Most annoying game I ever played - SPOILERS

[Buddha]

So many good things in the game spoiled by a confusing and illogical plot line and a ridiculous 'non-saving' system. It needs a clear linear path, as opposed to random stories, and the decision to have fast travel links at the end drove me to despair. I ended up watching the final scene on youtube. Oh yes, and I could not get the last ghoul to stop wondering around and then attacking me. I tried careful stalking and hiding but nothing seemed to work. In the end I guessed the missing piece of pattern puzzle. Other strange decisions were to have random objects as critical mechanisms, and meaningless distractions like wheelbarrows and bricks. What was the point of the spaceship? A good game allows the player to build connections over time, whereas I would finish a puzzle and then just wonder around having no idea what I'm expected to do next.

[World Eater]

If you actually finished the game the small stories should make sense cause they are all the game is about. Only negative thing i'd say about this game is it's too short and should be like 3$ instead of 10... They really should put a tag like "short-story" or something on STEAM to the games like these

[Buddha]

I finished all but one story I guess, because the last cut scene wouldn't open, and then I got fast travelled back to the opening location. I didn't fancy travelling all the way back to that final room. I understand it's all about Ethan's stories, but the game is still linked in various ways. The stories are not particularly interesting (spaceship? witches? sea-thing?) in themselves, and that's a big weakness if that's your claim to how the game works. There is no point to anything in the end.

[76561198025235947]

Hey,

sorry to hear about your disappointment. Maybe you are going to find this[www.theastronauts.com] an interesting read. :)

Best wishes,
Adrian from The Astronauts

[Buddha]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not a young gamer (63), so my tastes are probably very different from your target audience. My favourite kind of game is one where I get to explore an imaginative world and solve puzzles.This is one of those. Strong characters and a powereful narrative are a bonus and the mark of a top quality game. That's probably why Myst never really grabbed me. Too lonely.

In your game we never get to find out much about the characters, and they seem to be part zombie anyway. So I don't really care about the family's story because they are always strangers to me.

My complaint is not really at that level, though. It is more about the fragmented and illogical structure of the game (let's leave the saving problems out of it).

It all feels so random to me. There are no motives or even any real purposes driving the characters. Ethan is a creative writer. Great. He 'creates' the game and the narrator, Prospero. Good. This has lots of potential. I can see that there are subtexts in the story that are important to you. I don't think they work for the player though. We never get to ineract with the characters or see who they really are (until the end?). Do we care about them? Not really.

When the player finishes a major puzzle like the rooms in the house, there needs to be a payoff, and a clue to move you to the next location and puzzle. There were two pieces of paper. One was about a still being found and the other I forget - it was a fragment of a story. Neither gave a payoff or told me what to do next. This is just very frustrating and left me deflated. What now? No idea...