What drew me to this game is its science creation story through a film noir style and unique aesthetics. While the overall effort and interpretation is commendable, I think it fails significantly in the story and gameplay mechanics. Story-wise, I feel the ending is unearned without clear emotional moments as well as its overall plot. Since it lacks a clear line between abstract and real, it is hard to tell which elements of the plot are to be taken literally or metaphorically. It is also hard to believe that the side characters met on the way become very important later on without developing their relationship. It is just unnecessarily hard to understand character actions and motivation making the game feel like a mess.
Despite having an abstract story, it is the gameplay that ruins the game. The game has so many unnecessary and tedious interactions would be better as cutscenes. For example, rotating the analog stick, picking up/throwing items, holding a button . It can work with the proper context, but the scale and repetition feels like busywork with the jank. The jank is death by a thousand cuts such as fidgety object rotation, unresponsive cursor snapping, unclear invisible walls, slow walk speed, unskippable cutscenes, unresponsive item inventory, soft locks. It feels everything is slower and more restrictive than it has to. If it chose its moments of interactivity well, this would have not been such a bad experience to play through.
I do challenge why the game's abstract science had to be framed in a film noir style since the genre is male and human coded. It limits the design and focus on humans instead of abstract or inventive creatures or designs beyond the cosmos. It also has a female film noir character trope that I don't like to somewhat justify the final choice. The musical choice too of just jazz is also limited where the orchestral or theremin music would make it more vibrant. I just don't think a crime is needed to tell this story.
Due to the lack of an emotional core and taxing gameplay, I have to bump this down a tier and cannot recommend it overall despite liking the concept.
Despite having an abstract story, it is the gameplay that ruins the game. The game has so many unnecessary and tedious interactions would be better as cutscenes. For example, rotating the analog stick, picking up/throwing items, holding a button . It can work with the proper context, but the scale and repetition feels like busywork with the jank. The jank is death by a thousand cuts such as fidgety object rotation, unresponsive cursor snapping, unclear invisible walls, slow walk speed, unskippable cutscenes, unresponsive item inventory, soft locks. It feels everything is slower and more restrictive than it has to. If it chose its moments of interactivity well, this would have not been such a bad experience to play through.
I do challenge why the game's abstract science had to be framed in a film noir style since the genre is male and human coded. It limits the design and focus on humans instead of abstract or inventive creatures or designs beyond the cosmos. It also has a female film noir character trope that I don't like to somewhat justify the final choice. The musical choice too of just jazz is also limited where the orchestral or theremin music would make it more vibrant. I just don't think a crime is needed to tell this story.
Due to the lack of an emotional core and taxing gameplay, I have to bump this down a tier and cannot recommend it overall despite liking the concept.