Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER

wow bad

还不错还不错，里面的小情侣好磕，美味

This game has a great idea, but a bad execution, ultimately. First, the greats - pixel art, tunes, voice acting, and world building are awesome. I enjoyed my time with this game. Also, it’s short, yay! Then the bads - There were a few times I was faced with a fragment that I didn’t know how to solve, because the game hadn’t given me any clues on which pieces of evidence I needed to use to solve it. Literally had to look up a guide because I was so stuck, and stuck in an unfair way, which is frustrating. Let's talk about the writing, were my main gripes are; first, the writing needed a heavy editing pass. I feel that 20% of the dialog could have just been cut entirely, for starters. The introduction itself commits the writing crime of “exposition dumping” on the player on what Luna is, what she does, etc. It could have slowly come out over the course of a mission; not shoved into my face the first time I sat down to play it. Additionally, everyone stays pretty shallow. Nothing deep. It’s all just… skin deep. No bones, no meat. Just fluffy Trace being supportive, Gate being stoic, Harold being weird, etc. I understand that this game is a sequel, but there was this weird thing with the writing where the game expected me to “know” these characters. Jess especially. You can’t have your cake and eat it; you have to put in some legwork to cater to both sides of the players, some who just picked up Neurodiver on a whim without context of the first game. Also, I was really sick of people telling me to rest. It got on my nerves by the end of the game, I wanted to throttle them. And finally, some spoilers on the ending - Golden getting in ES88’s head presented itself as a psychotic break to me; not someone trying to get out into the real world. There is no motivation stated by this villain until the very end of the game. Thus, the ending didn’t land for me at all. Laughably, I am presented with a bad guy, who, only in the last 30 seconds of their existence, tell me they love me. Then they die. That’s not a payoff for 5+ hours of gameplay; that’s just bad writing. I really want this team to continue making more stuff; so I’ll leave a good review. But please, please… do more playtesting! Learn to cut fluff in writing! Don’t exposition dump! Don’t ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tell me to rest! (laughs)