April '19 Play Log

Generally speaking even for games I really like, when I finish it and get all of the achievements I intend to I’m happy and ready to move on. This was one of the few games where I was sad to finish because I wanted to keep playing it but there were no story levels left to play. This game is going on my favourites list, and is absolutely worth full price. I’ll be first in line if they ever make a sequel.

Pros:

• Some of the skills and things you can do with them are quite funny
• Levels start off really simple and get fairly complex (but not impossibly difficult)
• There are places where you can choose what to do/which side to take, which influences the story a little
• Has a level editor for the more creative types (not me), or you can download other people’s created levels (me!)
• There are multiple ways to finish levels, and opportunities to do so in a ‘quiet and unseen’ fashion, a ‘dear god everyone’s dead what happened here?’ fashion, or anywhere in between
• You can go back to earlier levels and replay them

Cons:

• The story isn’t tiny, but left me wanting more. I would have loved it to be longer. Alternatively, there’s an opportunity for DLC adding more story levels.

Verdict: 9/10

Pretty decent game overall, though personally I wasn’t a fan of the ending. Worth playing if you like Horror/Walking Simulator games, but I’d probably wait for a sale. There are numerous achievements for various collectibles, which I don’t recommend skipping as many of them contribute to the story. Unfortunately there aren’t any English guides for them, so I ended up using a video walkthrough which I don’t necessarily recommend as it can ruin the story/experience.

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics & scenery (though a large part of the game is at night so it’s not always appreciable)
• There are occasional candles and markers to help you know when you’re on the right track
• There are generally respawn markers before sections where you could get killed, so you don’t usually have to redo large sections when this happens.
• The collectible notes give an interesting background to the story and what happened on the island.

Cons:

• If you don’t explore enough and/or miss a lot of the collectible notes you’ll end up missing the background/motivations for what’s happening in the present
• Despite the aforementioned candles, it’s very easy to get lost in a lot of areas. I got lost several times and have a decent sense of direction (and was frequently consulting a video guide to avoid missing collectibles). If you have a bad sense of direction I imagine getting hopelessly lost would be a frequent occurrence, especially at the beginning of the game
• There’s supposed to be a strategy for not getting killed by the monsters, but for a few of them it felt like there was also a lot of luck involved.
• Personally I wasn’t a fan of the way they ended it.

I wouldn’t recommend this to point & click fans, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to horror fans. The only source of horror is the disturbing things going on on the space station the story takes place on, and the puzzles are frequently of the ‘pick up random junk and use it in non-obvious ways’ variety. As far as the story goes, I’m pretty sure the developers of this were sadists. If you’re looking for anything remotely resembling look elsewhere.

Pros:

• Lots of background on the ship, what was going on, and even details of how the crew got on with each other, giving you a very good idea of what it was like on the ship before it became ‘abandoned’, and a good idea of how people acted/reacted as things went bad.

Cons:

• The only source of ‘atmosphere’ comes from strange noises, groans, and cries that get really annoying fast.
• While many of the puzzles are doable, a fair number of them involve grabbing random things (sometimes involving pixel-hunting) and using them in non-obvious ways in order to move on. Don’t hesitate to consult a walkthrough if you get stuck.
• Most of the missable achievements involve purposely dying in frequently obvious and easily-avoided ways. They’re not the slightest bit entertaining either - if anything they’re disturbing.
• Although it doesn’t start that way, the story is gets more and more disturbing as you go on. SPOILER: It even lacks anything resembling a happy ending. I tried (and failed) to come up with some sort of upside to the ending. After everything that happens over the course of the story, it ends as bad as it could short of the bad guy winning (although to be honest that probably wouldn’t be much worse).

A bit of a disappointment, but at only an hour of playtime that’s not terribly surprising. Doubling the playtime by making the puzzles a little bit more difficult and expanding on what passes for a story would make the game much better. Basically it’s an amateur sci-fi knock-off of The Room, except more linear and much easier. It’s not bad, it’s just not good enough to be worth the time or money.

Pros:

• Decent graphics

Cons:

• When you look at something interesting there’s often a comment, but it’s in white and frequently hard to read against white or off-white backgrounds (depending on what you’re looking at).
• I came across at least one area where the character was commenting on something I didn’t yet have the ability to see, which really confused me.
• Most of the puzzles are quite easy, making them a bit more difficult would be beneficial.
• There’s clearly some attempt at a story, but the developer seems to have given up on it after putting only the basics in place. If nothing else, an opening cutscene explaining why you’re on (what turns out to be) a ship and some background as to what’s going on would be helpful.

Verdict: 6/10