Recent reviews by Yirg

This is supposed to be an art experience, not a game. That's fine if the art was interesting or emotionally moving, but although it deals with loaded subjects such as death and loss of loved ones, it's neither interesting nor emotionally moving.

3.5/10

Pros:
+ It's different. I'm in favor of more art experiences on Steam. The platform already has plenty of real games.
+ No fillers. The game is about as long as it should be for the experience that it aim to provide, which is just a few minutes.

Cons:
- Nothing about the game is actually good. The idea, controls, graphics, sound are all poor and don't add up to anything that's worth your time. The music (a single song) is ok, but not as moving as it could be.
- Instructions are misleading. To finish the game you need to get up and leave the graveyard and not listen to the song. If you do listen to it, Alt+F4 seems to be the only way to exit the game

This game is not worth buying. I guess there's no harm in activating and spending a few minutes to "play" this game (or art experience) if you got it as a gift or via a bundle, but other than running without crashing it doesn't have any redeeming qualities. Skip it.

4/10

Pro:
+ Skills are added gradually and have a nice variety.

Cons:
- Made me seasick, which almost never happens to me in 3D games.
- Nothing that's really interesting to do.
- No story.
- Poor graphics, with practically no textures
- Questionable physics - at least one Invisible wall; Destroying the bottom of cube piles doesn't make the cubes above fall.
- Double jump is buggy
- No way to save the game. If you quit, you have to start over.
- Had to refer to a walkthrough (by Woodys Games, on youtube) to be able to overcome some parts

Skip this game, unless you get a copy from a bundle and for some reason are curious to try it.

6.5/10

Pros
+ Good variety of levels, and the developer promises to add more.
+ Creative puzzles, with just the right challenge to make things interesting but not tedious.
+ There's sort of a story, even if one that's intentionally pretentious.
+ Music is nice and calming, but repetitive.

Con:
- Simplistic puzzle games are not really my thing. I don't see many cons of significance to list here. The reason this game doesn't get a higher score from me is that there's a ceiling to how much fun I can get from such a game, and it pretty much reaches it.

Bottom line: Fun little puzzle game that's worth your two hours and the very low asking price.

7/10

Pros:
+ Absolutely fantastic mechanics. A breath of fresh air compared to many games, with a wide range of creative and original moves. Experiencing these mechanics alone is worthy of a Recommended.
+ Upgrades add more interesting mechanics and make me consider playing the game again (didn't get all those grubs, so couldn't "buy" all upgrades).
+ Protagonist is a cute alien that keeps blowing everything and everyone while making the cutest sounds.
+ Stealth element adds interest
+ Decent graphics and sound.

Cons:
- Unique mechanics make it difficult to get back into the game after a long break.
- Not too difficult to waste time going in circles, despite the useful map. If you fall through a hole to the level below, you need to replay that whole level (granted this won't happen to most players, I'm especially talented!)
- No option to save multiple checkpoints. Only the latest one is saved.
- So so story.
- NPCs have very limited AI
- A couple of boss fights (including the final one) are very annoying. If you find them as tedious and endless as I did, just check the community guide about how to enable god mode cheat. I found it essential to complete the game.
- Requires an Origin/EA account. Even worse, if you made the mistake (like me) of starting to play the game logged in to Origin, you need to log in again in every subsequent session to get access to your saved game. If you don't care about leaderboards (I don't), just start playing while logged out.

Bottom line: Worth playing for the unique mechanics and cute protagonist, but not without its share of frustrating elements.

6.5/10

Pros
+ Interesting world. It's not really clear where this place is and when the story happens. This actually kept me looking for hints to settle these questions, which made the game more interesting. The weird looking characters and plants only contribute to this.
+ Beautiful scenery, especially outdoors in the forest.
+ Nice relaxing music, sets up the tone and atmosphere of the game.
+ Not difficult too get to 100% achievements (I usually don't care about this, but it's nice when it happens)

Cons
- The sound of the protagonist foot steps was annoying, so much that I had to turn SFX volume down
- Almost no voices. I'm sure budget didn't allow for full voice acting (which I would love), but it might have been better to skip this completely.
- Lack of polish. No reflection in the mirrors and puddles. Invisible Walls and Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence (see tvtropes.org for more on these terms)

I have no issues with the length of the game. Life is too short to complain about getting more experiences (e.g. games) for the same amount of time :-)

Bottom line: Recommended to those who enjoy short walking simulators. If you don't expect much in the form of puzzles or story twists, I think you'll find this a pleasant experience. If you consider these attributes to be a must for games, look elsewhere.

5/10

I played about two thirds of the game and decided I had enough. I don't mind dying and playing the same section again and again, but I do mind that the game punishes me after I died one too many time and reverts to the begining of a level, a good 10 minutes lost (and quite a few checkpoints).

Pros
+ Many aspects of the game are well designed and are highly polished. Graphics, maps (excluding checkpoints / save system), music, narration - are all very professional.
+ Who knew playing as Mickey Mouse can be fun for an adult? It definitely is for large parts of the game.

Cons
- Save system and checkpoints are very poorly done. The biggest issue is the one I described above. In addition, if you exit the game and then start it again, you can't resume from the last checkpoint. You're just dropped in the main hall of the castle and you need to figure out which room you visited last. At least the game remembers which parts were completed.
- Controls. So so bad... specifically platforming on the Z-axis is very difficult with a D-pad. It would have been much easier with classic FPS-like keyboard+mouse controls.
- When you die in boss fights, you have to listen to the same narration again and again, and again. Luckily it's possible to turn off narration, which I temporarily did in boss fights.

If you don't mind seeing later parts of the game (spoiler alert), this is the part that I couldn't cross because of the terrible controls. And this is how far back the game decided to drop me for failing to pass.

Both links are part of an edited walkthough, so are more compressed compared to how long it actually takes in practice (at least to a player of my modest skills). Just watch the section between these two links and think if it makes any sense to punish the player and force him/her to replay the whole thing instead of just starting again from the last checkpoint.

Considering the poor the level design and frustrating controls are, I just cannot recommend this game, regardless of cost.

I haven't played enough of this game to say if it's overall good or bad, so no grade this time. I do however vote Not Recommended because of an inane game breaking bug that prevents me from continuing the game without starting over, and all of this because (according to information on the forum), I visited rooms in the wrong order. Life is too short to waste on games like this.

5.5/10

+ Pretty enjoyable if you've never played a text-only Choose Your Own Adventure game before. My one previous attempt, The Forest of Doom, felt much more tedious and ended prematurealy.
+ Eventful for such a short game. From birth to elderhood (and more) in 1 hour.
+ Music and sound effects (though minimal) are very fitting
+ No rolling dice

- Very misleading screenshots in the store page. 99% of the game is choosing between textual options. Only 2 of the 10 screenshots are representative of this.
- Not my kind of game. Not the game's fault, just not my thing.

I only played enough to get one ending, but I believe it's sufficient to grasp the concept of how Choose Your Own Adventure game work. I probably won't try to get the other endings in the foreseeable future. My backlog is full of games that are much more appealing to me, and I don't care about achievements etc. Bottom line is that I wouldn't pay full price for this game, but I think it's worth getting in a bundle, if only to get a chance to familiarize yourself with this type of games (if you're not already familiar with it).

6/10

+ Beautiful and atmospheric
+ 100% of proceeds go to charity - aidforjapan.co.uk and redr.org.uk. In my view this is the main reason to buy or recommend this game.
+ Uses a unique approach (video game mechanics) to memorize the victims of the 2011 Japanese tsunami. It may only be partially successful with this choice, but conceptually this is something I'd like to see more of (i.e. see more game-like experiences that are not about entertainment).

- Not as emotionally engaging as it could be
- Not very interesting to experience and doesn't bring any insight about the disaster beyond what's written in the game description

If you feel the aforementioned organizations and their cause justify contribution, getting this game and experiencing it would make sense. Same if you believe that video games don't necessarily have to focus on recreational pleasure and can serve other purposes. I believe in both, so can easily recommend this one. With that said, I don't give it a high grade because of its shortcomings as a game / experience.

5/10

+ Beautiful map with some really stunning landscapes. I would absolutely love to hike in this place.
+ Animals walking and flying around - chickens, wild birds, frogs and turtles.

- Terrible narration. I couldn't understand most of it due to the heavy accent of the narrator. Subtitles could help, but are not available. The parts I did understand seemed like pretentious nonsense. "Void of finite infinity" anyone?
- The music is nice, but it only plays for a few seconds at a time and is normally drowned out by the bad narration. I wish the music was at least looped for a bit more, though I can see why silence is suitable for large parts of the game (I prefer to not listen to music while hiking in nature).
- Various bugs which didn't break the game, but made it less immersive. 3D clipping for example. Also, it's possible to walk straight through tall shrubs, and I actually saw a chicken walk through a closed door.
- Short fences are scattered throughout the map. They are all the same size and typically appear in places where in real life there won't be any fences, let alone ones you can walk around.
- Weird water streaks, as if the player is wearing a diving mask and is walking through the rain. The thing is, it happens when there's no rain or even light drizzle around. Maybe it's meant to be sweat? If so, then it's a really unrealistic representation.

This is a rather boring walking simulator with nice visuals. With more comprehensible narration I probably would have recommended it (at least when on sale or in a bundle), but as it is, I suggest you play something else.