Recent reviews by StickJr

Thank you Dev for showing us what game design is supposed to be. <3

Was running this game just fine on Epic settings, then they released an update for optimizations and now I can't even launch the game...

ROCK AND STONE!!

"Now THIS is podracing!"

Unfortunately the 1 hp glitch makes the game unplayable in multiplayer with no fix in sight. RIP BF2.

EDIT: I didn't see an update patch, but I multiplayer has been working now!

Multiplayer just doesn't work. I love this game, but the bugs won't let me and my friend play. Sure is a shame.

Edit: Been playing with a buddy for a few weeks without any issues! <3

muck

I didn't make it to GC before the ranked update... :(

"That Dragon, Cancer" is an emotional storytelling game about the green family and in specific, their son Joel. Joel's father was the lead designer on this game, taking his family's emotional struggle and visualizes it through beautiful scenes depicted on actual events that happened in real life. The game is split up into 14 chapters, all involving emotions and perspectives from different people at different times. I would like to dive into a couple of big topics of this game: the actual controls, mechanics, and game design, my emotions throughout my playthrough, and the most volatile topic of all, Christianity.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The first time booting up the game I was stunned by the sounds, the quality was so good I felt as if I was really inside of the game. It was something I had never experience before even having played many games throughout my life. But with the great sound came one of my main issues. The controls were a bit clunky and hard to maneuver on the occasion. I think the confusion came from the severe lack of instruction in certain sections. Chapter 11 was a great example of this. there was no clear directive on what I was supposed to do, and the character you played at the time was very slow. I personally think my game was bugged at the moment because I never saw anyone else with the issue. As the game went on, I saw more and more problems like that. On the flip side, there were great moments in the mechanics in chapters 4 and 9. One of those chapters being a race that you controlled the cart with your mouse, and the other being a 2-D side-scrolling, arcade game that was controlled with your arrow keys. Overall, I think this game performs like the average storytelling game. It was an enjoyable experience and I didn't get too upset at parts that frustrated me.

"That Dragon, Cancer" exceeds all of my standards when it comes to an emotional game. I pressed play assuming I was gonna play a touching game about a boy with cancer and his struggles. And yes, technically that is what it was, it goes so much deeper than that. As I played through this game I found myself with my jaw on the floor and tears just dropping from my face like never before. The raw emotion that flowed through my face and onto my table was something I had never seen from myself. One of the first scenes that left me in pure shock was Chapter 4: "End of Treatment" where you play as Joel and his mom racing around the hospital picking up fruits and completing a few laps. All of this seems normal until you look into the corner of the screen. Typically you would see a timer for long you have left until the end of the race, but this counter was showing months and months starting to fly by as they seemed to have almost lived in the hospital where they had to do anything they could for entertainment. The real shock hits when you finish the race. All of the "fruits" you picked up actually turned out to be chemicals that the doctors used to treat Joel over all of those months. Another good scene was in chapter 6. There were dozens of get well soon and condolence cards for kids being treated and for those that already passed. I couldn't help but just begin to sob when I started opening the cards and realizing they were all for loved ones. This game grabbed me by the head and reworked my mind into realizing that so many people go through this every day. It brought light to a situation I knew about but never fully understood the way I should have.

Now it's time to move on with the biggest complication of the game, Christianity. Now personally, I am a Christian, I have been since I was a kid and I hold firm to my beliefs, but a lot of people found it hard to relate to the story. One problem players seemed to have was that they would get really deep and involved in the story, but then the Green's Family started talking about their faith and it seemed to pull away from the game. On the flip side, Christians seemed to relate even more when God was talked about in the game. I can see why some people may have a hard time with this when they don't have a relationship with God, but I think the Greens showing that even though the death of their son, they were able to hold true to God and be a light to other family's going through the same problem. This story is a testimony to those who don't want to blame God, but it seems to fall to that when the person struggling with loss is in so much pain. All in all, if you, as the player, do not have a relationship with God, you might find the Green's Family faith to be inspiring and to look farther into what a relationship with God looks like, but if it causes disconnect then it just might not be the game to play.

"That Dragon, Cancer" is an inspiring game, showing me a world I never really expected to fully understand. I recommend for anyone looking for a game to open their eyes and see a part of people's lives you might never get to see, I would definitely suggest this game.

I'm sure I won't get addicted :D