It's - perhaps unexpectedly, more of a puzzle game than a chaotic "goat simulator" game? I knew it wasn't wild chaos like goat simulator - but it was definitely more sedate and structured than I imagined. But, it's fun - and the task list is really neat. It basically layers a puzzle on top of another. From the item on the list - I need to figure out what the puzzle is (how do I do the thing or, for trickier ones, create a situation such that the thing that needs doing gets done) and then figure out how to execute it.
I've cleared the first two areas - I think there are two or three more? So, not a very long/big game. I think. The new areas might be huge? I doubt it.
My main concern is that since I imagine the puzzles will become more convoluted, I'm worried that the wonkiness in the controls (mostly the thing the goose is locked on to seems wonky at times) will lead to a spike in frustration later on. I hope I'm wrong but we'll see.
Chapter 5 was surprisingly underwhelming. Almost boring if I'm being honest.
You play as a cat, which was fine. You have to run around town finding conversations - some are UI-evident others just require that you sit there an listen. There's a lot of sitting and listening, much more than choosing. So, I started to get bored and...well, the ending was sort of a fizzle for me because of this. I couldn't tell you what happened in the end (I think there are different endings based on choices you make) but...no bang, no whimper, no nothing is how I'd describe my experience with it.
It seems unfair for me to say it like that. Perhaps I just was really tired that day? Not willing to really pay attention? Could be.
Overall though, I did enjoy the game and think it was an interesting experience. Most salient for me is how cinematic it is - there's lots of interesting camera work, and framing, and more. And even the interactive parts are changing around and in this sense there's a nice amount of variety. But I think I mentioned all this already. Didn't change with Act V. So, all's well in that sense.
And, I think I understand why so many people adore this game. There's a few things I think are really interesting design-wise, but for the most part it's not really about the game's game-ness...
a. The interface when you're moving around/driving on the map is really slick. It feels quite natural and it works well when you change roads and so on.
b. The game changes perspectives A LOT. In most games you make dialogue choices for your characters. Here it feels like you make choices for all the characters - sometimes alternating even within the same conversation. It's a bit unsettling but really interesting in a special way. I do feel like I have to pay closer attention to see who's saying what and what I want the responses to be.
c. The game really does a good job in being cinematic in the sense of having interesting camera movements and positions and framing and so on. So, it's like the photographic direction is really good. The camera pulls back after a minute in some areas, as you move around the camera follows you but may also zoom in or out and show more/less stuff. It's quite clever. My guess is that it was hand/custom coded for each scene/moment?
I have no idea where the story is going, the plot is all weird and all over the place, but I am curious to see/know where it all ends.
It's been a while since I've played a game, at night, and completely lost track of time...and went to bed super late as a result. So, this one's special in that sense at least.
I as trying to describe it to a friend and it's...a few things? There's lots of reading, and lots of choices - and there's a rich narrative with plenty of scripted things (I think!) and lots of branches and characters to interact with and so on. Options open up depending on what your attributes are - and the game is set up such that you cannot max them all out - you have to kind of pick how much time you want to dedicate to each. So, this opens up new things to do with the characters, and more possibilities of "tasks" (each task is one month of game time, and you play from age 10 to 19...with, I think, 12 months a year. You also gain stress so every now and then you need to spend a month resting).
And the tasks? Each tasks causes stress but also results in increases to character stats (boost Engineering and Charisma!) and, possibly, increases to relationships with the other characters.
Each task is a card game. You draw a hand of cards and then you have to play five of them and hopefully beat a target number. Beat it by a lot and you might get a bonus. For some tasks, meet the difficulty exactly to get a bonus. AND, cards get bonus points when they are next to each other in certain patterns: straights (increasing numbers), suit (there are three colors, matching is good), and value (same number neighbors is good). As you play you pick up new cards, some are better than others and they often have special effects, like boost neighbor and so on.
The game was hard at the beginning because I did not understand the system really - but when it all clicked, it got super easy. As in, I never failed a challenge again. BUT, you also pick up items that you can use to help out (boost a card, draw an extra card, etc.). BUT, i still enjoyed the puzzle of getting to the difficulty number from the cards in hand.
As for the story - it's really neat. You play a kid, and the kid has other friends as kids. And you basically grow up together! They change over the years, they specialize in new things, get crushes, date, etc. And all of this on an alien planet that is very dangerous and you're trying to survive (the colony is) and stuff gets worse and harder and worse. And. There's a whole mystery as well. I only figured out some stuff, but there's more to learn.
