Seen Review (Szczerbartek)
TL;DR - Shallow and disappointing experience, new achievement every second, zero immersion, presentation of the game built different expectations than what it is
So, from the trailer, screenshots and the vibe it seemed to be the game like Little Nightmares, Limbo or Inside. What i mean by that is lots of symbolism, as well as playing on your feelings through silent narration. Many positive reviews made me buy it. My problems with it?
-To that mix was added Bit Trip Runner. First segment and in many more our character runs by himself to the right, you just have to change lanes up and down and sometimes jump.
-Motivational quotes everywhere. That just makes the experience shallow and less broad (everyone interpreting the game differently) and takes away from the symbolism that would benefit this type of game
-About shallowness of the game: there's not much symbolism to begin with. Messages are pretty on the nose. Yes, it is me expecting the game to be what it's not, but can you blame me after such a short description by the team of what this game is in the first place?
Final nail to the coffin: Achievements
I guarantee you that's the main reason why this game has so many positive reviews. It's one of those games to play to get achievements to spell something funi on your steam profile. Like, alright, i wouldn't mind it much, but when i get a new achievement every 0.5 second whenever i pick up one more insignificant blob of whatever it simply pulls me away from whatever message this game tried to carry.
I stopped playing the game when i got to the part where i was forced to spell letters and numbers to progress, and when i spelled it on a 3x5 keypad, i would get an achievement with said letter/number on it.
I'm just disappointed, honestly. There were few moments in the game where it seemed like they were going somewhere with the narration they were trying to build, but that moment just killed so little hope i had for the game left. Art is decent, music pretty chill and fitting, but they threw so much needed in this type of game immersion out of the window and set it ablaze.
One good thing? i got it for like 30 cents, so not much of a loss