Thousand Threads

Really neat open-world stealth-action-survival delivery sandbox for interacting with AI agents in a highly systemic simulated society. If meaningful systemic interactions with NPCs is something that interests you, definitely play this. (Marketing thought: maybe call this game a 'Strand-like'?) I actually played it when it first came out, and years later am surprised to find how few reviews there are for this game! (Reviews have a direct correlation to lifetime players). I think maybe this game wasn't marketed in a way that underscored how absolutely wild its systems are (a lot of the pull quotes on it's website are about it's visuals, which: yeah it looks nice, but also color blocking is kind of just ubiquitous in the indie landscape). Basically, imagine a solo-dev made the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor, but made the entire game about interacting with that systems instead of following some scripted narrative. That's this game. The dev is exploring ground very very few people are doing in the industry, and it's really a shame that this game was seemingly the end of this devs career. As a thought exercise, let's try some different marketing strategies: "In this dynamically generated 'Strand-like" game, step into a lawless frontier and choose to become either a bandit or a bounty hunter. Follow leads and piece together evidence as a work-for-hire detective, or choose to connect people together by stepping into the role of a courier. YOUR CHOICES MATTER: characters in the game world will remember your actions, and hunt you down for vengeance, or reward you for your kindness, using the proprietary RETALIATION system." Or you know, just anything that doesn't bury the lead, and really underscores how dynamic and dangerous the game world is, and how innovative its systems are.

So, I play this game in an extremely suboptimal manner. Energy prices are high, and hence I've banished my PC to not being used, and primarily use a laptop. This means that I have to play this game on the settings of a psychopath. I think most relevantly, it lets me do it. I play on 800*600 at 20% resolution scaling. And it works. Feels like I'm playing a 90s game a wee bit. This does mean I can't comment on the intended visual style - but it's quite understandable and quite distinct even at this very niche resolution. And like my choice of playstyle, it's quite a niche game. Take packages, post them to various people across the road. Take tasks from local folk - someone stole from another, go beat them up and get it. The gameplay is somewhat basic - you walk around, you can get a pickaxe, slingshot, nice rocks to throw, but at it's core, you're just exploring. Finding people, talking to them, asking them for directions to other people or about people. Ask them about the mail you just delivered, or peek yourself. You might get robbed along the road, or find someone being robbed. From that, people will remember, people will hold grudges. I myself panicked a bit after going for the 'gamer' instinct of taking stuff from the body of someone I knocked out.. and that's robbery, chief. And there was a witness. Panicked, I made sure there were no witnesses left. And also people will pay you buckaroos for knocking out someone who eats too loudly. Why not. It's not a deep game, but there's some replayability and fun to be had - and if you're into courier type games where you just... wander, well, it's a niche interest but it'll hold you plenty. For a couple of quid on sale, I don't think it's a bad purchase.

很好的游戏，希望可以支持中文。

Solid.

A unity game it was barely worth the 99 cents sale price. It keeps you busy only slightly longer than the refund limit. This particular unity cookie cutter game was a walking and mail delivery simulator. if it were fleshed out considerably this would be worth more but as is this is not worth yours or anyone else's time or money.

This is an interesting one. I really enjoyed hiking around, taking in the vistas and soundscapes of each region, and feeling the open potential of the world. I enjoyed playing it, and it's a well-crafted, artful experience, so I give it a thumbs up based on that. It's an achievement for a tiny team, and any critique here is in no way intended to diminish that, or imply a lack of hard work, because that work certainly shows. Big open-world simulations are not simple things, or attempted often. Any game that gets shipped is an achievement, and I'd be proud to have made something like this. A lot of thoughts below: My struggle playing the game was feeling a connection to the people in it, and any attempt at applying morality or justice to the experience. The core human element of the game is the letters people send to each other - which you, the mail carrier, can open and read, which is a little dubious ethically, but I would say is an intended behavior for players. These letters convey the struggles and connections between people, whether mundane or more serious, and are a big part of the "human" side of the game. I enjoyed seeing those connections, and getting a feel for the world everyone was living in. What was challenging about that for me, was that the sentiments and personality in the letters seemed barely connect to the in-game NPCs. An example - I was minding my own business, generally being a benevolent responsible person in the valley, and someone popped up from behind a rock, shot me, and shouted something to the effect of "I can't wait to see what you have to steal". I returned fire, killing that NPC - something I hadn't done before, as a lot of the other conflicts were either ambiguous, or less lethal. He ended up being the son of a very kind NPC, and was described as "the smartest person I know" by his friend who exchanged letters with him about the history and architecture of the place, and who seemed to care a lot for someone who would murder a stranger out of greed. The above is not unheard of in the real world, but that type of dissonance seemed to be part of the game world as a whole, not the rare exception. Some characters had traits like "aggressive, thief, hateful", yet the only way to talk to other NPCs about them seemed to end at "I do/don't know where they are." Or they'd be the spouse of a wonderful, nice person. There is also no visible "why" to people's behaviors. No way to get an apology or any acknowledgement of what happened from someone who you had mercy on and helped up, since an attacker just goes "why did you attack me?" after you heal them, and walks off. I would understand people in this world struggling, that some otherwise decent people could try to rob someone if they were starving (and I would have appreciated varying degrees of that kind of aggression), but that's not reflected in their dialogue, ways of interacting with them, or in the player's experiences gathering resources, which are plentiful and easy to obtain. I quickly found myself in the position of essentially a demigod in the world, and also the only one responsible for the lives of anyone, one way or another. The player alone seems to have the capability to kill in simulated situations, if not the story and implied events of the world. Explicitly lethal weapons like the pick and rifle are non-lethal when used in a fight between NPCs. Even faced with serious weapons, the player can craft and use healing salves in their inventory, which pauses the game. For me this created a dynamic between myself and everyone else in the world in which they were infantalized and impossible to trust, and I found myself coddling their random aggression and simply taking damage to avoid killing anyone in what always felt like an unfair fight. Anyone could seemingly attack anyone else, for no reason I could see. Those attacks could hurt other NPCs, the harm was reflected in their dialogue about the event, but none of it seemed to affect the in-game world beyond that. Trying to enact justice or improve the situation of anyone was similarly frustrating. That speaks to my own desire to be "part of" the world, to be playing the role of a human among them, rather than have vast power over them. I would have liked to be able to deliver meat and herbs I had gathered to a needy community, work out conflicts, potentially stop the worst people from hurting anyone again, whether through social/organizing efforts or plain old vigilante justice. It would have felt intense to have choices about survival taken away from me through player vulnerability, and to then try to settle the events and relationships in the aftermath if I survived. That said, I couldn't begin to guess at some of the complexity in implementing some of the systems I just described. As I said above, I still enjoyed the game, and appreciate the developers for making it. I would certainly be excited to see a sequel or similar project dealing with these themes and mechanics.