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Jdawg445Lady Kestrel

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ETHER One

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Total Posts: 1075

Joined 2003-09-30

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Oculus Rift-compatible title released,anyone played?

     

“Going on means going far - Going far means returning”

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Total Posts: 932

Joined 2004-03-23

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Any info other than a screenshot? What kind of a game is it?

Screenshot looks interesting, though.

     
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Total Posts: 8998

Joined 2004-01-05

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I started playing (about 1 hour into it)
It’s a solitary 1st person adventure, seems to have a focus on exploration with some puzzles.
It’s a sci-fi setting, the player works for a company as a “Restorer” - a person that goes into the memories of patients with brain damage diseses (dementia in this case) to search for some specific events to help the healing. The screenshot is from inside the memory of the patient.

The game looks ok, using an Unreal engine and standard WASD + mouse controls. The inventory system is a bit of a hassle thought, you can only carry one item at a time.
Interesting game so far, I would say a mixture of Gone Home and To the Moon, but I’m still at the beginning.

     
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Total Posts: 89

Joined 2005-12-19

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I’ve played Ether One for a couple of hours, but unfortunately, so far I’ll have to agree with the RPS impressions: it lacks direction and feels quite… dead. It’s pretty to look at (if you’re into that cartoon art style), but uninhabited and static apart from the puzzles that you solve in arbitrary order without even knowing why or what exactly you’re supposed to be doing. Maybe it’s just the exposition that’s lacking and the game will pick up the pace, but so far I haven’t seen any of that. Also, I can’t say that I like the sound in the game, there just isn’t much of it and it doesn’t feel organic nor does it create a sense of space (which might be a limitation of the Unreal engine).

Somehow, Ether One just doesn’t feel authentic or well directed so far, which is a bummer, because it looked and sounded quite marvelous on paper. Screenshots like the one Gabe posted were the thing that sold me on Ether One, but the game just isn’t that compelling in motion. Still, I’d love to simply explore the world with the Rift; maybe that’s what Ether One is mainly about.

     
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Total Posts: 298

Joined 2004-08-15

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Yeah, it’s really frustrating how little the world of Ether One can be explored. I want to interact more, but apart from occassionally picking up items, most of which are totally useless (which might explain the most cumbersome inventory system ever devised), reading arbitrarily scattered notes (honestly, what a storytelling crutch! I always skim them and find nothing of importance in them. Why are they there? They’re not needed!) and interacting with objects to solve puzzles there’s nothing you can do in this world. You can jump in the game, but you can’t jump on anything higher (‘cause invisible walls), not even to places you can otherwise get to, like with stairs. So why is there are a jump key in the first place?
Somehow the game suggests a freedom of interaction that it then doesn’t fulfill. It feels suffocating in that way.

This game won’t convince me to play more Myst-likes, though it has also many positive aspects, which I’m too lazy to list now, though.

     
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Total Posts: 298

Joined 2004-08-15

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I was wrong before, I think Ether One might manage to awaken my interest in Myst-likes. I played more of it this evening and it managed to captivate me. I re-assembled all the projectors in the harbor and had fun solving the puzzles. I am more in tune with the design sensibilities of the game than I was before.
Plus, the game gets bonus points for a Looking Glass and an Idle Thumbs reference each.

     
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Total Posts: 4011

Joined 2011-04-01

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kuze - 04 April 2014 08:41 AM

I’ve played Ether One for a couple of hours, but unfortunately, so far I’ll have to agree with the RPS impressions: it lacks direction and feels quite… dead. It’s pretty to look at (if you’re into that cartoon art style), but uninhabited and static apart from the puzzles that you solve in arbitrary order without even knowing why or what exactly you’re supposed to be doing. Maybe it’s just the exposition that’s lacking and the game will pick up the pace, but so far I haven’t seen any of that. Also, I can’t say that I like the sound in the game, there just isn’t much of it and it doesn’t feel organic nor does it create a sense of space (which might be a limitation of the Unreal engine).

Somehow, Ether One just doesn’t feel authentic or well directed so far, which is a bummer, because it looked and sounded quite marvelous on paper. Screenshots like the one Gabe posted were the thing that sold me on Ether One, but the game just isn’t that compelling in motion. Still, I’d love to simply explore the world with the Rift; maybe that’s what Ether One is mainly about.

I agree, I was disappointed once I got outside the mine. Mainly with the puzzles. I’ve only managed to repair one projector, and I still don’t get what they want me to do in order to fix them. At one stage I thought the game wanted me to mail a letter using stamps, but that didn’t work. So it’s sort of turned into a fetch-quest for ribbons, which is disappointing since it’s an interesting story concept.

     
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Total Posts: 1368

Joined 2012-09-28

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Wow. Don’t let the visuals fool you, this is one intense game. I’m not sure any game could get closer to the experience of a mental illness as this has for me. I had to stop playing more than once. It’s like the opposite of “cheap tricks” game The Cat Lady.

It has gameplay issues but since they relate to mostly optional puzzles, they aren’t a problem.

     
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Total Posts: 198

Joined 2012-08-03

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I really wanted to like this game. I love the visuals the atmosphere, but I gave up after a few hours of playing. I’m not a big fan of Myst like games, but I wish I was.

     

Anticipating:The Devil’s Men

Recently played:GK1 Remake (4), A Golden Wake (3), Child of Light (4) Memento Mori 2 (4) Face Noir (3.5) Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect (4) Blackwell Epiphany (4.5),Broken Sword 5(4.5), The Shivah Remake (4.5), Monkey Island 2 Remake (4.5)

Top 10 Adventure Games:Tex Murphy: Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight:The Beast Within, Broken Sword:Shadow of the Templars, Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, Lost Horizon, Grim Fandago, The Longest Journey, Blackwell Epiphany

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Total Posts: 4011

Joined 2011-04-01

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Niclas, may I suggest something? Finish the game first - go and collect the ribbons which isn’t hard. Then before you collect the last ribbon save your game, see the ending and go back and try the puzzles again.

I too had difficulty getting into the puzzles. They aren’t conventional and ask for a different kind of thinking and hunting. Once the pressure to finish the game is gone, they become easier because you want to find out what happened.

It really is a very good game, if flawed. The puzzles have a different role - they aren’t really obstacles, they are there to solve if you want to know more. Remember to pick up almost everything and keep looking at the clues in the basement.

     
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Total Posts: 198

Joined 2012-08-03

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Oscar - 08 June 2014 10:47 PM

Niclas, may I suggest something? Finish the game first - go and collect the ribbons which isn’t hard. Then before you collect the last ribbon save your game, see the ending and go back and try the puzzles again.

Thanks Oscar. That actually sounds like a good idea. SmileThe game is beautiful and makes me warm, but the puzzles are so weird. I might give it another go then.

     

Anticipating:The Devil’s Men

Recently played:GK1 Remake (4), A Golden Wake (3), Child of Light (4) Memento Mori 2 (4) Face Noir (3.5) Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect (4) Blackwell Epiphany (4.5),Broken Sword 5(4.5), The Shivah Remake (4.5), Monkey Island 2 Remake (4.5)

Top 10 Adventure Games:Tex Murphy: Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight:The Beast Within, Broken Sword:Shadow of the Templars, Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, Lost Horizon, Grim Fandago, The Longest Journey, Blackwell Epiphany

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