This review contains spoilers
my opinion is similar to that of a lot of other users on here; this game pulls many of the tricks that inscryption does with about half of the success. i feel a little sorry for the thing since it will live in inscryption's shadow forever, but it's pretty clear how it fails where inscryption succeeds.
first, the villain sort of flip-flops from being frightening to goofy, and once i realized that, a lot of the plot points lose their weight. i just... don't feel threatened by this guy, even if he is Lucifer. of course the silliness is on purpose, and the way his character sort of pokes fun at game designers is amusing. in inscryption, however (at least for a while) the man in the cabin is frightening. also, i don't think satan is really that scary. (am i going to hell for that?)
the next issue, which matters way more, is that the game(s) that underlie all of this haunted arcade cabinet meta wackiness is just not very good. (subjectively) playing a platformer with the left and right mouse buttons feels bad, and while mullins/lucifer throws in new mechanics at a steady rate, none of them make me WANT to play pony island. of course, the game being GOOD would make all of the "Lucifer is a shitty game designer" jokes not work, but like, if you purposely made this game bad on purpose for the plot.......idk man that's a can of worms.
the other game, which revolves around getting a key from one part of fake assembly code to another is more enjoyable. it's a strange puzzle game that feels a bit like a falling block puzzle and something like pipe dream injected with a little bit of programming fun (breaks, if statements, incrementing variables). it's good, but not captivating.
the meta stuff, which i suppose we're all here for, is up to par. there's one bit i like in particular *go to bottom for spoilers*, and prying into the lore with the Cave of Secrets (or whatever it's called) provides some interesting background on your character, but it really wasn't enough to win me over as a Pony Island fan.
my take is: play inscryption instead -- it's a perfect time of year for some creepypasta, and it's got better writing, better gameplay, and a whole lot more mind-blowing tricks.
spoilers *where they fake a steam message
first, the villain sort of flip-flops from being frightening to goofy, and once i realized that, a lot of the plot points lose their weight. i just... don't feel threatened by this guy, even if he is Lucifer. of course the silliness is on purpose, and the way his character sort of pokes fun at game designers is amusing. in inscryption, however (at least for a while) the man in the cabin is frightening. also, i don't think satan is really that scary. (am i going to hell for that?)
the next issue, which matters way more, is that the game(s) that underlie all of this haunted arcade cabinet meta wackiness is just not very good. (subjectively) playing a platformer with the left and right mouse buttons feels bad, and while mullins/lucifer throws in new mechanics at a steady rate, none of them make me WANT to play pony island. of course, the game being GOOD would make all of the "Lucifer is a shitty game designer" jokes not work, but like, if you purposely made this game bad on purpose for the plot.......idk man that's a can of worms.
the other game, which revolves around getting a key from one part of fake assembly code to another is more enjoyable. it's a strange puzzle game that feels a bit like a falling block puzzle and something like pipe dream injected with a little bit of programming fun (breaks, if statements, incrementing variables). it's good, but not captivating.
the meta stuff, which i suppose we're all here for, is up to par. there's one bit i like in particular *go to bottom for spoilers*, and prying into the lore with the Cave of Secrets (or whatever it's called) provides some interesting background on your character, but it really wasn't enough to win me over as a Pony Island fan.
my take is: play inscryption instead -- it's a perfect time of year for some creepypasta, and it's got better writing, better gameplay, and a whole lot more mind-blowing tricks.
spoilers *where they fake a steam message