Corpse of Discovery

I enjoyed the game, but its not without issues. It doesn't run as well as it should and sometimes when loading things it seemed like it was trying to choke my computer to death, but I didn't have it crashing on me at least. There are some really cool visuals and interesting ideas. But the exploration gets repetitive... I would not recommend completing in one sitting like I did. You end up having to cover a vast amount of very similar terrain to get to your next goal, which there just might be too much of, and it can feel a bit draining. The main message they are trying to get across about work life taking away from home life can a problem for some people, but it does not seem to be an actual problem for the character. As an astronaut he would be away from his family for some time, but it did not sound like a long time and they stated that he would make enough money to not work anymore. So pretty stupid narrative there. The ending feels half-assed. Not sure how to finish the game; lets just toss in some random garbage! Overall though, I still liked it. It was cool exploring for a while and you felt for the guy stuck in this nightmare situation.

Στα [-] • Κακοφτιαγμένο, μέ τίς χιλιοειπωμένες δυσκολίες τού είδους νά επαναλαμβάνονται γι' άλλη μιά φορά. Παρεμφερείς Τίτλοι LIFELESS PLANET http://adventures-index10.blogspot.com/2015/08/corpse-of-discovery.html

Really neat game. Graphics aren't the greatest and there was a little bit of clunk, but it was overall very good. I enjoy the creativity put into this game, and the little surprises it had! Highly recommend :)

Great little game. Groundhog day over till you get out. Fun and enjoyable when your looking to just chill out . nothing too stressful and reasonable story, Overall a great game.

Oof, okay, this will be interesting. First and foremost: SPOILERS So proceed only if you have already played the game, or don't care if the game is spoiled for you before playing it, or you have no plans of playing and for some reason are curious as to what I thought of it. While I do reluctantly recommend playing this game, that recommendation comes with some pretty heavy caveats. On the one hand, I get what the game is trying to do. And the message is very much NOT wrong. It's very, very right. That's important. And it's worth hearing, which is why I recommend the game. It's pretty clear, also, that love was put into making this game, so I also tend to recommend games for that reason: experience someone else's perspective, maybe we'll learn something new. On the other hand though, I'm very conflicted about how this message was delivered, and how meta the game ends up being. You see, the main character is you. No, not you, playing some nameless character in a game, but the literal you, sitting in front of the screen, at your keyboard/gamepad, playing the game. Like I said, very meta. The message of the game is essentially this: "stop wasting your time in meaningless pursuits, appreciate what you have in front of you, and go out and touch grass." Also like I said, a very good message. The game presents this message in various ways, predominantly through "bonus flashbacks" - the little pink markers that are NOT the main marker, and also the running commentary from the A.V.A. bot that "helps" you. On the surface, the story is about an explorer (employed to the Corps of Discovery company) - you - and each "chapter" is you, waking up on a planet, and you have go find 5 map markers. These are beacons in one chapter, distress beacons in another chapter, pieces of a ship in another, and so on. There are also extra pink markers that, despite being on alien planets (that all look different, despite having the same name), refer back to your normal life on earth - they will be a pizza, or some sort of coffee beverage, or a stroller, etc. Before you start each mission, you have a message from your family (a wife, and 3 kids) that essentially all say "we miss you, when are you coming home, we haven't heard from you, please contact us, we love you, come home." So your journey starts out as "working" one mission for the company with the expectation of a huge payday and retirement to set up you and your family financially, to eventually just trying to find a way home. Upon completion of this one mission (which ends up being like 5 missions repeated), the company has promised that a ship will be waiting for you to take you home with all your money you earned to retire and enjoy life with your family. Except, at the end of each mission, there is no ship. There is never a ship. You sort of die, or pass out or something, wake up in your habitat, time has passed, and you have a new "only this one mission" mission to complete (I was getting serious Sam Rockwell Moon vibes from this). It doesn't end. I was actually worried for a little bit that the game would really embrace it's meta-nature and not actually have an ending - that the "levels" are generated and the game will just continue for as long as I played it, thinking, like the character in the game, that this next mission will actually be the last. But: the game does finally end. With your teddy bear, a unicorn horn, and sometime that death himself provides, to get you home. No, seriously. Oh, also, there are two voice cameos - one from Chris Rock and the other Mathew McConaughey - both claiming that they are NOT the celebrities that they sound like. It's super weird, and I have yet to look up if these actors were actually part of this game; I suspect not, the Mathew impersonation was a little off to me, though Chris Rock was nailed. If what a lot of what I have typed so far seems ridiculous, you are right. See below. Okay, so that's pretty much the game in a nutshell. So what's my problem with it, if the message is ultimately good? The problem I have with it is that the game is chastising YOU, the person playing it, for sitting there playing it, and not spending time with your friends/family/loved ones. Instead, you are doing these meaningless tasks in this game - and YES, the tasks are meaningless, they only serve the single purpose of delivering the message of wasting time...by wasting your time. The game itself is quite ridiculous, especially the ending. The game is literally wasting your time, telling you it's wasting your time, and telling you to go do something meaningful. And when it ends, it's the character - again YOU you - "going home" - in other words, the game is over, credits roll, you can get your literal butt out of your literal chair and go do something else, like return to your family. "Hey dad/mom/son/brother/etc. we missed you, welcome back!" Do you get it? See what they did there? Very meta. Some might think OMG this is pure genius. And while I do agree on a couple levels it's very clever, overall I found it to be quite irritating. And here's why: personally, I play games to escape reality for a bit. It's like reading a book, or watching a movie, except I get to interact (though I do also enjoy reading and movies). I am knowingly suspending my in-real-life for a bit to engage in this activity. It's on purpose. I don't have infinite time, as I do have a family that I enjoy being around and spending time with, so when I do elect to play a game, I don't have a lot of free time. I must choose carefully which games I play. And here, with this game, I have been trolled for the past 5+ hours. Yes, it's 5 hours I won't get back. And yes, it ended up being mostly meaningless specifically BECAUSE the game wasted my time. I didn't get a cool story, or a fun bit of mystery, or something entertaining. Instead, I got guilt-tripped. So, for me, this game wasn't a lot of fun. And that's a big no-no. If it's not fun, why play the game? Even games with good, powerful messages MUST be fun. Otherwise, it's just a lecture. Now, if YOU happen to be the kind of person that is constantly in pursuit of something because you think it will lead to a better life at the expense of things that do matter (like family), then maybe this game will hit a little differently for you. To circle back to the ridiculousness of the game, this is exactly why. It doesn't explain anything - who the character is (remember, because it's the actual YOU), why the character keeps blacking out, why the planet visuals drastically change but it's still the same named planet, why you can't get home, why your ship is perpetually crashed, where the kids drawings are coming from - it's all pointless. Nothing is explained because there is nothing to explain. The voice acting, what little there is, is decent, A.V.A. being the absolute standout. The visuals are well done. The music is well done. The story - is non-existent. The story is "You get your butt off the computer/console/deck and go do something else." That's the story. It's like having a significant other nag at you for something while you are trying to just relax for a bit, and it's made even worse because they are sort of right and you know it. At the end of the day, I did NOT enjoy this game. I will never play it again. I'm not sure if I'm "glad" that I played it. I think I am not. But, as a parent, several of the "messages" in the game really hit home and I could certainly relate to them, and I admit that the messages reinforced certain desires and goals I already possess. From that perspective, it was worth it to me - but honestly the message could have been delivered in 2 hours rather than a little over 5. I'm really curious to see what others thought of the game. If your experience was different, or if you think I'm missing the mark on the game, please feel free to comment.

Fair enough to them for describing it as a walking simulator and the low price, but the final sixth of the game is almost insulting, and most of the ideas are better implemented in other games. Weird that these are the developers of that Heroes game which is genuinely great