Not sure how to feel about this, somewhat unusual narrative, but not a finished experience in my opinion, almost like a prologue for a bigger story, closer to 40 minutes, not the 2-3 hours that was mentioned earlier in the forum. I only did like 15 minutes of reading in total, so the very little runtime that it has is not in the context, just figuring out a few puzzles in same location.
(Yea apparently it is a prologue)
I thought the story was challenging to absorb, perhaps intentionally so, there is definitely a cerebral angle to it that might go over the head, somewhat reminiscent of games like Magnus Imago in terms of diluting a puzzle game with obscure metaphors, admittedly much smaller at only 40 minutes or so - not to mention a strange lack of conclusion. For better or worse, it kinda took a very sharp turn into the obscure narrative like 3 minutes into the game, I liked the vibes at first but I thought we would get more resolution for the characters, and I didn't feel like that happened so.
The puzzles were not super intuitive, although looking back the "notebook" pretty much walks you through the game, you just have to think outside the box to actually complete the puzzles - some of them can be a little cryptic. The entire game pretty much takes place in one room, you just have to change the seasons to trigger certain events based on the hints in the text. The point&click UI was a little junky, I felt like the game caused some unnecessary frustration with interactions.
I did like the music though, even though it only has a few proper songs, to be fair. The music still works with the tone of the narrative, and that is all that really matters to me, nice and subtle.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) See I don't even know if I can say it has a good story, at least for my personal taste, I thought it was interesting, but I didn't feel like it was resolved or really went anywhere, it felt like a demo to me. The way the game completely changes the narrative perspective from relationship to some weird mother nostalgia was certainly a bit different.
(+) Only had a few songs, small game, but they worked well with the tone of the narrative.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
The interactions/hotspots felt a bit off, for example when I would try to pull the blanket I could not tell which direction I was going. The whole click and drag is a bit redundant in this genre, should be just click and point.
I know the puzzles are hinted in the notebook, but some of them are pretty random, you still have to take a blind guess on some locations, oh I guess there might be an item during this season, okay well, it's not very intuitive just because something was happening at the time, you need to check the older locations.
I felt like we needed more context at the end, I am not even sure what is going on. And fine like, it's okay to be obscure, but still, I thought I would get more closure there.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 [/b]
I don't know, I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. It was a bit curious, still felt like a demo. If you are slightly interested in reading unconventional story, maybe go for it, but otherwise, I wish it gave me more to work with.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
