Comments (6)
There's a lot to like about this game; I'm going to talk about the stuff I didn't like first, because people remember the last thing you said and I want to end on a high note. :) The "cons" part is longer but that's because I want to explain exactly why, so it's constructive feedback. At the end of the day, I do recommend this game.
The elephant in the room, as the other commenters have said, is that you just walk way, way too slowly. Visually, the environments are very simple, and that's not a bad thing in and of itself; they are suited to their purpose and I thought they looked great. Unfortunately the simple geometry and texturing means that it takes you 10 times longer to walk across the game's huge open areas than it does to visually "drink in" your surroundings; either the walking speed needs to at least double, or the areas need to be smaller (and personally I think the latter would really hurt the mood). A game where the whole experience is about exploration puzzles really shouldn't punish you for wanting to explore. And yes, I know there's a "run" key; that's the key that raises the game to "remotely tolerable" from "instant uninstall". All my opinions about the speed are based on the run speed, 'cause I just rested a book against my Shift key the entire time I played.
The other problem is the (ostensibly expository) voice acting. Don't get me wrong, from what I can tell the actual voice acting itself is fine. But that's the problem: "from what I can tell". The volume/clarity of the radio voice is nowhere near sufficient to overcome the game's ambient audio. I gather from reading other reviews that the radio lady was supposed to have explained the gravity mechanics; I'll have to take their word for it. Honestly, maybe figuring it out on my own added to the experience (I think I finally realized what was going on after the third or forth cube).
Honorable mention to search-engine friendly summary phrase that comes up in search results. Hey-oooo, spoiler alert! Maybe that's a deliberate design decision?
Oh, and one other thing: the author recommends wearing headphones for this game. My advice? DON'T, unless they're cheap and you don't value your hearing. There are a few points in the game where...I mean, I get what the dev was going for and I respect it, but there's a line where you cross over from audio jump scare to actual physical damage to devices (and eardrums). Sorry this is sort of a spoiler, but in this case it's a judgement call and I'm making it.
Now to the stuff I liked, which was 90% of the game. The soaring, blunt angular architecture of the alien ship was super cool. Maybe some more interesting textures, but...then I'm not even sure. If you put textures on them, even simple ones, it might take away from the raw, brute "2001 obelisk"-ness of them, where they just say "we are giant, imposing structures whose purpose is beyond your understanding" and nothing else. The appearing white trails to confirm that yes, something is leading you somewhere (although whether it's somewhere you want to go is a mystery) is compelling. The ambient soundtrack (when it's not drowning out the voice-over that's supposed to give you the plot) is great. The ending is...not as compelling as I hoped, BUT that may well be because I couldn't hear what the radio lady was saying 90% of the time. There was one transmission toward the end where she sure sounded like she was excited about something, so...that was probably important, I guess. :)
I loved this game.
I put way too much effort into my Lumps Play.
Added subtitles. Sped up the video (without distorting the audio) so I wasn't walking so slowly.
I loved it. I wish there was more information in the story, but the mystery is fun, too. Thank you for making this, I had fun.
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I loved this game.
I put way too much effort into my Lumps Play.
Added subtitles. Sped up the video (without distorting the audio) so I wasn't walking so slowly.
I loved it. I wish there was more information in the story, but the mystery is fun, too. Thank you for making this, I had fun.
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its hard to find the cubes but the atmosphere is amazing
You should save progress. The game is too big to make it in one go. The ship is too big too. And it took ages to fly the gap - too big.
Everything is too big actually.
And the player walks too slow.
The year is 2130. A vessel from interstellar space - the first concrete proof that humanity is not alone in the universe - has entered our solar system and is hurtling towards the sun. As the only ship capable of reaching it in time, you are tasked with discovering it's purpose. Venture inside the allegedly lifeless thing and divine what you can.
If you enjoyed the game, consider grabbing the soundtrack off of Bandcamp or Itch.io
#adventure
