Is this even possible to play?

[iMod]

I know it tells you right away there is no hand holding, but how about giving at least a little help? Instead of the horrible save system and the confusing story, at least help out a little. I played for 30 minutes and didn't realize it didn't save. But I didn't even figure out the first mystery with the spaceman because it doesn't tell you anything.

Now I'm stuck at the graveyard visualization scene because I don't know what to do. I'm going back and forth figuring out the scenes until the game finally gave up on me and froze. The music continued, the grass was waving around but I couldn't do anything. I have to alt tab out to close the game because nothing worked.

How can you people figure out what to do? I spend so much time trying to get to the next stupid auto-save just to be reset because of this ♥♥♥♥. I'm really interested in this game but these problems make it impossible for me to play. And it really turns me off to playing it because of the lack of direction. It took me 20 minutes just to find the graveyard clue because I walked around aimlessly and had to look up a thread here from someone who walked it through.

This game looks really interesting and I'm curious, but I really don't want to play with these annoying issues of not being able to actually play the game.

[Rand]

The game has a serious, serious flaw in that it doesn't tell you anything about ANYTHING.

Story is fine, rather good in fact, nothing wrong with piecing as story together as you go along, but the game doesn't even introduce you to its mechanics. All they had to do was put in a simple in your face puzzle, or even a couple <do this prompts> at the very beggining and all would have been well.

And yeah, no hand holding, discover it for yourself etc.... no, thats ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, if you have to look up online to find out for example, when you see the crank prompt at the beginning of the game you can look around to get a vision of where it is you, as a game developer have done something EXTREMELY wrong. Stopping playing to look up a basic game mechanic is not fun, its not interesting, its not even mysterious, its just poorly made.

That said, I loved the game while it lasted, found the story and investigation mechanics interesting, and I'll be damned if its not the prettiest game ever made, hell even the voice acting was decent. However if I have to use google to figure out how to play the damn thing your game has a jaw droppingly major problem.

[iMod]

Exactly. I'm really want to play the game, but these issues make me not play it. Especially after freezing when spending 20 minutes on a puzzle for the sequence to eventually tell me "###?". It puts me off because I don't want to get invested in a long and confusing puzzle if I won't be able to finish it. I even found a gate that was locked and nothing happened because I'm assuming I wasn't suppose to be there yet. But when it doesn't tell me anything, I wander around just to get lost because I didn't see that I had to inspect something.

[Sychon]

Hi!

I think this game is a special one, at least in my experience. It has a gripping story, a seductive atmosphere and it tells you right at the beginning that there will be no hand-holding. Well, it keeps to that promise.

A major aspect of the gameplay is figuring out how the game works, and once you do that it becomes fairly straightforward. The character you play as is a supernatural investigator. Going with that narrative there is a lot of exploration and some lateral thinking is also helpful.

The astronaut puzzle is not the first one (but, I think, by far the simplest.) I, too, overlooked the first one, then abandoned the second and I was on the other side of the dam when I got sleepy and closed the game. And this is the only "flaw" in the mechanics of the game: the autosave. It only saves when you solve a puzzle - those are the checkpoints of the story, and you can't control how that works. Since it is so weirdly implemented, I think the idea behind it was an artistic decision to help the narrative and definitely not due to the limitations of the game engine.
That said, I lost almost two hours of gameplay. I was a bit angry. However, thanks to starting a new game, I found and solved the very first puzzle that I originally overlooked. It helped me realizing how to search for clues and what to do with them. Each mystery is confined to certain areas that are somewhat separated from the rest of the worldspace geographically. That means, if you find a clue you should not go very far to find the next one belonging to the same puzzle.

Explore, look under every stone and use your head. Try not to look for solutions in walkthroughs too many times. In my opinion they take away from the experience and you don't really need them anyway.

Originally posted by Rand:

All they had to do was put in a simple in your face puzzle...

Funnily enough, they did that, though not the way YOU would expect, I suspect... :)

[iMod]

Well I'm now looking up a walkthrough by IGN which is very helpful. But this game still makes it very difficult. I'm currently in the mine area and I read the part where I half to pull the pickaxe out of the power box. But I had to get the cart a certain distance away just to pick up the damn thing. I got "too close" I guess and it didn't let me do anything. Things like this is just too stupid to be in the game.

[kats]

Originally posted by Rand:

The game has a serious, serious flaw in that it doesn't tell you anything about ANYTHING.

Story is fine, rather good in fact, nothing wrong with piecing as story together as you go along, but the game doesn't even introduce you to its mechanics. All they had to do was put in a simple in your face puzzle, or even a couple <do this prompts> at the very beggining and all would have been well.

And yeah, no hand holding, discover it for yourself etc.... no, thats ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, if you have to look up online to find out for example, when you see the crank prompt at the beginning of the game you can look around to get a vision of where it is you, as a game developer have done something EXTREMELY wrong. Stopping playing to look up a basic game mechanic is not fun, its not interesting, its not even mysterious, its just poorly made.

That said, I loved the game while it lasted, found the story and investigation mechanics interesting, and I'll be damned if its not the prettiest game ever made, hell even the voice acting was decent. However if I have to use google to figure out how to play the damn thing your game has a jaw droppingly major problem.

LOL. I had no idea you were supposed to line up the words and it showed you where exactly to look. I was standing in the correct spot for the crank as the words lined up perfectly right away but I had no idea where I was supposed to look. I nearly ran all the way to the damn before turning around and looking again because I just couldn't find it.

[Subject Zero]

I actually like how they just "throw you to the wolves" and let you figure it out. I'm sure there are plenty of others who enjoyed that bit as well. No game will be for everyone, that's just the way it is.

[iMod]

Originally posted by Ferocious:

I actually like how they just "throw you to the wolves" and let you figure it out. I'm sure there are plenty of others who enjoyed that bit as well. No game will be for everyone, that's just the way it is.

I'm fine with figuring out some stuff on my own, but the game broke 3 times. 2 of them were in the cemetery mystery, the numbers went from a max of "5?" to "6?' then to "###?". Then when I finally solved it the game froze like I said in my post. The auto save system is what's really wrong with this game. If you don't have time to figure out the next mystery entirely, well ♥♥♥♥ you then because you'll have to start all over if it quits or crashes on you.

[Reaper]

Originally posted by iMod:

Exactly. I'm really want to play the game, but these issues make me not play it. Especially after freezing when spending 20 minutes on a puzzle for the sequence to eventually tell me "###?". It puts me off because I don't want to get invested in a long and confusing puzzle if I won't be able to finish it. I even found a gate that was locked and nothing happened because I'm assuming I wasn't suppose to be there yet. But when it doesn't tell me anything, I wander around just to get lost because I didn't see that I had to inspect something.

the story is basically ♥♥♥♥. if you follow that ign walkthrough, you should be able to finish the game in under 2 hours. the game is nothing but a pretty tech demo. you are better off just watching the narration bits on youtube.

[Starbox]

Walkthroughs. lol

[Breach]

Yeah, this is Dear Esther 2.0, I like the environment though and the puzzle are cool, but it's not really a "true game".

[Sparhawk122]

I believe that if there's no hand holding there should at the least be a decent save system.

[Wineburg Graves]

I think the saving system is not adequate... You never know if you'll have to repeat some of your discoveries or not... Until you solve a puzzle nothing is saved... It gets anoying. Other than that, it's an incredible visual experience, with a great mood and vibe. I think I'm not going to finish this one, but it's worth it to spend some hours in that world.