Report 74:
The Longing is pretty hard to define genre-wise. I guess you can call it idle adventure game? The premise is that you’re supposed to wait for 400 real-time (at least at first) days, and then end your game. You can end it prematurely with different endings and you won’t be able to play it again - at least without tinkering with the game. This might sound pretty boring for some people and I was pretty sceptical at first too - I was like - wait, that’s the game? But a few hours in I was already weirdly invested in it - when I figured out some of this game mechanics. You are to explore a giant cave system, and every little thing you (rarely!) find feels very rewarding, like a true discovery.
While the soundtrack is really good, I found it really distracting for my experience, so I had it off for most of my playthrough.
It’s definitely not a game for everyone, but if you can embrace the patience aspect of it, it’s a really unique experience.
It’s a simple action-puzzle game. The visuals are pretty good, puzzles are okay (but most of the optional ones include heavy backtracking, which I hated), the voice acting is… questionable, none of the jokes were funny. The coma plot is also pretty cliche at this point.
Overall, it was okay.
This is a relaxing abstract walking sim. There is no plot, character or some kind of clear goal, for that matter. You’re just getting from one triangle-thingie to another, occassionally interacting with stuff and planting seeds. I was pretty bored at the beginning, but then I got into it somewhat. Spent about 3-4 hours idling to get the achievement for finishing the game in 3 hours or more.
Overall, okay.
An epic conclusion to the series. The puzzles were on a easier side, but that’s the usual point’n’click tendency to become simpler and straightforward, but it’s not like it’s for the worst here.
The quality of voicelines isn’t all over the place like in the first game. The soundtrack is still awesome.
Overall, really cool!
The Longing is one of those games that fascinates me a lot… but I avoid trying it out of fear to get completely disappointed by it :)
Thanks for the review and reminder about this untouched gem! :)