Underrated gem with a few rough spots

[psycho_clank314]

Sure there are some issues with optimization on PS5, but this game has a unique story and gameplay that I think any fan of space fiction would enjoy. I am about halfway through and think the game is at least a 7.5/10. It is slower paced and dropped at a perfect time for me as I have been playing very fast paced games recently like Hades and Deathloop. Gameplay takes some adjustment to get used to, but once you get the feel for the Jett it clicks. 

 

Really enjoying the experience right now.

[Ara_Dax]

Its certainly different.  My biggest gripe with it though is trying to read the constant subtitles at the bottom of the screen, whilst also trying to fly, like around the tree canopy's near Tor without crashing.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Ara_Dax

[YesImAPwnda]

I was hyped about it, but the performance on ps5 is just really bad and the controlls are rough.
Also had the same problems like you @Ara_Dax.

Hope they'll patch it to a stable framerate, but I have a really bad feeling about that.

[JaphyRider]

The subtitles really take away from engagement w story - I wanna fly the damn spaceship and can’t if I’m reading. This was easily the biggest design problem with the game.

 

Also the inability to scale some of the steeper walls was really frustrating, and the game putting me in slow-mo to tell me what to do, over and over and over, when I  knew exactly what to do but was choosing to do something else, and the far to many other times the game wrenches the controls away from you to tell you something. Of course, if you didn’t have to read whatever the instruction was….. they wouldn’t have had to do it like that. Idk 5/10 for idea, some of the plot, and the music. Art style is cool but when I’m reading I can’t look at it etc

[GUDGER666]

Gave it a couple of hours but imo a poor game. On foot it's a stutterfest, it looks like it's running at 15fps. I don't know if you do anything else but from what I played you don't really do anything, very boring. And then there's the biggest issue which is the reason I stopped playing, the language, wtf were they thinking? I want to play a game not be constantly trying to read subtitles. 

[MadPax5000]

I am not sure how anyone would like this game. It's been such a bad experience having to read subs while actually focusing on the task at hand. I was misled by reviews that this game is a hidden gem. Nothing against people who recommend the game ofcourse, but I really could not imagine liking this game at all. Maybe I got to give it another try and understand what I am missing

[Long-Ryde]

I was hype to play this game, but vastly dissapointed.

 

I'll be overtly negative and say the core gameplay is horse-shit. Welcome to my rant. Maybe I'm missing something. I FEEL like I'm missing something, but there's so much wrong with major design elements of this game that make it a disaster to play, and makes me not want to figure it out.

 

I absolutely love and adore experimental, border-pushing, story-rich games, but not when they straight-up suck to play.

 

1. Reading subtitles while trying to visually soak in your world is antithetical. Detracting from the world when that's the entirety of the game's substance is a stupid choice fundamentally.

 

2. The controls are shit. I'm not the smartest guy, but I was absolutely fighting the controls to fly and maneuver effectively. The amount of times the game would randomly shut my jets off (no overheat or anything) was maddening.

 

3. Movement (aka 90% of the gameplay) sucks. You're limited by an arbitrary and overused "overheat" system, the vertical movement of your ship is garbage.

 

4. The information relay is bullshit. Slowing things down or revoking control entirely just to feed me dialogue or point me in a direction, is not only a pure developer sin, but happens SO MUCH. I get why they need it (because they can't convey info well), but god that feature sucks. At the same time, not giving any sort of feedback to my actions feels horrible, and it's crazy that this game manages to do both shitty ends of the spectrum.

 

eg: I sat in a "Shadow" during some solar flare event, not really knowing if that was the right thing to do, and after 15 minutes it was like "DING! good job! now go here" like bro I went to go make a sandwich, what the fuck? There's times where you're just like "is this what's supposed to happen? Because nothing is happening or telling me otherwise but I also can't really do anything else either sooooo...." Being able to strike that balance between "LOOK AT THIS HERE, DO THIS" & just flat-out nothing is key, and not what this game achieves.

 

5. The performance sucks. This is bare minimum shit so I don't get how Journey-level graphics from the PS3-era aren't performing well. I'm not good at game optimization, so I don't understand it well but I also don't attempt resource heavy projects for that reason. There's barely anything going on in this minimalistic hellhole so it's surprising that it runs so poorly. 

 

TL:DR; It's a cool concept with bottom-tier execution on many fronts that aren't aesthetic, don't buy games like this.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Long-Ryde

[Ennlocke]

Kinda have to agree, I really want to love the game as it seems to appeal to my tastes but it's really not well executed. I think the game would also be way more bearable if it was voice acted in English, nothing again'st the language used (real or made up, I don't know) but reading and doing objectives at the same time really gets confusing. I think I'll still finish it despite the obvious flaws bacause I like the vibe and want to plat it, but it is frustrating to play.

 

Edit : After finishing it, I'd say I got used to the controls, however my biggest disappointment is the story. Litteraly nothing actually happens and by the end of the game I felt like I basically just did chores with no cool moments or payoffs. Really boring, had to finish the last parts with Netflix on the side to push through it.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Ennlocke