This review contains spoilers
The premise of JETT is heartbreaking. Leaving your dying planet to follow an ancient promise of a better life for your civilisation beyond the stars. Entering a torpor chamber before even leaving the ground, and waking up 1000 years later in space. An unimaginable distance from home. Everyone you ever knew or cared about is long gone. Can you miss them? Can you comprehend that passage of time when it's only been maybe a week for you? JETT doesn't even attempt to touch on this.
Instead it's squared more on exploration and following the old story that gave your people the hope to make this journey, to survive. Cool, so I should be flying about terraforming or whatever. There's a slight element of this, but the control of your JETT, and the performance on PS5 makes this incredibly tedious. For every time I thought I'd be landing somewhere to get out and begin some kind of construction or take samples to figure out if a place is viable to settle down, I was instead met with scanning plants from the air, as the framerate hit sub 20, and the screen stuttered while I kept an eye on my JETT's engine to make sure it didn't overheat.
There is no fun in the flying mechanics. It's like being a bee on string. The illusion of freedom. I was never able to feel like a pilot. Like this was my job. It's so unwieldy and micromanaged that it's a chore, a chore which makes up the majority of the game. The initial flight on yer home world gives a sense of flowing effortlessly across the land in your JETT. A bird on the wind. But no, your engine is hot, so please follow the glowing things in order to not overheat. Explore this new world, but in these designated paths, unless you'd prefer to travel incredibly slowly with your engines on low. You're safe then. Isn't this fun? Don't you feel like an explorer accomplishing things? Quick, land here and get out, walk ten feet this way and have a chat. Don't worry, you can't walk anywhere else. Good, now get back in the ship and go here for another chat. We really are trailblazers. Allow us to wrench the camera away from you again to show you exactly how to do the thing you've done fifteen times before now. Wow, you did it! How did you know? You're incredible Mei!
The chat. Oh man, the chat. Going for a made up language is cute, but you've got to also emote in that language, and so much of the dialogue is stiff and grey. You get a bit of personality from a couple of the crew, but mostly everyone is like a robot. You might chalk that up to a lot of them being quite religious, with that being the main impetus for this trek, but I don't buy it.
I'm just so let down. I feel like the trailers presented a different game, a fun game I'd been hankering after for some time. I can't fault the music though. There are lovely tunes here. But I admit when it swelled and blared at the unbearably disappointing ending, and they expected a big emotional release from me, all I did was laugh.
Instead it's squared more on exploration and following the old story that gave your people the hope to make this journey, to survive. Cool, so I should be flying about terraforming or whatever. There's a slight element of this, but the control of your JETT, and the performance on PS5 makes this incredibly tedious. For every time I thought I'd be landing somewhere to get out and begin some kind of construction or take samples to figure out if a place is viable to settle down, I was instead met with scanning plants from the air, as the framerate hit sub 20, and the screen stuttered while I kept an eye on my JETT's engine to make sure it didn't overheat.
There is no fun in the flying mechanics. It's like being a bee on string. The illusion of freedom. I was never able to feel like a pilot. Like this was my job. It's so unwieldy and micromanaged that it's a chore, a chore which makes up the majority of the game. The initial flight on yer home world gives a sense of flowing effortlessly across the land in your JETT. A bird on the wind. But no, your engine is hot, so please follow the glowing things in order to not overheat. Explore this new world, but in these designated paths, unless you'd prefer to travel incredibly slowly with your engines on low. You're safe then. Isn't this fun? Don't you feel like an explorer accomplishing things? Quick, land here and get out, walk ten feet this way and have a chat. Don't worry, you can't walk anywhere else. Good, now get back in the ship and go here for another chat. We really are trailblazers. Allow us to wrench the camera away from you again to show you exactly how to do the thing you've done fifteen times before now. Wow, you did it! How did you know? You're incredible Mei!
The chat. Oh man, the chat. Going for a made up language is cute, but you've got to also emote in that language, and so much of the dialogue is stiff and grey. You get a bit of personality from a couple of the crew, but mostly everyone is like a robot. You might chalk that up to a lot of them being quite religious, with that being the main impetus for this trek, but I don't buy it.
I'm just so let down. I feel like the trailers presented a different game, a fun game I'd been hankering after for some time. I can't fault the music though. There are lovely tunes here. But I admit when it swelled and blared at the unbearably disappointing ending, and they expected a big emotional release from me, all I did was laugh.
Reviewed on Nov 15, 2021