THIS F*****G GAME (rant)

[The A.W.G.]

It places you in an open world, but with no possibility of keeping track of the roads you have already travelled, forcing you to go back and forth like an idiot a hundred times at an EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW speed.

It offers a myriad of puzzles (and that is good of course), but without giving the possibility of tracking what you have done and what you have missed. Also, not all puzzles are mandatory to proceed so you may find yourself in the situation where you have actually missed some puzzle here and there but you don't even know you missed them. Absurd.

It scattered collectables around the world, without any indication of their meaning or allowing the player to keep track of what it's been already found.

I noticed the ones hard-defending this game are either kiddos ("git gud lmao") or people who evidently 'got' the developers' intentions way more than me ("no no dude it's all about the exploration!!!").

I dgaf about the exploration, I want to solve puzzles and feel the satisfaction of having overcome a situation, f**k the exploration.

I've been stuck for two hours in a very limited space consisting of one (1) room with basically no space to move around and only one possible action (raise or lower the water level). Yeah, I'm stupid for not being able to understand from where I should look at yet another panel, I know this, but how can "exploration" help me in this situation? It's a f*****g room.

I'm f****g out.

inb4: "git gud lmao". Yeah, best wishes for your second year of kindergarten

[MASTAN]

If you don't like games that don't hold your hand skip games with "exploration" tag, like this one.

at an EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW speed.

Hold Shift to run.

[astreamuser]

Deserves a place in the "dumb internet comments" subforum.

[Пещерный гНОМ]

Originally posted by MASTAN:

Hold Shift to run.

I even rebound run to E.

[Contrast]

What you are asking for exists in the game but you have to discover it and decipher how it works. There are systems to track your progress and help you to track down the particular puzzles and collectibles you missed, but you have to be observant enough to figure these things out. The game is about discovering that which is hidden right before your eyes. So, look again and discover that which is hidden. Or, read these spoilers.
There is actually a map you can find in one area of the game. It take the shape of a pond with different flowers that track all collectibles and their general location so that you can return to look for them. The flowers open when you find the collectibles and there are different colors for the different types of collectibles. There is also a white pillar that has the shapes of the hidden puzzles on it and they light up as you find them. Each face of the pillar faces a different direction and the puzzle shapes on the pillar are in the direction of that particular face.

[Squircle]

I kinda like how semi-hostile some of the deisgn decisions in this are towards the player. Part of what makes it cool is that the devs chose not to compromise their vision too much, giving the game a more unique feel.

That said, I loathe the feeling I get when I finish a long series of puzzles, but can't actually tell why the hell I even did them. Even worse are all the puzzles that require you to pass them with the boat, because messing up means another 2-4 minutes doing jack-all boating back.

And the last sound puzzle can eat my entire lower half, because it's just wrong.

[FloW]

i agree with you, game fells very weird, also this ♥♥♥♥ audio-messages about religion, i dont understand why devs put this strange religion ♥♥♥♥ in the game

[BiomageHun]

Originally posted by The A.W.G.:

It places you in an open world, but with no possibility of keeping track of the roads you have already travelled, forcing you to go back and forth like an idiot a hundred times at an EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW speed.

It offers a myriad of puzzles (and that is good of course), but without giving the possibility of tracking what you have done and what you have missed. Also, not all puzzles are mandatory to proceed so you may find yourself in the situation where you have actually missed some puzzle here and there but you don't even know you missed them. Absurd.

It scattered collectables around the world, without any indication of their meaning or allowing the player to keep track of what it's been already found.

I noticed the ones hard-defending this game are either kiddos ("git gud lmao") or people who evidently 'got' the developers' intentions way more than me ("no no dude it's all about the exploration!!!").

I dgaf about the exploration, I want to solve puzzles and feel the satisfaction of having overcome a situation, f**k the exploration.

I've been stuck for two hours in a very limited space consisting of one (1) room with basically no space to move around and only one possible action (raise or lower the water level). Yeah, I'm stupid for not being able to understand from where I should look at yet another panel, I know this, but how can "exploration" help me in this situation? It's a f*****g room.

I'm f****g out.

inb4: "git gud lmao". Yeah, best wishes for your second year of kindergarten

why need track? omg, if you cant solve something just move to next time, and come back when you understand the puzzle, btw all the puzzle have intruction puzzle as well, so you learn it and then you solve the strong 1 :D, this game its perfect, you can go anywhere and do anything. that how it should be :P

[Alcator]

Originally posted by Squircle:

Even worse are all the puzzles that require you to pass them with the boat, because messing up means another 2-4 minutes doing jack-all boating back.

1. You can turn the boat around at any time.
2. You can quickly ride the boat back at full speed.
3. You can then turn it in the right direction at the right moment.
4. You can drive it at any speed during the actual puzzle attempt.

There's ONE case where you have to set the boat to float without being on it, and yes, if you mess that one, it's going to be annoying, but that's just one case and not very difficult one.

[Amoc]

Originally posted by Squircle:

That said, I loathe the feeling I get when I finish a long series of puzzles, but can't actually tell why the hell I even did them.

That's what "noped" me out of the game. The game lacks any context or story to motivate you in the first place, so when you complete the latest line puzzle in a long series of line puzzles and there's no indication of what you accomplished or where it leads, it does start to feel monotonous.

The game seems to be either loved or hated, so I wonder if it's just different mindsets.

[Offshade]

Originally posted by Amoc:

Originally posted by Squircle:

That said, I loathe the feeling I get when I finish a long series of puzzles, but can't actually tell why the hell I even did them.

That's what "noped" me out of the game. The game lacks any context or story to motivate you in the first place, so when you complete the latest line puzzle in a long series of line puzzles and there's no indication of what you accomplished or where it leads, it does start to feel monotonous.

The game seems to be either loved or hated, so I wonder if it's just different mindsets.

It's a puzzle game. It's puzzling for puzzling's sake (is that correct? English is not my first language). :)
So, yeah, there is no emphasis on story. (Although I would say that the lasers that activate at the end of each area is nevertheless something like an accomplishment. From one of the very first areas on it is clear that you are working on something bigger. That's more than many other puzzle games give you.)
The abscence of a clear story and the lack of immediate gratification has a long tradition in big and obscure puzzle games, starting with Myst as the first popular one.
I personally love it. I love the slow build-up, the feeling of mystery, not knowing what's going on. But I totally get that many people don't like it.

[Squircle]

Originally posted by Alcator:

1. You can turn the boat around at any time.
2. You can quickly ride the boat back at full speed.
3. You can then turn it in the right direction at the right moment.
4. You can drive it at any speed during the actual puzzle attempt.

There's ONE case where you have to set the boat to float without being on it, and yes, if you mess that one, it's going to be annoying, but that's just one case and not very difficult one.

Yup, never figured any of that out. From what I could tell, the boat sped back up automatically after a while every time I slowed it down. I never even attempted to turn it mid-travel since I assumed it wouldn't work for some reason. I think it being on a track made me assume it couldn't.

[Squircle]

Originally posted by BiomageHun:

why need track? omg, if you cant solve something just move to next time, and come back when you understand the puzzle, btw all the puzzle have intruction puzzle as well, so you learn it and then you solve the strong 1 :D, this game its perfect, you can go anywhere and do anything. that how it should be :P

In their defense, that puzzle (the water-level one in the desert) sucks. It's tedious, hard to grasp and a chore to memorize. Out of my 20 hours played, that one probably took 3 of them.
The freedom of being able to go wherever pretty much whenever is definetly one of the game's strong ponts, but it is also a hindrance at times. If you don't figure out that the weird yellow boxes are the end-goal of most paths, you almost feel like you're chasing shadows at times. The obelisks are awful in that regard, as they give a much clearer feel of results, but have no identifiable purpose.
I also agree the game is over all pretty dang good, but I'd never call it perfect. The audiologs all being pompous poetry and pointless philosophy really irked me, Same with the video puzzles (I sat through that whole guy-with-candle thing before figuring out you could FF or rewind). There were also some puzzles that stumped me solely because of sensory differences between me and the developers (see: the last audio puzzle and the entire color-building), which felt like a low-blow. But as I said, the game is good, maybe even great. Far from perfect, though.