Adventure Gamers - Forums

GameStop gave the game a 4 out of 10. Review said basically, that the combat is atrocious, some of the puzzles are obtuse and the story is mildly interesting.

luckyloser - 19 March 2024 05:31 PM

I hear you, but even if it is so, that doesn’t discredit the statement itself, the game could be badly designed and yet represent that ‘faithful adaptation’,.... no?

Very true, im just looking at it from a game perspective. For every decent review there is a reviewer giving it a very low score. Kind of a strange rollercoaster.

On the bright side looking around at reviews. in general it seems that the people who do like Puzzles are really are enjoying them on some mainstream review sites like ign. I’m hoping just in general that this is a pendulum swing back towards real puzzles in bigger mainstream games. Because as I posted in another topic I feel like in general, Gamers are now actually wanting shorter more thoughtful games than just endless open worlds full of combat. I noticed that even with the new Final Fantasy remake part 2 that came out while back. While it is more open world, it is still way more small and concise than the massive open ones we usually get and the game got heaps of praise and that was one of the reasons why that was listed on some reviews.

Watched 3 minutes of a stream of the game to get an impression, looked really good imo. I will play it once it is on sale (>30%), ppl say it’s only around 6 hours or so play time, i’m not paying 50 bucks for that.

Reviews on steam are rather bad though for whatever reason, most ppl seem to complain about bugs and technical issues, combat apparently not its strength but puzzles and mood.

I bought this on Friday. Got one of the 5,000 Limited Editions shipped to retailers at regular price. Which includes a nice booklet look, a soundtrack CD and some art inside. A weekend and 8-9 hours later, I’m in chapter 4. And I’m enjoying this. Doesn’t surprise me that this game got a review here, whilst the likes of Resident Evil and Dead Space are getting the pass. I think same as the comparably steep entry price of admission for an AA-game based on a now niche IP, marketing the game as “survival horror” is another marketing mistake.

People who enjoy the likes of Amnesia, The Sinking City, Shadow Of The Comet, Prisoner Of Ice, Call Of Cthulhu 2018 on average may find themselves more at home than somebody looking forward to launching rocket launchers into zombies all the while triggering a jump scare in between. Much like the original Alone In The Dark, this is a Lovecraftian puzzle, exploration and detective adventure game with combat (and also stealth here) in between. The combat is simple, not that regular, and even on hard not that “hard”—I played The Evil Within by chance just before. And that is a completely different beast even on the 2nd of 4 available difficulties.

There are sections where you face numerous enemies. But even in those, you mostly face one enemy at a time. You can sometimes sneak around. And if there’s lots of them coming at you, chances are it’s meant to be a RUN AND GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE moment too. You’ll notice it by the music and sound playing. The puzzles won’t meld your brain, but they’re of a trickier kind than in modern survival horror as well. The game also runs mostly over 50 fps even on a 1050ti on medium details in native Full-HD (anti-aliasing on high). And the 1050ti is the absolutely minimum listed—a lot of the time minimum means: lowest details, 30fps. There are a few very short stutters occasionally when entering a new room, but that seems Unreal Engine 4 game standard. Doesn’t bother me much either way, as it’s a slower paced game.

Also, the soundtrack is quite something in its Voodoo Jazz vibes. And a far cry from the generic Hollywood orchestra fare more typical for higher budget horror games. So far no regrets for getting this. 2001’s The New Nightmare was fun, but also tried real hard to out-Resident Evil Resident Evil, even moving Carnby into the present time and equipping him with beefy guns from the moment the game boots up. But this thankfully doesn’t do that.

In fairness, I cannot be 100% sure yet, as I’m playing Emily first.

I very nearly pulled the trigger and bought this game after hearing great things. Glad I check out some views here before I did. The vibes I got from what I heard was that it was a return to Resident Evil 1 style of horror and obscure puzzles invented by developers who are secretly working for the zombies and don’t want you to win.

Perhaps we need another word to describe puzzles that are bit more than pickup key, use key on door. I’m certain people are not intending to be misleading, we just all have different ideas on what puzzles actually are.

I’ll wait for a sale on this one I think and see how I feel then.

crumpets - 08 April 2024 06:19 AM

The vibes I got from what I heard was that it was a return to Resident Evil 1 style of horror and obscure puzzles invented by developers who are secretly working for the zombies and don’t want you to win.

Resident Evil 1 was always AITD on steroids. The original AITD has a reputation for being the “grandaddy” of survival horror. But Resident Evil was something else right in its first incarnation. It’s only the AITD sequels that ramped up the action either way, when Raynal was long gone from Infogrames and went on to form Adeline (Little Big Adventure). Which would foreshadow what major horror franchises/developers would all do: Trying to get more action involved, in an attempt to broaden the target audience. Dead Space did it (despite being a fully-on action game right from the start). Resident Evil did it. Alone In The Dark came first. Which opened massive opportunity for all the indies to exploit (Amnesia).

If you’re looking forward to smashing zombie heads in, you will be disappointed. The closest comparison more recent to me was Amnesia: Rebirth, but with bits of combat rather than purely hiding and running away.  As said, there are combat sections in between the detective work, even with multiple enemies. But the combat is simple, you’re barely ever approached by multiple enemies, and even if you are, that may turn into you running the hell away. This is nothing much like Resident Evil whatsoever, though the original game remains the closest comparison as to that series. It has that creepy mansion full of secrets and a few puzzles, it borrowed the camera perspective (which AITD does now in reverse). I like RE up to the more Hollywood action styled second game (the remake as well), and then the seventh one again. After which they dropped the ball again, apparently, and massively ramped up the action again.

As to puzzles, I barely got majorly really stuck once, chapter 4 out of 5. And I barely play that many adventure games anymore these days. Immediately disabled all hints, which the game optionally provides too. There’s maybe one or two that I would call a bit obscure. Otherwise, if anything, a few of them are too straight forward (without spoiling). Then again, in an age where characters break the fourth wall and tell puzzle solutions before you’ve get a chance to take a closer look (looking at you, Horizon Forbidden West), anything that has you trying a few things is being tagged as “obscure”.

There’s a reaon why game development has moved away from brain benders—adventure gaming included.

The conversation around this game is so weird just like the reviews. For some is really bad and for others pretty good. I was looking forward to this since I’m a big fan of survival horror but the underwhelming reception stopped me. This game looked like it was made for me, a survival horror more focused on atmosphere, story and puzzles than action, but from what I’ve read/seen, even those elements are not very good, plus with the action being bad. It seems to me that the game didn’t really know what it wanted to do, be a more action heavy modern survival horror a la Resident Evil or Dead Space or a more puzzle oriented game like the original game was and in the end didn’t really excel in any particular area.

crumpets - 08 April 2024 06:19 AM

I very nearly pulled the trigger and bought this game after hearing great things. Glad I check out some views here before I did. The vibes I got from what I heard was that it was a return to Resident Evil 1 style of horror and obscure puzzles invented by developers who are secretly working for the zombies and don’t want you to win.

Perhaps we need another word to describe puzzles that are bit more than pickup key, use key on door. I’m certain people are not intending to be misleading, we just all have different ideas on what puzzles actually are.

I’ll wait for a sale on this one I think and see how I feel then.

Same here, I was hoping for a more classic RE style of game with fairly obscure puzzles, but thankfully that area is being covered by indies like Signalis and Tormented Souls, which if you haven’t played I totally recommend. Those 2 became some of my favorites survival horrors not only in recent times but ever. The puzzles in Tormented Souls are so great I loved them, they beat any recent adventure game imo.