Review of The Initiate by Stevens R. Miller
Rating by Stevens R. Miller posted on Jun 16, 2019 | edit | delete
Good Looking, Basic Puzzler (with a Cave)
I mostly agree with the AG reviewer, but will respectfully dissent about the cave. Yes, it’s a wee bit tedious. It didn’t take long to solve, though, and I would disagree that it is a disavowed (or otherwise blacklisted) category. But it does feel a little out of place in this game.
Mostly, “The Initiate” is a hide-and-seek game where the “solution” to most of its puzzles requires looking around until you find something. Putting what you find to use is typically easier than finding it was. The cave actually was a real puzzle, albeit not a hard one. So, it is a bit jarring to the mind to suddenly shift from an egg-hunt to something more akin to that 4x4 plastic toy with the fifteen little tiles you slide around.
Graphically, it’s pretty impressive. Considering the short credit roll, maybe a lot of the models came from the Unity Asset Store. The designer(s) did a successful job of creating a consistent look, and it’s a high quality look overall. Nothing ever takes you out of the story due to the imagery. The story is, like this review says, both thin and familiar. But that’s rather an indication just how reliable this genre is, when you get the game-play right.
The wife and I loved Myst, Edith Finch, and Gone Home. This is in that family, so we liked it too.
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Time Played: 5-10 hours
Difficulty: Just Right
