izigame.me

Strong atmospheric sci-fi walking simulator.
- Art design for landscape and music is amazing. (This is the story and design Starfield should have had for their main story)
- Good story and prequel to the book “The invincible” by Stanislaw Lem (Booth are a more abstract 50ies existential sci-fi. Not the shoot everything, guts, blood, and lens flare of sci-fi today.)
- Starts slow, the second half of the game was much more engaging - story, landscape, and music wise.
- Respect for the polish company for taking games as an engaging art form seriously! They go back to a more abstract poetic Eastern-European sci-fi. It is less about overwhelming with special effects and more about trusting in a few simple means and be more though provoking: Think "Solaris" or "Stalker" by Tarkovsky.
The stylish almost monochrome locations and the technology seem inspired by European comic tradition. Maybe French or belgian, probably Easter-Europe!
In Detail:
Positive:
• Mood and style fit the trailers - so you get what you were promised.
• Very nice vistas and locations that provoke curiosity! I sometimes just left the story aside to roam around.
• Few bugs on 2 day of release – (Just one in an elevator, solved through a reload) Respect to the developers, who respect their work and players!
• Mood/Ideas are close to Stanislaw Lem's Books.
• Coherent 50ies technology style: Robots have vacuum tubes instead of microchips since this was more in use in Computer in the 50ies. Good research and fitting for Lem's Books.
• Music works well. I listen to quiet a few soundtrack in this genre and ambient music. And it is good (above average) quality here!
• Since walking on another planet is interesting in itself and the design is amazing, a walking simulator as a genre choice is a good fit.
• Overall, the game is so well done, that I will read the book afterwards.
• I love the sound, feel and the vista of the binocular. I am constantly using it! 😊
Neutral:
• Walking simulator – so the development of the story in the first half is a bit slow.
In General, the environmental storytelling is sound. But I wish they would have more confidence in this talent and optimize it for orientation without prompts. Let me be more of a detail detective and figure it out myself. Instead, I am relegated to a prompt pushing monkey. (But maybe I am a just too curious, check everything out, player.)
• Locations provoke curious discovery, but the levels are a one-way street.
- Frames in 4K, everything epic, with DLSS in okay frame rate. (Ryzen 9, 12 cores, 3080)
Negative:
- Speech audio quality is sometimes too low, difficult to hear. I play with a hifi setup, so this should not be it. But since nobody else is complaining, maybe it is just me. Anyway, it can be finetuned in the settings.
Who is judging?
Judgement based on space Sci-Fi games for 100 hours +:
Star Citizen
- So I am used to beautiful vistas. But the style and the local terrain design here is better. Exploration gameplay in Star Citizen should be like this! I would even travel in real life to the valley in the second half of the game. Great, partly awe inspiring, location!
Starfield:
- This is the story and design Starfield should have had for their main story.
Starfield and Star Citizen have different engines and goals, I know. But only as a location design, this game here does an exceptional job better than these 2.
Dark Mainstream Sci-Fi Fan, mostly movies and games. Favorites: “Alien I” - the realistic mood. “Blade runner” – just the mood. “The Expanse” first season - the realism and world building.