After being asleep for a long time, you wake up in an old prison cell. You turn around, what was that? Soon after, you are free, unexpectedly. You reach daylight and enter a beautiful, long forgotten and sometimes dangerous world. What awaits you at the end of your journey? Created during Wizard Jam 6 in December 2017.
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I don't like being too harsh on jam games BUT...
Well, I'll start out by saying that this game commits the deadly sin of not teaching the controls in-game. I know the controls button exists on the main menu, and it's great that that exists, but you HAVE to tell your players in-game how it works. Whether it's a splash screen or a more interactive thing because first time players WILL ignore a 'controls' option on the menu. Now luckily, this game's controls aren't too wild, but I did get confused on what the interact key was because in the first area, I would come across those glowing points and I'd see a circle appear. I inferred that meant I could interact to learn more, but I tried E, Enter, Space, and I think a few other random keys, and nothing happened...
...Which is interesting, because the very next area, you HAVE to interact with a sign to open a door, and it actually IS the E key. So no idea if that initial area just had false flags or if the ability to interact with things just doesn't activate until then?
And I'd like to mention the camera controls, because the lack of them here seems both very deliberate and very poorly executed. I get the stylistic choice of only being able to see the world the exact way the dev(s) intended, but the camera moves so fast and so randomly that it really messed with my sense of direction. Not to mention the fact that the camera would often orient itself in a way where you'd think it was a straight forward east-west or north-south movement path, when in reality it was ever so slightly askew. So for example, the last area I played was the hallway with the door all the way at the end. Seems simple enough, just hold D and you'll be down there, right? Wrong. The map is tilted in a way where if you hold down D you'll actually be moving slightly diagonally and will end up hitting a wall. But holding both D and W will actually send you diagonally into the opposite wall. So you have to hold D and then hold W in short bursts, all in order to make sure you move down a hallway without running into any walls. It's a minor thing, sure, but when you have awkwardly tilted maps AND a constantly moving camera, things just get all the more confusing.
Finally, like I said, I ended the game off in that hallway area, although I'm sure that it wasn't the end of the game because I never saw that dreaded maze the other reviewers here talk about. The reason I had to quit, actually, is because the E interact key to open the door didn't work at the sign like it had at other signs (as in, pressing E did nothing, no text box popped up) and so while I was looking around the other archways for something potentially hidden, I jumped into a rocky outcropping and then... got stuck. Like, game was still running, but the character was stuck in a fall animation and I couldn't move. So, I gave up. And based on the ratings I feel like I'm not missing much.
Well, I'll start out by saying that this game commits the deadly sin of not teaching the controls in-game. I know the controls button exists on the main menu, and it's great that that exists, but you HAVE to tell your players in-game how it works. Whether it's a splash screen or a more interactive thing because first time players WILL ignore a 'controls' option on the menu. Now luckily, this game's controls aren't too wild, but I did get confused on what the interact key was because in the first area, I would come across those glowing points and I'd see a circle appear. I inferred that meant I could interact to learn more, but I tried E, Enter, Space, and I think a few other random keys, and nothing happened...
...Which is interesting, because the very next area, you HAVE to interact with a sign to open a door, and it actually IS the E key. So no idea if that initial area just had false flags or if the ability to interact with things just doesn't activate until then?
And I'd like to mention the camera controls, because the lack of them here seems both very deliberate and very poorly executed. I get the stylistic choice of only being able to see the world the exact way the dev(s) intended, but the camera moves so fast and so randomly that it really messed with my sense of direction. Not to mention the fact that the camera would often orient itself in a way where you'd think it was a straight forward east-west or north-south movement path, when in reality it was ever so slightly askew. So for example, the last area I played was the hallway with the door all the way at the end. Seems simple enough, just hold D and you'll be down there, right? Wrong. The map is tilted in a way where if you hold down D you'll actually be moving slightly diagonally and will end up hitting a wall. But holding both D and W will actually send you diagonally into the opposite wall. So you have to hold D and then hold W in short bursts, all in order to make sure you move down a hallway without running into any walls. It's a minor thing, sure, but when you have awkwardly tilted maps AND a constantly moving camera, things just get all the more confusing.
Finally, like I said, I ended the game off in that hallway area, although I'm sure that it wasn't the end of the game because I never saw that dreaded maze the other reviewers here talk about. The reason I had to quit, actually, is because the E interact key to open the door didn't work at the sign like it had at other signs (as in, pressing E did nothing, no text box popped up) and so while I was looking around the other archways for something potentially hidden, I jumped into a rocky outcropping and then... got stuck. Like, game was still running, but the character was stuck in a fall animation and I couldn't move. So, I gave up. And based on the ratings I feel like I'm not missing much.
Okay so, I get that this game was made for a jam, so maybe I shouldn't be so harsh, but it didn't really do anything for me. Sure the environment/level design was fantastic, and it was well put together, but I find it hard to enjoy something when the pacing is brutally inconsistent.
From classic jump platforming one minute to nigh-unbearably boring maze griding the next, I found myself unsure how to get a grip on the game. The potential is here, and with a more solid story, sound design, and consistent play style, it could be quite enjoyable.
From classic jump platforming one minute to nigh-unbearably boring maze griding the next, I found myself unsure how to get a grip on the game. The potential is here, and with a more solid story, sound design, and consistent play style, it could be quite enjoyable.
i stopped playing at the back-of-cereal-box maze segment. come on now.