Recensioni recenti di lafayetteproulx

I wish I could give this an "I wouldn't not recommend it" review because Drill Core is a fun game with some big flaws.

First, the fun bits. The presentation/style is really well done. It's obvious that a lot of work has been put into the game. There's a lot of variety in the building/turret types and seeing which turrets/perks work best together is fun to figure out. Once a run is over I immediately want to jump into another one.

Though that goes into the big problem I have with the game. When you're having a really good run it can go for a LONG time. There's no save or checkpoint system so I've had runs that I've had to finish early because I just didn't have time to keep going which can be frustrating.

The other issue I have is sometimes the AI can break. Like once I had a lot of minerals that needed to be collected but all of my collectors were just hanging out not doing anything though that can probably be chalked up to being a bug. I have seen some AI pathing issues like when a block is shooting out fire maybe the miners can mine it from the side that isn't, you know, shooting out flames. Instead they all got in front of the flames and burned to death.

I get why a checkpoint/save system could be used for save scumming but when good runs can go on for so long there needs to be some sort of system in place because it can be hard to find the time to devote to long runs.

I love Cyan games and I've been playing them ever since the original Myst came out. This doesn't feel like a Cyan game. I know their stories can be rather simple but they at least have notes and journals scattered around, rooms that look slightly lived in. Things that, you know, build the world. There's none of that here. There is nothing until the last 10 minutes of the game that advances the story or the mystery of what's going on.

The puzzles are easier than other Cyan games as they all boil down to "flip the switch." Which was nice in some circumstances but due to the camera and the environment became a headache in other areas. The only times I ever got stuck were because I wasn't looking in some random direction to find a switch behind a bunch of objects in the game.

The environments are good looking, especially in the first area. It's clear development got front-loaded and they worked on the design of that area, even though the literal first puzzle glitched out on me. Which the bugs, hoo boy the bugs. In regular mode I clipped through geometry, got stuck in objects, some puzzles wouldn't complete until I reloaded the game.

I tried the game in VR (Valve Index) and it was a completely broken experience. Subtitles were appearing to my left, I was stuck in geometry and couldn't get out. Controls didn't work, menus didn't work. Despite repeated attempts I couldn't make it more than 10 seconds in VR before getting literally stuck.

It's clear the game is half baked and rushed. It doesn't feel like a Cyan game at all. There's no charm, there's no intrigue. It's just switch puzzles all the way down.

For a 3 dollar experience it's not bad. It's in the "An Orwellian government needs you to spy on its citizens" genre along with the "going through a strangers phone" genre. It has all the tropes like putting in every date and 4 number combination you see into every password hoping it unlocks. There are a lot of endings to unlock and thankfully some of them allow you to start over right before the ending so you don't have to go through everything again. It's worth it for the price and especially if it's on sale.

If you're looking to scratch that Obra Dinn itch this is the closest you can get. It's broken up into chapters with an overarching story so it's great for if you like to play in short bursts. I can't say much more without spoiling anything so if a detective game is what you're looking for you can't do much better than this.

To start with the voice acting in Eliza is top tier. Zachtronics games are more known for their gameplay mechanics so I was wary to play a more straight-forward visual novel from the studio but they blew me away with the voice acting. The game is quite linear, giving you dialogue options that don't change anything major but give you the option to play Evelyn the way you want to play her.

The game deals with themes of mental health support, AI, corporate greed, and other topics that aren't exactly groundbreaking but they're at least dealt with in a way that's more nuanced and through the lens of a possible very near future.

I don't want to spoil any story beats as they're gradually fed to you as the story progresses but I will say that it kept me engaged enough to play it through in one sitting and a chapter select feature makes it easy to see how the multiple endings can play out.

While this is much more straightforward than other entries in the Zachtronics catalog I think it does deal with themes that are very much on brand for them and makes for a much more accessible game from them.

This is going very high up on my list of "You gotta try this" games I have people play when they first try VR. I got that pit of my stomach "Oh man I'm piloting something going a little fast and there are buildings and I'm high" feeling which was amazing. I can't wait to see it evolve!

If you just go through the story and don't grind between story missions you will hit a wall and you will hit it HARD. There's less of a difficulty curve and more of a difficulty roller coaster and the coaster feels like it could go off the rails at any moment which is a shame.

Graphically the game is rather bland. With the variety of mechs and the low variety of maps and assets I was hoping for more graphical fidelity but it feels a few years behind the graphics curve. Also there are bugs aplenty, with many causing missions to outright not complete, especially escort missions and missions that require you to pacify areas.

The idea is there, but the execution is lacking. This definitely needed some more time in the oven before being released.

There is fun to be had between the story missions but it seems with each story mission the difficulty ramps up hard which is a huge turn off.

For a free "experience" it's definitely worth a look. Took me maybe 30-40 minutes to get through the whole thing. It's a subjective, it is what you make of it, story which I know turns some people off but I like it myself.

The only technical issues I had were some dropped frame rates in some areas which went away when the scene switched. Outside of that it was rather smooth. I think there are some areas where you can do things different as some chapters are locked to me after playing through so I might give it another go, see what happens.

The heart of this "game" is the stories. Most of the five tales are beautifully done and incredibly emotional. To progress in the story you have to play little "games" which function kind of like if you found a "Baby's First Flash Game" book from about ten years ago. They're less fun and more of a hindrance to get through the game. Especially when you finish one and get a short, simple, one line of text picture that doesn't justify ten minutes of playing the mini-games.

Also the photography mechanic, if it could even be called a mechanic, is simply the game telling you to point at something that is blatantly easy to find and then play one of the mini games.

It's quite obvious from the mechanics of the UI that this was a mobile game first and foremost, which probably explains the simplicity of everything, but it's still a shame.

Still, I recommend the game as long as you don't pay full price for it. I finished the whole thing in one three hour sitting and got it with a 33% off coupon. From the story alone, especially an emotional ending, I'd say I got my money's worth, but I wouldn't recommend it at all at $12, especially when the mobile version is three times cheaper.

Take Two's greed has finally gone over to the single player side after they drove the online side into the ground and I can't support that.