- Stunning visuals and art style
- Relaxing and enjoyable experience
- Fluid and satisfying movement
- Short game length, high price
- Poor performance and optimization
- Lacks emotional impact of Journey
Emotions
Players are highly satisfied with the game's overall quality, including its stunning visuals, captivating music, and fluid movement mechanics. The game's exploration, artistic elements, and comparison to beloved titles like Journey and ABZÛ contribute significantly to this positive experience, often exceeding expectations and providing a sense of discovery and enjoyment.
The primary causes of disappointment stem from the game's short length and perceived lack of content, especially in relation to its price. Performance issues, including poor optimization, low frame rates, and unplayability on certain hardware (like Steam Deck), also lead to significant disappointment, as do unmet expectations for a sequel or a more substantial experience.
Frustration is largely driven by severe technical issues such as poor optimization, constant crashes, and inability to maintain stable frame rates, even on high-end hardware. The high price point for what is perceived as limited content, along with specific annoyances like camera issues and unadaptable mouse sensitivity, further contribute to player frustration.
Players express strong excitement for the game's fluid and responsive movement mechanics, often describing them as 'awesome' and 'addictive.' The game's overall high quality, stunning design, and comparison to previous beloved titles from the same studio also generate significant enthusiasm and anticipation.
Joy is primarily derived from the game's beautiful visuals, engaging music, and the sheer fun of its movement system, particularly the hover sword mechanics. The smooth, high-speed progression and the overall positive, whimsical, and meditative experience contribute to a sense of pure enjoyment and a desire to replay the game.
Verdict
Mixed
Summary
Positive 72% · Negative 28%. Score: 28 / 100
Positives:
- Players consistently praise the game's stunning visuals, art style, and overall aesthetic, describing it as beautiful, gorgeous, and a visual feast. The environments are highlighted as particularly breathtaking and enjoyable to explore.
- The game is widely considered a masterpiece and a fantastic experience, often compared favorably to other acclaimed titles like Journey and Abzu. Players feel it's well worth its price and a strong contender for 'game of the year'.
- Many players found the game to be a highly enjoyable, relaxing, and meditative experience. It offers a chill vibe, low stakes, and a sense of wonder, providing a pleasant escape and stress relief.
- The core movement mechanics, especially riding the hover sword, are frequently lauded as fluid, satisfying, and incredibly fun. Players enjoy the sense of speed, flow, and the intuitive controls, making traversal a highlight of the game.
- The game's soundtrack and overall atmosphere receive high praise, described as wondrous, soulful, and top-notch. The music complements the visuals, enhancing the immersive and emotional experience.
Negatives:
- Players consistently feel the game is too short, offering only 2-5 hours of gameplay, which does not justify its current price point. Many believe the game lacks sufficient content and replayability for its cost.
- Significant performance issues, including constant crashes, stuttering, and low frame rates, are frequently reported across various hardware setups, including the Steam Deck. This poor optimization severely impacts playability and immersion, even on low graphics settings.
- Players are disappointed by the lack of native 4K resolution support, often requiring manual DPI adjustments or being limited to lower resolutions. This is a significant drawback for users with high-resolution displays.
- The game is perceived as less expansive and more linear compared to the developer's previous titles like ABZU and The Pathless. Players miss the freedom to backtrack or explore larger, more open environments.
- The game's world design feels disjointed, with isolated and linear zones that lack continuity. This design choice, combined with a lack of meaningful rewards for exploration, detracts from the sense of a cohesive world and makes exploration feel like a chore.
Gameplay:
- The game is relatively short, typically completable in 2-4 hours, but features a robust New Game Plus mode. This encourages multiple playthroughs, offering enhanced states, challenge rooms, and score-based objectives to extend replayability.
- The game is frequently compared to 'Journey' and 'Abzu' due to its atmospheric focus, emphasis on exploration, and non-verbal storytelling. It offers a meditative experience where players restore desolated areas, evoking similar emotional responses to these titles.
- A core gameplay mechanic involves unique traversal by surfing or snowboarding on a sword. This allows for smooth movement, acrobatic tricks, and a distinctive take on the genre, blending exploration with a sense of flow.
- The narrative is conveyed through non-verbal methods, such as environmental storytelling, text on stones, and cutscenes without dialogue. This approach encourages player interpretation and discovery of the world's lore.
- The game features simple, fluid mechanics and a guided progression system that prevents players from getting lost in its open areas. While generally linear, it offers enough freedom for exploration without overwhelming the player.
Performance:
- Many players report significant performance issues, including low and unstable frame rates, especially on mid-range PCs, Steam Deck, and even high-end systems in certain demanding areas. Some users experience crashes and difficulty running the game at proper resolutions, indicating poor optimization.
- Conversely, a notable number of players report smooth performance with stable frame rates, even at high settings, suggesting that performance issues are not universal and may depend on specific hardware configurations or in-game settings.
- Players suggest that setting frame rates to unbound, adjusting resolution scaling, or implementing DLSS support could significantly improve performance and address current optimization challenges.
- A specific issue reported is the camera's jittery and shaky movement, which can cause discomfort and motion sickness for some players.
- Players noted that despite the game's minimalist art style, it is surprisingly demanding on hardware, sometimes more so than graphically intensive AAA titles.
Recommendations:
- Many players recommend waiting for a sale or a performance patch before purchasing. While the game is generally well-received, current technical issues and pricing are significant barriers for some, especially those with lower-end PCs.
- The game is highly recommended for fans of previous titles by Giant Squid, such as Journey, ABZÛ, and The Pathless. Players who enjoyed the unique artistic and gameplay styles of these games are likely to appreciate this new offering.
- The game offers a relaxing, visually and audibly rich experience, making it suitable for players seeking a short, artistic, and immersive journey. However, its unique style and brevity mean it may not appeal to all players.
Miscellaneous:
- Players frequently compare the game to previous titles like Journey, Abzu, and The Pathless, noting similar artistic styles, gameplay elements, and emotional resonance. Some see it as a celebration or continuation of Giant Squid's prior works, while others find it reminiscent of Prince of Persia.
- While some players report performance issues, others claim to have no problems, attributing issues to user hardware. There's an acknowledgment that developers are working on fixes, and some players are willing to overlook performance for the experience.
- Feedback on the game's pacing and movement is mixed. Some find the tempo good and movement enjoyable, while others feel the game might have been developed too quickly.
- This feedback is based on limited or low-quality signals, including meme references, personal anecdotes about purchasing multiple copies, and mentions of torrents or future game releases, which offer little constructive insight into the game itself.
- The game includes a New Game+ feature, which adds replayability for players who wish to continue after completing the main story.
