becomes vanity itself.
In final, a beautiful map and a lot of earnest hard work wasted on a vain attempt to inspire self-preservation, but because of an overly sensitive developer, the product has failed to become a successful and meaningful MMO. Hopefully that will change down the track, I really do hope the developer will start to look into the criticism to see what maybe is VALID.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabio-ferrara-92bb0832