Leszczyn
Why do I feel like I've already seen all of this despite it being my first 2D Mario?
Decent Steam Deck game and a very original mixture of genres - 2D action platformer + zombie survival game + puzzle game + narrative game. While each element works well on its own, when combined the game does have some problems.
First of all the movement feels... off. During combat or running the main character is very swift, but whenever you need to climb something or do some more complex platforming he suddenly becomes very slow and heavy. It creates a very weird dissonance between subsequent parts of the game, and it threw me off a lot. Don't get me wrong, both the platforimng and combat are pretty good on their own, but I don't think they mix together very well. The puzzles are fine, I guess. There isn't really a lot of them and most of the segments which include them transform into platforming sections once you solve them, but in this case it feels more natural.
And then there's the world and the story. The general vibe is very similar to The Last of Us - we have to fight these monsters, but people are monsters too sometimes etc. The main character of the game is written in a pretty interesting way, but it doesn't always show. Throughout most of the game he's insufferable, but after skimming through the pages of his diary which you are scattered across the levels you can see that he's a pretty complex character. The game also delves into psychological aspects of how a zombie apocalypse could affect people's lives which while interesting is also handled in a weird way. There are like these singular moments of realisation that "hey, I just thought of something interesting we could write into the game" but it rarely goes beyond that. The game is honestly full of great ideas, but it's very clear that this was the studio's first game - even despite this version supposedly being the "director's cut".
Despite the shortcomings though, I still think this is an ok game and I had a good time with it. I think all the ideas present in the game make it worthwile, even if you'll sometimes find yourself wondering if they shouldn't have been done differently.
First of all the movement feels... off. During combat or running the main character is very swift, but whenever you need to climb something or do some more complex platforming he suddenly becomes very slow and heavy. It creates a very weird dissonance between subsequent parts of the game, and it threw me off a lot. Don't get me wrong, both the platforimng and combat are pretty good on their own, but I don't think they mix together very well. The puzzles are fine, I guess. There isn't really a lot of them and most of the segments which include them transform into platforming sections once you solve them, but in this case it feels more natural.
And then there's the world and the story. The general vibe is very similar to The Last of Us - we have to fight these monsters, but people are monsters too sometimes etc. The main character of the game is written in a pretty interesting way, but it doesn't always show. Throughout most of the game he's insufferable, but after skimming through the pages of his diary which you are scattered across the levels you can see that he's a pretty complex character. The game also delves into psychological aspects of how a zombie apocalypse could affect people's lives which while interesting is also handled in a weird way. There are like these singular moments of realisation that "hey, I just thought of something interesting we could write into the game" but it rarely goes beyond that. The game is honestly full of great ideas, but it's very clear that this was the studio's first game - even despite this version supposedly being the "director's cut".
Despite the shortcomings though, I still think this is an ok game and I had a good time with it. I think all the ideas present in the game make it worthwile, even if you'll sometimes find yourself wondering if they shouldn't have been done differently.
2010
Kind of like a more laid back Professor Layton game. I liked the artstyle, but it does have sort of a low-budget vibe. Puzzles are easy but relaxing for the most part. There were a couple which had some weird wording or were a bit unclear, but nothing too hard to get through. Story-wise it's pretty good as well, despite some heavy-handed dialogue (which btw is fully voiced!) and a rushed, mediocre ending. The humor didn't resonate with me entirely either, but I still chuckled a couple of times. Overall if you like puzzles / are a Layton a fan, definitely give it a go, given how cheap it is it's definitely worth it.
2022
Polish game, Polish review.
Gra skończona, ale jakim kosztem...
Nie no przesadzam, nie było aż TAK tragicznie. Powiem więcej, początek był naprawdę niezły. Fajna stylistyka z ładną grafiką, prosty, ale satysfakcjonujący system walki oraz nieźle zapowiadająca się fabuła ze złożonym bohaterem. Prawie każda z tych rzeczy jednak prędzej czy później zalicza dość ostrą wypierdolkę.
Zacznijmy więc od prezentacji audiowizualnej. Graficznie gra to cudeńko. Całość przechodziłem na Steam Decku i wielokrotnie żałowałem, że nie zdecydowałem się przejść tej gry na trochę większym ekranie. Ogień, dynamicznie zmieniające się otoczenia, jakieś spadające skały, wybuchy... wszystko to wygląda naprawdę świetnie i jak na grę o tak małej skali, zadziwiająco realistycznie. Całość psuł mi trochę obecny w grze filtr, taki jakby pseudo-filmowy. Niby można to w ustawieniach powyłączać, ale nie chciało mi się za bardzo z tym bawić, więc ostatecznie w niektórych lokacjach musiałem dość mocno wysilać wzrok żeby cokolwiek dostrzec przez wszechobecną mgłę. Mam też trochę problem z cinematicami. Ogólnie rzecz biorąc jakościowo są na podobnym poziomie co cała reszta. Są one jednak zrobione w tak filmowy sposób, że widoczne na nich ograniczenia silnika gry (sposób poruszania włosów czy kawałków ubrań) dość mocno wybijał mnie z rytmu. No i jeśli chodzi o dźwięk to on w sumie po prostu jest. Dźwięki typu odbijające się od siebie miecze są niby okej, soundtrack niby też ale jakoś nic z tego nie zapadło mi szczególnie w pamięć. Ogólnie mam wrażenie że to wszystko było tak trochę na jedno kopyto, ale w sumie to sam nie wiem.
Jeśli chodzi o fabułę to zacznę od tego, że w życiu nie widziałem żadnego filmu o samurajach, ale nie wiem w sumie czy ma to aż takie znaczenie. Po pierwszym akcie stwierdziłem, że zapowiada się całkiem nieźle. Powiewało trochę kliszami ale no dobra - ma być hołd, niech będzie hołd. Końcowo jednak mój główny problem z fabułą to nie jej przewidywalność czy wtórność, a to jak tragicznie jest poprowadzona. 2-3 pierwsze akty są spoko - jest fajny pomysł, jest zwrot akcji, jest bohater z ciekawym konfliktem wewnętrznym i jest jasno wytyczony cel. Niestety z jakiegoś powodu przez całą resztę gry fabuła po prostu stoi w miejscu. Chłop dosłownie cały czas gada to samo ("wszyscy nie żyją i to moja wina sadge"), przeciwnicy też ("haha wszyscy nie żyją i to twoja wina") i sami twórcy też. Gra zawiera bowiem jeden z najgłupszych znanych mi motywów designowych w tym medium, a mianowicie "wybierz sobie zakończenie". Jak graliście np. w Life is Strange to tam było coś takiego, że w ostatnim akcie wszystkie podjęte przez was decyzje szły do kosza i mogliście sobie wybrać jedno z 2 przewidzianych przez twórców zakończeń. Tutaj jest podobnie tylko gorzej, a zakończeń do wyboru są 3 - jedno gdzie nie wiadomo w sumie o co chodzi, jedno gdzie tematem przewodnim jest miłość i jedno gdzie tak jakby przyrzekasz, że od teraz nie pozwolisz nikomu zginąć. No i ja wybrałem sobie to trzecie, niby wszystko fajnie, tylko że jak klikałem ten przycisk to się czułem bardziej jakbym usypiał jakiegoś szczeniaczka niż decydował o losie wielkiego samuraja giga chada, bo chłop przez ostatnie bite 3 godziny mi pierdolił o tym jak mu przykro że wszystkich zawiódł i w ogóle. Ja rozumiem, że w filmach Kurosawy coś takiego mogło działać, no ale tutaj proporcje w scenariuszu są rozplanowane po prostu źle. Jak się zresztą popatrzy na statystyki osiągnięć na Steamie, to dość łatwo dojść do wniosku, że może lepiej byłoby się skupić na dopracowaniu właśnie tego zakończenia, spróbować wytworzyć jakąś więź między graczem a głównym bohaterem poprzez np. jednoznaczne wskazanie honorowego celu ku któremu mogliby wspólnie podążać. Zamiast tego jedna piąta ludzi którzy skończyli tę grę wybrali kota w worku, połowa z reszty stwierdziła, że wolą se siedzieć z jakąś frajerską babą, a ja się teraz wkurzam na jakąś grę dla weebów.
No i jeśli chodzi o walkę / po prostu gameplay to rzeczywiście przyjemnie jest w sumie tylko na początku. Tak naprawdę każdego przeciwnika masz wtedy na jeden heavy attack i daje to naprawdę sporą satysfakcję. Masz rzeczywiście takie poczucie że kurde, ten samurajski miecz to jest jednak coś. Później wszystko się trochę rozbudowuje, dodają różne kombosy, jakieś ranged bronie i w ogóle, ale to wszystko jest tak naprawdę zbędne z jednego prostego powodu - prawie każdego przeciwnika (łącznie z finałowym bossem XD) możesz po prostu zcheesować kombinacją heavy attack + rolka. Tak naprawdę chyba jedynym większym wyjątkiem jest tutaj jeden typ przeciwnika, który może się teleportować. Jeśli ktoś gra tak jak ja, czyli nie widzi sensu w nauce kombosów i całą grę przechodzi właśnie na ten heavy attack to ten chłop jest praktycznie nie do zajebania. Mniej więcej w momencie kiedy zaczął pojawiać się w walkach zacząłem też dostrzegać bugi w gameplayu. Parę razy np. kiedy chłop miał się tepnąć (odpalała się animacja) to w ostatniej chwili zmieniał zdanie i zabijał mnie wychodząc z niewidzialnego punktu, z którego miał się właśnie ulotnić i mnie zbijał. Jest też inny przeciwnik, który może się zmienić w taką jakby kulkę i zacząć regenerować zdrowie (chyba?). Kiedy uderzysz go podczas tego, momentalnie giniesz, niezależnie od poziomu zdrowia, co ze względu na brak możliwości scancelowania heavy attacku przydarzyło mi się chyba z 10 razy (fakt faktem nie wiem w sumie czy to akurat jest błąd czy zamierzona decyzja twórców, ale jeśli to 2, to jest to chyba najbardziej idiotyczny "atak" jaki widziałem w grze wideo). Parę razy udało mi się też zginąć mając jeszcze zdrowie. Jest jeszcze system parowania/blokowania, którego albo nie rozumiem, albo który też działa połowę czasu, a drugą połowę po prostu klikasz bezsensownie przycisk jak jakaś małpa. Widziałem, że w innej recenzji ktoś wspomniał coś negatywnego o rozmieszczeniu checkpointów - nie zgodzę się, są one rozmieszczone co dwie, czasami jedną walkę, co jest moim zdaniem sensowną decyzją. Problem stanowi jednak balans tych walk. W pierwszej możesz np. dostać na łeb 2 chłopów z teleportem i przejście tego zajmie ci pół godziny, a w drugiej może już nie być takich problemów i po prostu zrobisz sobie spacerek do checkpointa.
Czyli podsumowując. Mimo dobrych rokowań gra zawiodła mnie niemal kompletnie swoją fabułą. Gameplay wielokrotnie doprowadzał mnie do szewskiej pasji, a tak naprawdę jedyne czym gra się broni to ładnymi widoczkami, grafiką i może klimatem, chociaż nie wiem czy tu też losowy student japonistyki nie dopatrzyłby się jakichś przekłamań historycznych czy czegoś. Jako dodatek do humbla bundla nie było to jakieś szczególnie złe doświadczenie, ale za prawie stówę nie polecam tej gry nikomu.
Gra skończona, ale jakim kosztem...
Nie no przesadzam, nie było aż TAK tragicznie. Powiem więcej, początek był naprawdę niezły. Fajna stylistyka z ładną grafiką, prosty, ale satysfakcjonujący system walki oraz nieźle zapowiadająca się fabuła ze złożonym bohaterem. Prawie każda z tych rzeczy jednak prędzej czy później zalicza dość ostrą wypierdolkę.
Zacznijmy więc od prezentacji audiowizualnej. Graficznie gra to cudeńko. Całość przechodziłem na Steam Decku i wielokrotnie żałowałem, że nie zdecydowałem się przejść tej gry na trochę większym ekranie. Ogień, dynamicznie zmieniające się otoczenia, jakieś spadające skały, wybuchy... wszystko to wygląda naprawdę świetnie i jak na grę o tak małej skali, zadziwiająco realistycznie. Całość psuł mi trochę obecny w grze filtr, taki jakby pseudo-filmowy. Niby można to w ustawieniach powyłączać, ale nie chciało mi się za bardzo z tym bawić, więc ostatecznie w niektórych lokacjach musiałem dość mocno wysilać wzrok żeby cokolwiek dostrzec przez wszechobecną mgłę. Mam też trochę problem z cinematicami. Ogólnie rzecz biorąc jakościowo są na podobnym poziomie co cała reszta. Są one jednak zrobione w tak filmowy sposób, że widoczne na nich ograniczenia silnika gry (sposób poruszania włosów czy kawałków ubrań) dość mocno wybijał mnie z rytmu. No i jeśli chodzi o dźwięk to on w sumie po prostu jest. Dźwięki typu odbijające się od siebie miecze są niby okej, soundtrack niby też ale jakoś nic z tego nie zapadło mi szczególnie w pamięć. Ogólnie mam wrażenie że to wszystko było tak trochę na jedno kopyto, ale w sumie to sam nie wiem.
Jeśli chodzi o fabułę to zacznę od tego, że w życiu nie widziałem żadnego filmu o samurajach, ale nie wiem w sumie czy ma to aż takie znaczenie. Po pierwszym akcie stwierdziłem, że zapowiada się całkiem nieźle. Powiewało trochę kliszami ale no dobra - ma być hołd, niech będzie hołd. Końcowo jednak mój główny problem z fabułą to nie jej przewidywalność czy wtórność, a to jak tragicznie jest poprowadzona. 2-3 pierwsze akty są spoko - jest fajny pomysł, jest zwrot akcji, jest bohater z ciekawym konfliktem wewnętrznym i jest jasno wytyczony cel. Niestety z jakiegoś powodu przez całą resztę gry fabuła po prostu stoi w miejscu. Chłop dosłownie cały czas gada to samo ("wszyscy nie żyją i to moja wina sadge"), przeciwnicy też ("haha wszyscy nie żyją i to twoja wina") i sami twórcy też. Gra zawiera bowiem jeden z najgłupszych znanych mi motywów designowych w tym medium, a mianowicie "wybierz sobie zakończenie". Jak graliście np. w Life is Strange to tam było coś takiego, że w ostatnim akcie wszystkie podjęte przez was decyzje szły do kosza i mogliście sobie wybrać jedno z 2 przewidzianych przez twórców zakończeń. Tutaj jest podobnie tylko gorzej, a zakończeń do wyboru są 3 - jedno gdzie nie wiadomo w sumie o co chodzi, jedno gdzie tematem przewodnim jest miłość i jedno gdzie tak jakby przyrzekasz, że od teraz nie pozwolisz nikomu zginąć. No i ja wybrałem sobie to trzecie, niby wszystko fajnie, tylko że jak klikałem ten przycisk to się czułem bardziej jakbym usypiał jakiegoś szczeniaczka niż decydował o losie wielkiego samuraja giga chada, bo chłop przez ostatnie bite 3 godziny mi pierdolił o tym jak mu przykro że wszystkich zawiódł i w ogóle. Ja rozumiem, że w filmach Kurosawy coś takiego mogło działać, no ale tutaj proporcje w scenariuszu są rozplanowane po prostu źle. Jak się zresztą popatrzy na statystyki osiągnięć na Steamie, to dość łatwo dojść do wniosku, że może lepiej byłoby się skupić na dopracowaniu właśnie tego zakończenia, spróbować wytworzyć jakąś więź między graczem a głównym bohaterem poprzez np. jednoznaczne wskazanie honorowego celu ku któremu mogliby wspólnie podążać. Zamiast tego jedna piąta ludzi którzy skończyli tę grę wybrali kota w worku, połowa z reszty stwierdziła, że wolą se siedzieć z jakąś frajerską babą, a ja się teraz wkurzam na jakąś grę dla weebów.
No i jeśli chodzi o walkę / po prostu gameplay to rzeczywiście przyjemnie jest w sumie tylko na początku. Tak naprawdę każdego przeciwnika masz wtedy na jeden heavy attack i daje to naprawdę sporą satysfakcję. Masz rzeczywiście takie poczucie że kurde, ten samurajski miecz to jest jednak coś. Później wszystko się trochę rozbudowuje, dodają różne kombosy, jakieś ranged bronie i w ogóle, ale to wszystko jest tak naprawdę zbędne z jednego prostego powodu - prawie każdego przeciwnika (łącznie z finałowym bossem XD) możesz po prostu zcheesować kombinacją heavy attack + rolka. Tak naprawdę chyba jedynym większym wyjątkiem jest tutaj jeden typ przeciwnika, który może się teleportować. Jeśli ktoś gra tak jak ja, czyli nie widzi sensu w nauce kombosów i całą grę przechodzi właśnie na ten heavy attack to ten chłop jest praktycznie nie do zajebania. Mniej więcej w momencie kiedy zaczął pojawiać się w walkach zacząłem też dostrzegać bugi w gameplayu. Parę razy np. kiedy chłop miał się tepnąć (odpalała się animacja) to w ostatniej chwili zmieniał zdanie i zabijał mnie wychodząc z niewidzialnego punktu, z którego miał się właśnie ulotnić i mnie zbijał. Jest też inny przeciwnik, który może się zmienić w taką jakby kulkę i zacząć regenerować zdrowie (chyba?). Kiedy uderzysz go podczas tego, momentalnie giniesz, niezależnie od poziomu zdrowia, co ze względu na brak możliwości scancelowania heavy attacku przydarzyło mi się chyba z 10 razy (fakt faktem nie wiem w sumie czy to akurat jest błąd czy zamierzona decyzja twórców, ale jeśli to 2, to jest to chyba najbardziej idiotyczny "atak" jaki widziałem w grze wideo). Parę razy udało mi się też zginąć mając jeszcze zdrowie. Jest jeszcze system parowania/blokowania, którego albo nie rozumiem, albo który też działa połowę czasu, a drugą połowę po prostu klikasz bezsensownie przycisk jak jakaś małpa. Widziałem, że w innej recenzji ktoś wspomniał coś negatywnego o rozmieszczeniu checkpointów - nie zgodzę się, są one rozmieszczone co dwie, czasami jedną walkę, co jest moim zdaniem sensowną decyzją. Problem stanowi jednak balans tych walk. W pierwszej możesz np. dostać na łeb 2 chłopów z teleportem i przejście tego zajmie ci pół godziny, a w drugiej może już nie być takich problemów i po prostu zrobisz sobie spacerek do checkpointa.
Czyli podsumowując. Mimo dobrych rokowań gra zawiodła mnie niemal kompletnie swoją fabułą. Gameplay wielokrotnie doprowadzał mnie do szewskiej pasji, a tak naprawdę jedyne czym gra się broni to ładnymi widoczkami, grafiką i może klimatem, chociaż nie wiem czy tu też losowy student japonistyki nie dopatrzyłby się jakichś przekłamań historycznych czy czegoś. Jako dodatek do humbla bundla nie było to jakieś szczególnie złe doświadczenie, ale za prawie stówę nie polecam tej gry nikomu.
2008
The game is oozing with style and originality - even all these years later it's still pretty much a one of a kind game. The presentation is unique, the design is full of surprises, and yet... the game itself is borderline unplayable. Pretty much any functionality you'd expect from a "bridge building simulator" is just not there. You can't move the screen with WASD or arrow keys, only by moving the mouse to the far ends of the screen. You can't revert a move with a click of a button, you have to find a flying bug (the amount of which is randomly limited on every level) on screen and click on it. Choosing which piece of goo you want to pick up is all wonky if there are a lot of them in one place and it can take a while before you manage to get the one you want, which also results in errors in your buildings which just shouldn't happen. The OCD (additional challenges for every level) are available only in a special tab in the menu and not anywhere on screen. And as a cherry on top there is no options menu, so you can't change screen resolution or the language.
I don't know, maybe I'm complaining a bit too much but there were MANY points throughout the game where these small things were really taking the joy out of the game for me. I was a bit surprised when they annouced the sequel a while back, because I think what this game could really benefit from is a remaster or even a remake. But I then looked into it and it turned out there actually is a remaster. A fucking Netflix Games exclusive remaster, so essentially a mobile exclusive. And you know what? Maybe that's the way to go. I honestly think the Steam version might just be inferior to the mobile (and ideally the WII) ones. The wonky controls (at least partly) seem to be the weird result of an attempt at porting the mobile version to PC with little to none adjustments. So unless you have a way to "properly" experience the game, I would treat the Steam version more like a historical artifact of sorts, as despite its shortcomings it's still one of the most important indie games in gaming history.
I don't know, maybe I'm complaining a bit too much but there were MANY points throughout the game where these small things were really taking the joy out of the game for me. I was a bit surprised when they annouced the sequel a while back, because I think what this game could really benefit from is a remaster or even a remake. But I then looked into it and it turned out there actually is a remaster. A fucking Netflix Games exclusive remaster, so essentially a mobile exclusive. And you know what? Maybe that's the way to go. I honestly think the Steam version might just be inferior to the mobile (and ideally the WII) ones. The wonky controls (at least partly) seem to be the weird result of an attempt at porting the mobile version to PC with little to none adjustments. So unless you have a way to "properly" experience the game, I would treat the Steam version more like a historical artifact of sorts, as despite its shortcomings it's still one of the most important indie games in gaming history.
2011
Who knew that slaying orcs could be this fun? For some reason I played the second one first a long time ago, and I rememeber getting stuck at many levels, as they felt too co-op oriented in their design. As this one is single-player only the issue is pretty much non-existent. I also remember a lot of overly tanky enemies, and some of these are present in this entry as well. The only thing that differentiates them from regular "bigger" enemies is the big-ass health bar which can take up to a minute of constant shooting to disappear. It's really annoying and it cocklobcks you from actually managing the enemy horde (so pretty much the fun part of the game) as you have to focus on this one singular guy. It's especially bad when you run out of mana and have to hit him with the basic crossbow, which is a rather shitty deafult weapon. I wish there were more options in that aspect, as every other weapon (aside from the sword, but that one is even worse) uses mana. If it comes to the traps though, there is a pretty big variety of them, and I think everyone can find something they'll like. Not sure if I like the approach of giving the player 1 new thing every level instead of having like a shop where they would unlock whatever they wanted, but as it was the first game in the franchise I'll let it slide.
What else is there to say? It's pretty much a classic at this point, so if you don't have it - buy it. Despite it's shortcomings it probably has one of the best price to fun ratios out there, especiaclly if you consider the on-sale price.
What else is there to say? It's pretty much a classic at this point, so if you don't have it - buy it. Despite it's shortcomings it probably has one of the best price to fun ratios out there, especiaclly if you consider the on-sale price.
2021
I initially liked it a lot, because it seemed like a metroidvania with a focus on survival could be a compelling idea, but ultimately it's just a very regular, very not-interesting metroidvania aimed at weebs with some RPG elements. Plays good on the Steam Deck though.
2021
The graphics (as well as the artstyle / direction) are surprisingly nice to look at. The score is also very good - I think it ties the atmosphere of the game together really well. Sometimes it plays too loud and it's hard to hear the dialogue, but that's not the composer's fault.
The gameplay and general design of the game is pretty much garbage - and that's coming from someone who actually enjoys walking sims. First of all the main character moves way too slow and there is no sprint button or anything like that. Second of all, the interaction system sucks ass. You basically have two ways of interacting with the environment - by walking up to something or by clicking. The first way is fine, but for the second you not only have to be embarrassingly close to be able to trigger it, but there is also an annoying "mini game" in which you have to click, move and hold your mouse for the interaction to trigger. And I know what you're thinking - "wow, the guy played a walking sim which actually requires player input and is annoyed" - but the minigame is a) sluggish, b) too frequent (it happens every time you pull a lever, open a door, etc.) - both of which combined with the slow movement speed make the game, boring, annoying and borderline a torture to play through (at times I really wished I was watching a YT walkthrough instead). And third of all - the collectibles. There are three types of those: notes, items and audiologs. Notes are pretty much what you'd expect, except once you read them they aren't available in the menu or anything so you can't revisit them. Then there are items which you can pick up. And that's it - there is no description, you don't add them to any collection or anything, you can't even fucking rotate them. These aren't even like interesting items, in my playthrough I picked up a bottle of alcohol and a ceramic tea cup, both in act 1 iirc, so idk, maybe the devs realized there is literally no fucking point to it and just decided against it in the end (or alternatively it was just an awkward tutorial for story items, which you use for some extremely primitive puzzles later on in the game). And at last the audiologs. They are fairly interesting, but again, there is no way to experience them outside of just fucking standing right next to them - you can't pick them up, you can't walk away because the sound disappears. And it's so weird because for the most part they are fairly relevant to the main story, so I'd imagine the devs would want the player to listen to them. It's funny, because the rest of the storytelling in the game is on the exact opposite side of this - for the most part you're forced to stand in one place and listen to conversations with literally no way to interact with everything.
And since we're on storytelling, let's talk about it. It can kind of be divided into two parts - the relationship between the two main characters (Szymon - the playable character - and Ewa - the voice on the radio), and the history of the bunker you're in (the story is a fictional take on post WWII era with some sci-fi elements, and the bunker was supposed to be like an utopia built by the nazis), the latter of which is told through the collectible audiologs, as well as voice recordings on a supercomputer you can access at various points of the game. Both of these intertwine at many points of the game, let's stick with these categories anyway.
If it comes to the dialogue sequences between the two main characters I'd describe them as badly written. There are a lot of cliches (the need to form trust between each other etc.), which in itself isn't bad. What makes it bad is the way these interactions are written - let's take the trust thing for example. There is a scene in which the Ewa is guiding Szymon and he's supposed to cross to the other side of a pit through a pipe, but the pipe is broken. The girl tries to convince him to jump for it and he asks something like "what if I don't want to?" and then she gives him like a whole speech about how he needs to trust her, how he has free will and how if he doesn't do it he will later be thinking "damn, what if I actually jumped back then" and in the end he does take the jump and it's like... what??? Aside from the obvious gaslighting and giving the player an illusion of a choice (you can sometimes decide what the boy says by choosing one of 2-3 options) this whole interaction just feels forced. It feels like the writers didn't really have a good idea for a dynamic between the two characters so they just decided to mark the all obvious tropes without giving it any thought. There are also constant plotholes in their dynamic which add to that, but it's too much to get into. That feeling more or less stayed with me for the majority of the game. It was also amplified by the fact that Ewa is just not a well-written character all together. She's reckless, she only thinks about herself, and all the attempts to make her relatable / likeable were pathetic at best. There is this "huge plot-twist" near the end which is pretty much all about her , but you can see it coming from like chapter 2 (out of 5). It's funny, because most of it truly unveils in chapter 4, by which point everyone has it figured out. Everyone with the exception of Szymon, who's just going "wait what? this doesn't make sense!" for the whole chapter. It's honestly the funniest shit ever. All of the VAs in the game also speak English with a Polish accent, while sometimes saying singular words / expressions in Polish. As a Pole, I didn't mind it THAT much, but I recently watched Michael Mann's "Ferrari", which is similar in that aspect, so I'd imagine the experience can be a bit cringy for people not familiar with the language.
Then there's the story of the bunker, and this one actually explores some interesting ideas. There are actual layers to it - on one hand you have the story of the fallen Nazi community and on the other there is the group of Polish people who reclaimed the bunker from them. Both of these groups have their own internal conflicts and it's interesting to watch them unfold (despite all of it being through audiologs, or using the supercomputer, both of which limit player input to zero). For the Nazis there is also the thing about how the bunker was supposed to be utilized, which is at times questionable in quality, suffering from similar problems as what I mentioned earlier. I'm now going to describe a specific instance of it that I just can't get out of my head, and how it perfectly encapsulates the problems of this game’s writing, so spoilers in the next paragraph (although it’s pretty much the meat of the review, so if you’re not interested in the game I suggest reading it).
So at one point of the game you find a note that implies that the Nazis had some frozen Aryan sperm stashed within the bunker. Sometime later you get to a room built out of six chambers for people to live in. There’s also an elevator there, which takes to an underground classroom. The implication is that the Nazis impregnated some women with the sperm and took the kids after they were born, while giving the mothers very limited options to visit their children, which (at least to me) is a pretty basic way to describe the horrifying ways of Nazis, but whatever. During my playthrough I also found a room behind a locked door, which Ewa told me not to open, because she didn’t think any good can be found in that place. I went ahead and opened it anyway. The room was small and pretty much empty, aside from a TV hanging from the corner and a dentist chair with metal clasps next to where the legs go. Ewa then said something like “this is where they impregnated these women”. And that line stayed with me for hours after finishing the game. Not because it was particularly shocking, but because I couldn’t make sense of it. Like I said, there were only 6 chambers, so there couldn’t have been more than, I don’t know, 18 women there? And unless unfrozen sperm is harder to work with or something, impregnating someone with it would take like what – 10 minutes? Even less probably. So like did they just spend one day impregnating all the women and then the room stayed empty for the rest of time? Why did they not repurpose it? But with time I realized two things. For one, I’m a fucking moron (which I was actually aware of already but you know). And for two – the room was probably used for checking how the pregnancy is going, doing ultrasounds and all that shit, Ewa just worded it in a way that focused on that one aspect. And this highlights the one problem the writing of the entire game suffers from – they make you take everything at face value. “This is the part where they start to trust each other”, “this is the part where a conflict between them happens” etc. The game doesn’t even believe you’ll actually look critically at the writing, so it just gets through all the “necessary” stuff, without giving it enough care. It doesn’t want you to think about it, it just wants you to accept it. That obviously a terrible approach, and truth be told unless this is the first narrative project the writers of the game worked on, I don’t really see an explanation for it. I would say there is one, singular attempt at rewarding the player story-wise in the form of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing, that is done so badly, that I truly believe it might be the worst instance of it I’ve seen in any media ever. At one point after you learn Ewa’s name, you can choose a dialogue option to ask about it. You can call her Ewa, or you can call her Eve. Eve is the name of the supercomputer you use throughout the game. Can you guess what happens at the end? I sure as hell could’ve. In the middle of chapter fucking two out of fucking five. Of course, it’s not like I had every detail figured out, but come on – what’s the point of even having a plot twist if you’re just going to give it away? The fun of plot twists doesn’t come from being able to figure it out, not from just fucking knowing it.
I think the game as a whole is a perfect example of “I’ve had a great idea, but then I tried to do it”. The core of the story is genuinely interesting, but the devs crashed and burned while trying to translate it into a video game – both from gameplay and script perspectives. I definitely do not recommend anyone to play through the entire game, but you could probably find some cool stuff just by watching a YT walkthrough.
The gameplay and general design of the game is pretty much garbage - and that's coming from someone who actually enjoys walking sims. First of all the main character moves way too slow and there is no sprint button or anything like that. Second of all, the interaction system sucks ass. You basically have two ways of interacting with the environment - by walking up to something or by clicking. The first way is fine, but for the second you not only have to be embarrassingly close to be able to trigger it, but there is also an annoying "mini game" in which you have to click, move and hold your mouse for the interaction to trigger. And I know what you're thinking - "wow, the guy played a walking sim which actually requires player input and is annoyed" - but the minigame is a) sluggish, b) too frequent (it happens every time you pull a lever, open a door, etc.) - both of which combined with the slow movement speed make the game, boring, annoying and borderline a torture to play through (at times I really wished I was watching a YT walkthrough instead). And third of all - the collectibles. There are three types of those: notes, items and audiologs. Notes are pretty much what you'd expect, except once you read them they aren't available in the menu or anything so you can't revisit them. Then there are items which you can pick up. And that's it - there is no description, you don't add them to any collection or anything, you can't even fucking rotate them. These aren't even like interesting items, in my playthrough I picked up a bottle of alcohol and a ceramic tea cup, both in act 1 iirc, so idk, maybe the devs realized there is literally no fucking point to it and just decided against it in the end (or alternatively it was just an awkward tutorial for story items, which you use for some extremely primitive puzzles later on in the game). And at last the audiologs. They are fairly interesting, but again, there is no way to experience them outside of just fucking standing right next to them - you can't pick them up, you can't walk away because the sound disappears. And it's so weird because for the most part they are fairly relevant to the main story, so I'd imagine the devs would want the player to listen to them. It's funny, because the rest of the storytelling in the game is on the exact opposite side of this - for the most part you're forced to stand in one place and listen to conversations with literally no way to interact with everything.
And since we're on storytelling, let's talk about it. It can kind of be divided into two parts - the relationship between the two main characters (Szymon - the playable character - and Ewa - the voice on the radio), and the history of the bunker you're in (the story is a fictional take on post WWII era with some sci-fi elements, and the bunker was supposed to be like an utopia built by the nazis), the latter of which is told through the collectible audiologs, as well as voice recordings on a supercomputer you can access at various points of the game. Both of these intertwine at many points of the game, let's stick with these categories anyway.
If it comes to the dialogue sequences between the two main characters I'd describe them as badly written. There are a lot of cliches (the need to form trust between each other etc.), which in itself isn't bad. What makes it bad is the way these interactions are written - let's take the trust thing for example. There is a scene in which the Ewa is guiding Szymon and he's supposed to cross to the other side of a pit through a pipe, but the pipe is broken. The girl tries to convince him to jump for it and he asks something like "what if I don't want to?" and then she gives him like a whole speech about how he needs to trust her, how he has free will and how if he doesn't do it he will later be thinking "damn, what if I actually jumped back then" and in the end he does take the jump and it's like... what??? Aside from the obvious gaslighting and giving the player an illusion of a choice (you can sometimes decide what the boy says by choosing one of 2-3 options) this whole interaction just feels forced. It feels like the writers didn't really have a good idea for a dynamic between the two characters so they just decided to mark the all obvious tropes without giving it any thought. There are also constant plotholes in their dynamic which add to that, but it's too much to get into. That feeling more or less stayed with me for the majority of the game. It was also amplified by the fact that Ewa is just not a well-written character all together. She's reckless, she only thinks about herself, and all the attempts to make her relatable / likeable were pathetic at best. There is this "huge plot-twist" near the end which is pretty much all about her , but you can see it coming from like chapter 2 (out of 5). It's funny, because most of it truly unveils in chapter 4, by which point everyone has it figured out. Everyone with the exception of Szymon, who's just going "wait what? this doesn't make sense!" for the whole chapter. It's honestly the funniest shit ever. All of the VAs in the game also speak English with a Polish accent, while sometimes saying singular words / expressions in Polish. As a Pole, I didn't mind it THAT much, but I recently watched Michael Mann's "Ferrari", which is similar in that aspect, so I'd imagine the experience can be a bit cringy for people not familiar with the language.
Then there's the story of the bunker, and this one actually explores some interesting ideas. There are actual layers to it - on one hand you have the story of the fallen Nazi community and on the other there is the group of Polish people who reclaimed the bunker from them. Both of these groups have their own internal conflicts and it's interesting to watch them unfold (despite all of it being through audiologs, or using the supercomputer, both of which limit player input to zero). For the Nazis there is also the thing about how the bunker was supposed to be utilized, which is at times questionable in quality, suffering from similar problems as what I mentioned earlier. I'm now going to describe a specific instance of it that I just can't get out of my head, and how it perfectly encapsulates the problems of this game’s writing, so spoilers in the next paragraph (although it’s pretty much the meat of the review, so if you’re not interested in the game I suggest reading it).
So at one point of the game you find a note that implies that the Nazis had some frozen Aryan sperm stashed within the bunker. Sometime later you get to a room built out of six chambers for people to live in. There’s also an elevator there, which takes to an underground classroom. The implication is that the Nazis impregnated some women with the sperm and took the kids after they were born, while giving the mothers very limited options to visit their children, which (at least to me) is a pretty basic way to describe the horrifying ways of Nazis, but whatever. During my playthrough I also found a room behind a locked door, which Ewa told me not to open, because she didn’t think any good can be found in that place. I went ahead and opened it anyway. The room was small and pretty much empty, aside from a TV hanging from the corner and a dentist chair with metal clasps next to where the legs go. Ewa then said something like “this is where they impregnated these women”. And that line stayed with me for hours after finishing the game. Not because it was particularly shocking, but because I couldn’t make sense of it. Like I said, there were only 6 chambers, so there couldn’t have been more than, I don’t know, 18 women there? And unless unfrozen sperm is harder to work with or something, impregnating someone with it would take like what – 10 minutes? Even less probably. So like did they just spend one day impregnating all the women and then the room stayed empty for the rest of time? Why did they not repurpose it? But with time I realized two things. For one, I’m a fucking moron (which I was actually aware of already but you know). And for two – the room was probably used for checking how the pregnancy is going, doing ultrasounds and all that shit, Ewa just worded it in a way that focused on that one aspect. And this highlights the one problem the writing of the entire game suffers from – they make you take everything at face value. “This is the part where they start to trust each other”, “this is the part where a conflict between them happens” etc. The game doesn’t even believe you’ll actually look critically at the writing, so it just gets through all the “necessary” stuff, without giving it enough care. It doesn’t want you to think about it, it just wants you to accept it. That obviously a terrible approach, and truth be told unless this is the first narrative project the writers of the game worked on, I don’t really see an explanation for it. I would say there is one, singular attempt at rewarding the player story-wise in the form of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing, that is done so badly, that I truly believe it might be the worst instance of it I’ve seen in any media ever. At one point after you learn Ewa’s name, you can choose a dialogue option to ask about it. You can call her Ewa, or you can call her Eve. Eve is the name of the supercomputer you use throughout the game. Can you guess what happens at the end? I sure as hell could’ve. In the middle of chapter fucking two out of fucking five. Of course, it’s not like I had every detail figured out, but come on – what’s the point of even having a plot twist if you’re just going to give it away? The fun of plot twists doesn’t come from being able to figure it out, not from just fucking knowing it.
I think the game as a whole is a perfect example of “I’ve had a great idea, but then I tried to do it”. The core of the story is genuinely interesting, but the devs crashed and burned while trying to translate it into a video game – both from gameplay and script perspectives. I definitely do not recommend anyone to play through the entire game, but you could probably find some cool stuff just by watching a YT walkthrough.
kirby really just said fuck the usa and i'm all for it
2013
When I think about this game I think about the gorgeous environments, the captivating magical realism of the presented world, extraordinarly well-written characters, one of a kind soundtrack and atmosphere, as well as some of the most original design choices I've ever seen in a narrative video game.
When I play this game I am being tortured by walls of text consisting of small talk or descriptions of the surroundings, I'm met with choices that don't make sense and I constantly have the feeling of almost understanding everything, which always gets destroyed by a singular line of dialogue that contradicts my current interpretation / way of thinking.
I don't fully get this game, but I don't think I have to. While the experience wasn't pleasant all the way through, some of its moments and characters will stay with me for a long time.
When I play this game I am being tortured by walls of text consisting of small talk or descriptions of the surroundings, I'm met with choices that don't make sense and I constantly have the feeling of almost understanding everything, which always gets destroyed by a singular line of dialogue that contradicts my current interpretation / way of thinking.
I don't fully get this game, but I don't think I have to. While the experience wasn't pleasant all the way through, some of its moments and characters will stay with me for a long time.
2012
I dig the vibes - the game has a certain sense of wonder. It feels like you can encounter something new on pretty much every step. Unfortunately that feeling gets muddled in the second half of the game, when the puzzles start to span bigger maze-like areas, or tend to be more focused on clicking on random stuff rather than actually solving something. It's still an extremely unique and imaginative experience, especially in terms of the visuals, audio as well as world and character design, but the gameplay suffers from the same problems most point and clicks do.
2021
The game is pretty fun early on, the premise is original and the artstyle is neat. Comedy-wise it was mostly miss for me, but to each of their own. Unfortunately the game gets way too tedious way too fast.
Pretty much everything is centred around pickpocketing people, which is essentially just a quick mini-game you have to do about 10-50 times per level, so like a couple hundred throughout the whole game. There are other ways to earn money on each level, but these are usually connected with just walking around looking for stuff to pick up, or sometimes solving very primitive puzzles, and they never give you enough money to pass the level (meaning you HAVE to pickpocket at least a little bit, unless you do like a 100% precent run doing all the side stuff, then maybe (?) you can avoid it but come on - who would do that?). On top of that the levels get bigger with each one, so as there is no map, earning money the alternative ways gets monotonous as well.
Generally speaking - the fun of the game is pretty much gone after like half of it. As I checked it out on Game Pass I can't say I regret it, but I still wish there was more to it.
Pretty much everything is centred around pickpocketing people, which is essentially just a quick mini-game you have to do about 10-50 times per level, so like a couple hundred throughout the whole game. There are other ways to earn money on each level, but these are usually connected with just walking around looking for stuff to pick up, or sometimes solving very primitive puzzles, and they never give you enough money to pass the level (meaning you HAVE to pickpocket at least a little bit, unless you do like a 100% precent run doing all the side stuff, then maybe (?) you can avoid it but come on - who would do that?). On top of that the levels get bigger with each one, so as there is no map, earning money the alternative ways gets monotonous as well.
Generally speaking - the fun of the game is pretty much gone after like half of it. As I checked it out on Game Pass I can't say I regret it, but I still wish there was more to it.
Finished during beta playtests a couple months back.
I'm not a huge shoot'em up guy, but it was pretty fun, definitely prefer it to the original. The gameplay while still challenging is much more fair, similarly to the level design. The audiovisuals are pretty much just like the first game, except this time the graphics is 2.5D, which I don't like as much, but it doesn't look that bad. From what I've seen most of the issues I've had with the game were fixed so I'm just gonna skip the complaining on this one, but yeah - overall it's a pretty fun time.
I'm not a huge shoot'em up guy, but it was pretty fun, definitely prefer it to the original. The gameplay while still challenging is much more fair, similarly to the level design. The audiovisuals are pretty much just like the first game, except this time the graphics is 2.5D, which I don't like as much, but it doesn't look that bad. From what I've seen most of the issues I've had with the game were fixed so I'm just gonna skip the complaining on this one, but yeah - overall it's a pretty fun time.
2016
The moment when you boot up the game after 3+ years to see one of your toxic ex-friends as one of the main characters...
2014
My first Kirby game. It definitely takes some time to get used to the mechanics and weird-ass key mapping, as opposed to "normal" platformers. There isn't all that much depth to it - most of the levels are pretty forgettable, some abilities are completely unbalanced (most notably the hammer) and aside from a couple of bosses the game is so easy you pretty much play it on autopilot.
But there are so many different ideas put together here, so much attention to detail, that the game keeps surprising you up until the very end. And most importantly it's also very fun. In a way, this is more or less what I imagine Mario Wonder to be - the gameplay is pretty much what you would expect, nothing groundbraking. But the game still manages to keep you hooked because it actually feels like it was made with fresh ideas and love (regardless of whether it was actually the case here).
But there are so many different ideas put together here, so much attention to detail, that the game keeps surprising you up until the very end. And most importantly it's also very fun. In a way, this is more or less what I imagine Mario Wonder to be - the gameplay is pretty much what you would expect, nothing groundbraking. But the game still manages to keep you hooked because it actually feels like it was made with fresh ideas and love (regardless of whether it was actually the case here).