Maybe the best '6/10' ever? Anyone else playing it? Or played it already?
For the unaware it's basically a survivalist, puzzle platformer set in a pretty-pixelled post-apocalyptic... sewer? I'm not entirely sure where it's set. You play a wonderfully animated cat-like thing, and there are lots of other creatures inhabiting the landscape too, each of which has a place on the food chain, as do you. So you need to eat things and other things are trying to eat you. also, it rains a lot and when it rains you die.
The game is hard. It's vague. It doesn't signpost or handhold or give you clues at all- at least not explicitly. There is clearly a lot to learn and know about the environment and its inhabitants, and gaining this knowledge is key to progress/survival, but none of it will be delivered to you. the game won't even tell you where to look. or even to look. I'm still trying to make sense of it myself. i think for many this level of ambiguity and lack of signposting would be a failing, but for a minority this is probably the best thing about it. I knew immediately from the previews that this would be my bag, so i'm definitely in second camp.
Please, no spoilers outside of tags. I want to figure it all out for myself from the ground up. Every little detail.
I don't think I'll play it but I've watched a couple of in-depth videos and it all seems very impressive. It's also something that seems to have gained traction through word of (internet) mouth as I don't think most publications knew quite what to make of it at launch (it's 6yrs old on PC/PS4).
I think i've seen the opening synopsis of said videos a while ago. it all sounded so promising that i decided not to consume any further content related to the game until i was in a position to play it myself. glad i resisted as this is a real treat so far.
It's one of the more convincing Metroidy games of recent years, largely because it commits to being an arsehole and not babying players whatsoever. Bit like Metroid 2 in that spiritual respect. Level design is satisfying. The ecosystem stuff and the animations are very effective. I never finished it because uhh dunno really? Life?
It's also sort of the very very long tail of stuff like Knytt Stories, the original '00s indie build-your-own-Metroid-level smash and still probably in a personal top number of titles.
It’s really really good. I bounced off it initially but Noxy starting it at the same time gave me a little push to persevere and I’m glad I have. I think a lot will hate it and dismiss straight off but I’m finding my way and it’s really really good.
This is such a treat. To find fault, the music is a pretty uninspired (to put it nicely), which is a shame because although the game has so much charm, character and atmosphere already, a few well-chosen backing tracks could really elevate the experience to something quite exceptional. these outstandingly dull beats drag everything down a bit with them (but just a bit). the sounds effects are pretty low tier too. It might also have been cool if the whole rain thing and the ensuing struggle to find shelter had a few more dynamic safe havens, rather than pre-determined safe spaces? Just a thought. i can imagine racing against a rising tide to find some little nook or air pocket to rest could be quite intense. as things stand there isn't really any race against the elements; it's more of a timer, and most of the time you might as well just lay down and die.
all that said, these are minor points because overall im really loving this. really loving it. i have foudn so many little actions and interactions, and there has been such a joy of discovery to each. even the things i don't understand inspire me to want to find out through experimentation. the game just triggers rare moods and vibes. I don't think i ever played something where i felt so nimble, sly and vulnerable, the latter being particularly important.
chameleon thing. it snatched me from a ledge. game over. 'press button to restart'
but then
Spoiler:
i set my controller down as the beast dragged my corpse away- up an unscalable cliff and across an uncrossable chasm- to his lair far far away. but then it crossed paths with some other beast ive never seen before and they started fighting and my body was tossed aside. suddenly i was back in control and could escape. i managed to getto a save point, and so that's where im at now. love it
edit: well, i can't be absolutely certain from my experience, but i feel quite confident.
Spoiler:
something similar happened a few days ago, but i was too slow to react/ realise i was back in control and ended up dying again before i could pick up the controller. i wasn't sure what happened at the time. i thought perhaps some item i was holding in my belly made the animal decide he didn't like my flavour. perhaps this this is also something that can happen, but it seems as though so long as you are effectively dead- but not actually dead (so in something's jaws/talons, but not their belly)- there is a slim chance of survival if your captor crosses paths with one of their predators on their journey home
green dragons can't climb. Purple can. Sticks stop them briefly, but are mainly for getting around. mayber.
I can eat bugs. I made it to a second nook/save point. No idea how to progress etc. On the plus side, there doesn't appear to be much I've lost in "progress" when I've died.
yeah, have the DLC. happy to have some hefty tips. I feel like I completely miss whatever the game is aiming to give at the moment. So even missing out on possible early surprises might get me past the hump and into the meat of it.
I adore this game and i love what they did with it, or at least most of what they were trying to do, because the reality is that some details/mechanics are just a bit too brutal. Fortunately with the DLC you can access the remix-mode thing, where you can tweak a bunch of game options, softening some of the games rougher edges.
Personally i think disabling karma gates is probably a good start for prolonging interest. In short, there are gates which separate one expansive area from another. each time you rest in a safe house your karma increases +1, and each time you die it decreases -1. The game tracks this counter, and uses it effectively as a key to determine whether you can pass from one area to the next. So if you make a grand excursion and come across a gate with a karma requirement of 5, while yours is just 2, you would need to rest 3 more times to reach the level necessary to pass through the gate, however to rest you need food, and the stuff you eat doesn't respawn, so this means after each nap you have to stray further and further from the game, which in turn means more risks, which in turn means dying more often, which in turn means losing karma, and it can get really brutal really quick.
This brutality can be either the best or worst thing about the game. If you can endure it, it adds to this level of deep, ever-present vulnerability, which is one of the things that make the game so special, imo. It makes your heart race and panic set in when you are chased and scrambling to get back to the gate before losing a life and all that hard work scavenging.
... but at the same time, i can totally undersdand why the pleasure isn't going to be worth the pain for everyone. So the Remix thing gives you the posssibility to turn all karma requirements off completely (meaning no locked gates between areas), and i think this makes adventuring a bit less strenuous. You can basically just explore off in a random direction, and if it all goes wrong, you wont have to worry about karma grinding to offset your misfortune.
There is also an option to tweak the time between downpours. I found extending this too far removed a lot of tension; too much for my tastes, and also left me with a nagging feeling i'd deviated a bit too much from the intended experience. That said, nudging it up a bit might also be a good idea if you find yourself too often getting fucked by the rain.
As far as early tips go, sticks kill, rocks stun. most types of lizards have some protective head thing that makes it hard to spear them front on. That said, if you time things perfectly and spear them as they open their mouth, you can kill many of them in one hit.
otherwise, you can throw a rock to:
- distract them, allowing you to sneack by
- distract them, allowing you to attack from behind
- stun them, by hitting them on the head, allowing you to spear them more easily (this disables their head protection)
alternatively you can throw food instead. not all lizards eat all food types, but if you throw something that's in their diet, this is often enough for them to be distracted by your presence, if they were alerted to it.
also, every predator has a favourite item it likes to eat. if you give them enough of it, they can be tamed and wont attack you. this is not easy. it's more of a cool thing you might find time and space to do at some point during a playthrough, rather than a tactic you'll be using often
The game has a lot of cool interactions and details in the enemies, how they behave, how they interact etc. Let me know if you're getting bored and i'll spoil a few more.
Generally the best thing to do is probably to try and get into character as you play. Be cautious, avoid danger, more cunning and less conflict.
Oh, and one more random but important thing, if you disable karma gates you will lose one key bit of information: the difficulty of the area you are about to enter. when gates are enabled, you can get some indication of how tricky the next location will be based on the entry requirements. without the gates, you run the risk of blindly wandering into a zone of outrageous difficulty. for example, from the starting area it's possible to access 'drainage system' and a horrible place, and a fast tracked route to the games last level.
If you head toward 'industrial complex' you will have a lot more pleasant introduction. this map can be really useful for finding out where you are