- Enjoyable, value-for-money experience
- Innovative, fluid movement mechanics
- Captivating atmosphere and unique style
- Clever, accessible puzzle design
- Touching narrative and impactful ending
- Occasional jankiness and minor bugs
Emotions
Players felt satisfaction from the solid, fluid platforming and responsive controls, particularly the unique staff traversal mechanics, which contributed to an enjoyable sense of movement and exploration. The engaging atmosphere, creative gameplay, and perceived value for money also enhanced the overall pleasant experience, leading to high post-completion contentment.
Admiration stemmed from the game's exceptional atmosphere, sound design, and gorgeous environments, complemented by phenomenal level design and expressive characters. Players appreciated the game's unique wordless storytelling, its strong execution as a first title, and the developer's responsiveness to the community.
Excitement was generated by the incredible and innovative platforming experience, characterized by smooth controls and cathartic parkouring, making the game highly recommendable. Players felt an urge to speedrun and expressed anticipation for the developer's future projects.
Love for the game arose from its profound impact, amazing quality, and beautiful aesthetic, combined with fluid, fun, and original platforming mechanics. The engaging atmosphere and overall experience, particularly the pole vaulting movement, contributed significantly to this emotion.
Appreciation was expressed for the game's unique gameplay, great atmosphere, visuals, and smooth movement, highlighting it as a strong example of its genre. Players recognized the developer's dedication, the well-crafted level design, and the creative ideas behind the gameplay mechanics.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 96% · Negative 4%. Score: 4 / 100
Positives:
- Players consistently found the game to be a highly enjoyable, well-paced, and "chill" adventure that delivers great value for its price point. Its concise nature ensures it feels complete and doesn't overstay its welcome.
- The core platforming mechanics and unique traversal system are frequently praised for being innovative, fluid, satisfying, and enjoyable to master. The excellent level design complements these mechanics, making exploration and movement a genuine treat.
- The game excels in creating a captivating and immersive atmosphere through its gorgeous environments, unique retro aesthetic, and incredible soundtrack. The narrative is subtly delivered without dialogue, enhancing the mysterious and emotional ambiance while audio cues blend seamlessly into the world.
- Players found the story to be compelling, simple yet deeply touching, and emotionally impactful, particularly praising its heartwarming ending. The game successfully conveys an impressive amount of humanity and sentimentality without relying on explicit dialogue.
- The game features clever puzzle mechanics that are thoughtfully introduced and never become overly challenging. Players appreciated the satisfaction derived from solving these puzzles and utilizing game mechanics effectively with smooth controls.
Negatives:
- The game suffers from a general lack of polish, manifesting as various bugs, janky physics, and animations. Specific issues include movement/collision glitches and the need for improved ground detection, which some attribute to it being a solo-developer project.
- Movement was often described as unreliable and janky, particularly in later levels. Specific complaints included an overly strong ledge hooking mechanism, finicky controls, and unreliable input detection, impacting the core platforming experience.
- The linear level design offered little surprise in platforming sections. Players noted the presence of arbitrary barriers that prevented exploration or sequence breaking, contributing to a restrictive and less dynamic gameplay feel.
- The game's lore was criticized for being uninteresting and serving a secondary purpose, failing to engage players. Additionally, the ending was widely regarded as disappointing, detracting significantly from the overall player experience.
- Players found the absence of an in-game timer inconvenient, particularly for those aiming to achieve specific completion times for achievements or personal challenges, making speedrunning difficult.
Gameplay:
- Players appreciate the game's short length, typically around 3 hours, finding it offers good value for its low price and is not overly demanding. The experience feels complete despite its brevity, making it a satisfying, quick playthrough.
- Central to the gameplay is a versatile hooked staff used for deliberate 3D platforming. Players engage in parkour-like movements—climbing, swinging, vaulting, and extending jumps—with the staff, forming the game's main interaction mechanic.
- The game is lauded for its unique atmosphere, featuring a desolate post-war megastructure explored by an automaton. It draws favorable comparisons to games like Lorn's Lure, Stray, Journey, and Ico, highlighting its thematic and aesthetic appeal.
- Players observed minor issues like floating bugs, physics hiccups, janky animations, and camera oddities. However, these are generally perceived as small imperfections that do not significantly detract from the overall game experience.
- There are noted distinctions between the demo and the full game, including the demo having its own achievements. This suggests some variations in content or progression between the trial and complete versions.
Performance:
- -
No data available
Recommendations:
- Players overwhelmingly recommend this game, citing its engaging ambiance, strong story, and quality 3D platforming. Many feel it offers great value for its price and appeals to fans of specific genres and cultural references, even with minor perceived flaws.
- There is strong support for the developer, with many players expressing excitement for future projects and even a sequel. Players hope this isn't the last game from the creator and encourage supporting small development teams.
- Players suggest trying the demo first to determine if the game is a good fit for individual preferences. It is also highly recommended to use a controller for the best experience, especially noting potential issues with remote play and mouse input on menus.
- This point is a direct, positive commendation to the developer, 'Charlie,' for their work on the game. While brief, it signifies personal appreciation from the player.
Miscellaneous:
- Players consistently report the game is short, typically lasting only 2-4 hours, even when including artifact hunting. This feedback suggests that while enjoyable, the experience concludes quickly.
- There is a specific request for the addition of a cloud saving feature. This is a common quality-of-life improvement that would enhance player convenience and data security.
- The game's lore is engaging enough that players are eager to see the community discuss and decipher its meaning. This indicates a well-crafted narrative that sparks interest and community interaction.
- Players perceive the primary source of challenge and danger for the protagonist as environmental rather than from direct combat. This clarifies the core gameplay loop and challenge design.
- There's a sentiment among players that there is a need for more 'pole-type games,' indicating a desire for more titles within this specific genre or style. This points to a niche with potential market demand.
