Are my expectations of environment interaction too high?

[Halla]

I loved the demo in many ways (especially loved reading about the memories of Jans, the writing/storytelling of those was the strongest part of the game imo) but to me, the environment felt very restrictive. Maybe I've been too spoiled by games like BOTW and Death Stranding, but it felt weird not being able to walk/climb over small rock clusters for example. The environment was basically just series of pre-set paths with the occasional "press A to climb ledge". Running towards high ledges or into the sea revealed an invisible wall.

I think I might be expecting too much from a small studio and it might be an unfair comparison, but in the last decade or so I've just come to expect more freedom of movement from games where you explore environments. Not saying it should be as robust as the games I mentioned earlier, but "small" things like Jan dynamically leaping/climbing over small rocks etc would do a lot in my opinion. Or slowing down before stopping when walking into the sea. Maybe a jump button? Environment interaction that isn't just pressing A? (Placing pylons was nice, but not enough for me).

I'll probably buy the game regardless because I enjoyed the alter mechanics/story so much, but I felt like exploring the environment was the weakest part of the game. I hope there are improvements to the movement and environment interaction on the way.

Wishing all the best to the dev team! Making games is super hard and this kind of game is new for this developer so it must be a real challenge.

[DNLH]

Difficult to say for sure, but I believe the pathing is intentionally restricted, and the loop 'find obstacle -> waste time going around it -> acquire tool to surpass it -> find another obstacle' will be a vital part of out-of-base gameplay, so I don't expect movement to get much more fluid, at least not until late game where we may get a 'skip-all' button in a form of jetpack or something.

If anything, I'd actually prefer for it to become clumsier, not necessarily mechanically, but in animation and weight-wise, I feel like I wouldn't mind the restricted feeling if the character was reflecting it, the exoskeleton straining and Dolski making some remarks on how annoying it is to walk around in the suit.

To me it actually already felt like that a bit in the opening, it felt like the suit was made so that the crew could operate outside *at all*, not operate comfortably, but then you're given ability to just prance around with sprint and suspension of disbelief just flew out of the window.

[Halla]

Originally posted by DNLH:

Difficult to say for sure, but I believe the pathing is intentionally restricted.....

For me, my feeling during the opening was "oh no, is this how it's going to be?" because the movement was so clunky. (Luckily those were not my final thoughts on the game, there was a lot to love in the demo)

Anyway, even if there are game design reasons (and not just budget/time reasons) to explain the restricted movement, I didn't get the feeling at all that there was any story- or in-world reason for it. It just felt like videogamey control clunkiness.

I feel like if it was done to reflect the burden/clumsiness of the character's equipment, a better way to handle it (ignoring budget and time restraints) would be something like what they did in Death Stranding, where the character might lose their balance or fall down in difficult terrain. (Not saying they should implement this btw, just an example of intentional equipment/traversal mechanic design).

I also wouldn't mind the movement being even clunkier in that sense, but that would take a lot more work. I imagine a dynamic, context sensitive, environment sensitive animation system must be a huge, expensive undertaking that requires skills that this studio might not have since their previous games are so different.

I don't mind the gameplay loop of having to find a long way first and then set up ways to make the trip shorter -- I wasn't trying to suggest we should be able to climb any cliff without equipment etc. It just feels outdated and immersion-breaking to be stopped by a small pile of rocks. Just a couple more traversal mechanics and animations would go a long way, I think.

Like honestly I get it, the game has so many different parts (the alter system, memory branching, base design/building, exploration, time & resource management etc) that it's way more feasible to just add invisible walls everywhere than to develop a dynamic movement system.

But I really wish they'll at least tweak it to me a little more dynamic.

[tommy]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We're working extra hard to deliver an amazing game for you. Can promise that all the feedback received from the demo will be addressed but we'll do our best :)