Asbury Pines

Simple but Fun. Loving this game.

The first thing that pulled me in was the weird UI. It was what lured me to buy it. The first minutes in the game was trying to decipher the UI and I truly enjoyed that. For every screen that seems a bit confusing, you either end up figuring it out, or the Help Manual helps you. The first progression loops are engaging. Only that, since I'm not a hardcore idle player, I didn't realize on the first try that the game would keep advancing while I was away. But I didn't feel that the game progression was broken or anything... I liked the ability to tune the speed and to jump forward in time, but I used it sparsely, since most of the game has a good pace. By the first jump in time, you know this is going to get tasty! 🤤 By starting in the "Present", I first assumed that the game would have just 3 timeframes, or 5 eras tops... so each new one was like "ANOTHER ONE EVEN?". It's a content heavy game and I imagine that it must have taken lots of effort to build! At some points I felt blocked by not knowing which character was not blocked from living. But soon I noticed that I could check all People, Plants and Animals and just see who needs their resources now. The production chains are not too complex. It just takes checking the production chains and see what needs to be activated/deactivated. In that regard, for an incremental game, it can be a bit shallow. But I didn't care at all since I was enjoying the narrative aspects so much!! (I love narrative games that have some unique mechanics) The writing is really soooo gooooood! I found myself absolutely delighted by some of the passages. The theme is nicely references in details like events sort of repeating in a similar way. Even the animals and plants have so much to say! In terms of narrative, I also liked the overall message of fraternity and optimism. In fact I even found it inspiring! The piece by Quentin P. Brown moved ME first before I read how it inspired Danny and all the rest! I found it maybe too optimistic at times near the ending, and some logic doesn't always 100% hold but I didn't mind. We need more optimistic and inspiring fantasies! The ending was a bit predictable by the time I was unlocking the Dust Age or so. Some of my own deductions, the game later states in detail for clarification. But I would have liked some more suspense until the ending... like some "will she or won't she". But by that point you know exactly what's going to happen. Up until then, many other little mysteries get gradually revealed and in this sense the narrative is structured very neatly. The art style is very cute! I like both the graphic design and the vector-like illustrations. Looks sort of like a poster! The music is also top tier! At first I found it a bit repetitive... it's only 7 standard length tracks... but then, I found that I didn't want to turn it off. I think it has a lot of "rehearability" because of the acoustic instruments, that give it warmth, variety... My favorite is "Up and Coming" by Cole Johnson AKA Flink Pamingo. That modulation going down step by step and then twisting up again is very catchy! Overall I'd say a 9/10. Definitely a milestone in videogames history!