Sometimes, there is a thing as too much immersion, and ludonarrative harmony can sometimes work to the detriment of the overall experience. This game, for example, is hellbent on making you feel exactly what your character is going through, and your character is in a state of perpetual irritation, exhaustion and a quiet burning hatred for bureaucracy and incompetent political figures. The experience is quite miserable lol
All of this lies in the gameplay. I'll summarize as quickly as possible: you walk around VERY slowly and talk to people who don't solve anything and only mess things up, all the while having to deal with survival mechanics (hunger, disease, tiredness and immunity). Oh, and you have a Majora's Mask-ish timer going on and you'll get harshly punished for not doing the right things on time. I would like to stress that only FIVE PERCENT of players on Steam beat ONE of the three campaigns in this game. Not because the game is hard, but because it redefines tedium and sets a whole new bar for it. I think doing nothing at all is legit less boring than slogging through this.
Playing this game felt like scraping my face with sandpaper, so I, sneaky little crook that I am, just cheated the shit out of it with console commands. Gave myself 1000 of each resource, sped up the walking speed 2x while slowing down in-game timer. I strongly recommend you do the same, because every other aspect in this game is top-notch.
And by every other aspect I mean the atmosphere, story, setting, architecture, OST and, first and foremost, dialogue. It all feels so strange in a very unique, dreamlike way. I don't know any other piece of media that feels alien in this particular way. Surely the Soviet cultural background combined with Tim Burton-ish creepy/cute aesthetics and the weird, out there artsy framing brewed up something that hasn't been replicated yet, at least to my current knowledge. It's a great and very unique experience that's unfortunately chained down by awful gameplay.
All of this lies in the gameplay. I'll summarize as quickly as possible: you walk around VERY slowly and talk to people who don't solve anything and only mess things up, all the while having to deal with survival mechanics (hunger, disease, tiredness and immunity). Oh, and you have a Majora's Mask-ish timer going on and you'll get harshly punished for not doing the right things on time. I would like to stress that only FIVE PERCENT of players on Steam beat ONE of the three campaigns in this game. Not because the game is hard, but because it redefines tedium and sets a whole new bar for it. I think doing nothing at all is legit less boring than slogging through this.
Playing this game felt like scraping my face with sandpaper, so I, sneaky little crook that I am, just cheated the shit out of it with console commands. Gave myself 1000 of each resource, sped up the walking speed 2x while slowing down in-game timer. I strongly recommend you do the same, because every other aspect in this game is top-notch.
And by every other aspect I mean the atmosphere, story, setting, architecture, OST and, first and foremost, dialogue. It all feels so strange in a very unique, dreamlike way. I don't know any other piece of media that feels alien in this particular way. Surely the Soviet cultural background combined with Tim Burton-ish creepy/cute aesthetics and the weird, out there artsy framing brewed up something that hasn't been replicated yet, at least to my current knowledge. It's a great and very unique experience that's unfortunately chained down by awful gameplay.