I'm enjoying this so far, but the odd choices for interaction (mouse/keyboard) are hard to get into your fingers, and the options for rebinding without breaking something else turn out to be limited. How is [E] to both mantle AND duck (plus a bunch of other stuff you can't bind separately) a good idea? That's what space bars and [C] keys are for. It's distracting, which is frustrating. Years of habit have me pressing keys that do nothing or do other stuff. There are plenty of invisible walls and inexplicably unreachable areas; maybe I'm suppose to somehow develop traversal-super-powers as part of the plot, and then later come back to these spots, rather than control a character who is able to hop down two feet of vertical distance or step over a wasit-high rickety fence. Tedious, and honestly a bit lazy as far as map design goes.
The story is eminently predictable, though the voice acting really is quite a bit better than many examples of such fare. But it is SOOO SLLOOOWWWWWW. You'll be skipping everything skippable pretty quickly; one day devs might realise that we can read much faster than the VO. At least you *can* skip much of it, which is something. I just want an interactive game experience, not to watch your over-wrought movie. I've got Netflix for that.
Speaking of gameplay, apparently walking/running considerable distances from one place to another with nothing happening and nothing with which to interact along the way qualifies as immersive enterainment. Or so the devs thought. I have to say I didn't, but maybe map design is an optional extra in games these days. If you're going to make us slog it on foot from one place to another, then put something iin the game to make it worthwhile, otherwise just zap us to wherever the game is. Walking isn't gameplay. There's no challenge, no decision-making, no planning or puzzle-solving and no fun in that, and it isn't necessary for pacing - you've got the slow dialogue for that already.
But I'm being picky; the combat is not bad, the story is better than average, the visuals are pretty good and - colour me amazed - I've found a game in which the protagonists aren't immediately annoying or unlikeable. I didn't immediately hate either Antea or Red. The utterly two-dimensional NPCs with their one line of irrelevant banter don't count.
The gimmick (ghost-banisher whose true love becomes... you guessed it!) is obvious from the the opening scene but it plays out quite well, managing to avoid being trite or saccharine. I'm impressed by that alone. It seems to be so difficult that virtually no other devs have managed to do it. So, kudos to you, story team.
Overall, I like this, though I do frequently get to go and make myself another cup of tea while your unskippable bits do their thing. Cheers.
