bloatier than its previous counterpart C.H.A.I.N. (review) and mostly a waste of time, which hurts to admit.
i previously felt assured knowing developers actually knew about the entire previous string of games that came before them this time, and that a more complete or focused narrative could be achieved. some branches managed to put something together, but unfortunately a majority of others just fell absolutely flat, many of the microgames unplayable/unfinishable in desperate need of a few more days QA. luckily by alt+f4'ing back to the launcher, one can proceed regardless. not much is lost.
i might've had a better final impression of C.H.A.I.N.G.E.D. as a whole if the final tape ending i finished on wasn't so disrespectful to my time and engagement; an ambling repetitive mess, asking the player to complete the same trivial task around 10 times (!!! no exaggeration!) interspliced with scary ambient sfx and cryptic looping spookytalk. what bothered me most however is that it just had nothing to do with the overarching narrative of all the games that came before whatsoever. what were they cooking!
i really do dislike to be so disparaging towards something that actually does maintain a lot of charm half of the time and is literally free, and i wish i could write more following my thoughts on its precursor, but i feel C.H.A.I.N.G.E.D. bit off far more than it could chew. there was just too much bad here to enjoy the good.
to end on the good, bryce butcher's submission was the most enjoyable and memorable to me personally. found via the rightmost route to keep it vague.
i previously felt assured knowing developers actually knew about the entire previous string of games that came before them this time, and that a more complete or focused narrative could be achieved. some branches managed to put something together, but unfortunately a majority of others just fell absolutely flat, many of the microgames unplayable/unfinishable in desperate need of a few more days QA. luckily by alt+f4'ing back to the launcher, one can proceed regardless. not much is lost.
i might've had a better final impression of C.H.A.I.N.G.E.D. as a whole if the final tape ending i finished on wasn't so disrespectful to my time and engagement; an ambling repetitive mess, asking the player to complete the same trivial task around 10 times (!!! no exaggeration!) interspliced with scary ambient sfx and cryptic looping spookytalk. what bothered me most however is that it just had nothing to do with the overarching narrative of all the games that came before whatsoever. what were they cooking!
i really do dislike to be so disparaging towards something that actually does maintain a lot of charm half of the time and is literally free, and i wish i could write more following my thoughts on its precursor, but i feel C.H.A.I.N.G.E.D. bit off far more than it could chew. there was just too much bad here to enjoy the good.
to end on the good, bryce butcher's submission was the most enjoyable and memorable to me personally. found via the rightmost route to keep it vague.