This is a really difficult game to recommend. If you take a gander at the negative reviews you will see the same sentiment echoed over and over "I wanted to like this game." And, I did want to actually like this game too, but there are some heavy flaws that get in the way of the experience. I think what it comes down to is that I am recommending this game because I think it was frustrating in the right ways more than the wrong. I will always appreciate a game that tries do something more or different and fails over one that suceeds at doing what every other game already did.

Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is meant to be a first person adventure game. In that sense it has puzzles, action and storytelling all done in real time, first person. Think of it like a point and click (Walking Dead, Monkey Island, etc.) meets a rather nonviolent first person shooter. The meat of the game comes from solving puzzles to move on to the next area with small bits of action here and there. I play a lot of games in general, but as someone who plays both point and clicks, and puzzle games, these puzzles are arduous. I absolutely needed to use a guide to help me ge through the more demanding areas, even on easy mode. Difficulty is just a hard thing to measure. Games like Super Meat Boy. Hotline Miami, or IWBTG! make me think there is no such thing as too difficult, but I know that even those gems can turn off some players (I didn't dare waste more than 10 minutes on the opening level of IWBTG! before I moved on). But, if a developer makes a game too easy, players will get bored. So, while Albedo's puzzles can be incredibly hard, I think the solution aspect of the puzzles is fair and challenging. It's the execution that causes puzzles to be frustrating.

The inventory system, controls, and interface of the game are far from intuitive. As someone who uses a trackpad mostly, I can deal with a lot of wonky controls in games, but even Albedo made it unnecessarily difficult to do something simple like equip the right item for a solution I already knew. Some of the more classic point and clicks used to be frustrating because you would have multiple actions that could be attached to a large variety of items in your inventroy, making for a large number of combinations that could easily make progression nigh impossible. Thankfully, Albedo limits itself to a few per item and does not attach every action to each item. However, even with this saving grace, I still had struggle to combine item A with B many times.

Outside of mechanics, the game some great aesthetics. The style of the game is interesting and fits with the sci-fi feel. The aliens are wacky and the enviroments all look great and easy to tell apart. The ambient noises are a nice touch, and the soundtrack does well enough, but there might be a lack of theremin to help conjure up that 60s sci-fi b-movie vibe.

Overall, this is a really tough recommendation. The puzzles are challenging, clever and have some good variety (number sequences, multifaceted pipe arranging, picking locks etc.). However, the demanding puzzles come with the clunky controls that can get in the way. Those hoping for an even split between action and puzzles will find that there is more focus on puzzles than action sequences: they pop up more often, there is more variety, and they feel more rewarding.

This game is ultimately not the champion we needed to bridge the gap between first person shooters and point and click games, but I think it is still a game worth checking out. For those of you that want a film comparison, this is more Le Voyage Dans La Lune than 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you think you are up to the challenge, or are willing to swallow your pride and take just a quick peek at a guide, this is a strange and fascinating experience, and I hope to see more games like it.

It really pains me to write a negative review for this game; it's got tons of style and great ideas, and it's clearly a labor of love for its creators; but as an experiment in how to do a first person graphic adventure, it unfortunately misses more than it hits.
Halfway through I had to start using walkthroughs. A little bit further, I got absolutely stuck even though I knew exactly what I needed to do, and ended up giving up on the game. The game's weird interface causes lots of problems and makes it almost impossible to figure things out at times - even when the underlying puzzle is solid (for example, there is a lovely puzzle involving building a ladder out of tube parts that is renderd too obscure by its execution). There is very little clarity, very little consistency in how interaction works, and it's not helped by very fiddly or clunky sections.
Oh, and there are time-sensitive puzzles and parts where you are attacked by unbeatable monsters.

All of this is a huge shame, because as said before, there is a lot of love and imagination in the game, and when it works, it can be pretty great. It's worth trying and supporting, just be aware of what you're getting into first.

So, it's pretty obvious how much of an influence Sierra and Lucas Art adventure games inspired this (infact, make sure to keep looking at the tentacles...). It clearly tries to be as notoriously difficult as those games, but in some ways that doesn't work in its favor. Often times though, it does. The puzzles can be pretty esoteric, but none worse than some of those games. The controls are clunky. Not "clunky at times" just flat out clunky. But, they get the job done.

I really do like this game. The asthetic is perfect, and while I don't like the controls, I like the general idea and most of its execution. I want more first person "infinite pockets, use every item on everything" adventure games, and I think this a great place to start from.

Story is good and simple like those games as well, fits the atmosphere entirely.

Honestly, if you think you might like it, you probably will.

If you are looking for a serious, deeply moving story in an adventure game - turn back.
If you are looking for an easy, relaxing game - turn back now.
If you are looking for a pure, old-school point and click - what are you doing? Run and never turn back!

This game, THIS **** GAME somehow manages to be frustrating, funny, extraordinarily stupid and challenging at the same time. Why is that? Let me explain.

The very first thing that one notices about this game is the style - very reminiscent of some of the silliest old comedy horror films (the game title is a great clue already). Everything, including enemy models, items you pick up and places you visit contributes to the atmosphere. Add in amazingly (heh) delivered lines from the main character and you might feel like a star! ...in a film directed by Ed Wood. Much of the games humour relies on the atmosphere; the potentially dangerous situation (alien invasion) is turned into something ridiculous because of the genre Albedo emulates. On a sidenote, people interested in funny references/Easter Eggs will love this game.

Now, one should take note of this fact - Albedo can be REALLY hard. While not impossible, some puzzles might leave you plain confused or even clueless about what are you even supposed to do in the room you're in. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but sometimes one might feel really frustrated, walking around and searching for that one item you might've missed, or a possible action you overlooked. However, sometimes the difficulty spikes are caused by neither hard puzzles nor confusion but...

...action sequences. Especially those which are at the same time technically "timed puzzles". There is one sequence, you'll know which one, which made me want to bang my head on the keyboard. Even if you like timed challenges, you might find yourself frustrated at the rather unforgiving circumstances in this one. Fortunately, this puzzle, like many other, can be skipped (but true gamers shouldn't do that, should they?).

Unfortunately, this is not always the case and sometimes, just sometimes, one might be extraordinarily unlucky and find themselves a bug. Not a walking one (well, it is possible to be bitten by a spider/eat a spider) but ugly nontheless (sorry, all the insects of this world...) - for example, some essential items might suddenly become impossible to pick up. Fortunately enough, the game saves automatically at least once per room/puzzle, so you have a quick solution to that. In my case this bug appeared twice but not in the same room and with the same item.

To sum up, Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is a solid title, a great parody just like its "cousins" from the big screen. A perfect title to pick up after completing Alien Isolation or something like that :)

Albedo – Eyes from Outer Space is essentially a first-person adventure game and I love it. It’s tricky too with the puzzles certainly giving your brain a workout, but lateral thinking will get you through and you’ll end up kicking yourself at the solution.

The 50s sci-fi graphics are spot on and the game oozes atmosphere. I encountered one or two minor ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ but the game is in Early Access (out very soon I reckon) and the one-man team (yes, this game has been made by one guy!) is super fast with his updates.

I cannot recommend Albedo – Eyes from Outer Space highly enough, it rocks!

A rather bad adventure game with a terrible UI which is slow and cumbersome to use. The mouse wheel is used to scroll horizontally through all the items in your inventory, which you have to do slowly otherwise you can't choose the exact object you want if done too fast.

The mouse wheel is also used to scroll through actions when you mouse over or use an object, such as pick up, drop, observe, use with, throw and put in inventory. It makes it hard to do anything quickly which becomes a problem when faced with an aggressive monster you can't kill and can only distract for a short time making it frustrating to play as the monster kept killing me as I can't do anything quick enough.


When I went into the room with flames and back again all of a sudden my fps dropped dramatically so I was moving in slow motion. I had to quit and restart the game for the fps to be ok again.


The gameplay is rather dull where all you do is just go around finding objects to use on other objects to progress to find more objects and repeat, isn't really my thing. Besides objects on objects there are puzzles which can be quite challenging often taking me a while to figure out.


A game that would of been at least a bit of fun with a better UI, but with the UI the game has it makes it unenjoyable and a chore to play. 4/10 as the UI makes the game bad.
Don't reccomend, the game is too frustrating to play, not worth playing.

I will open as several other reviews do:
I really wanted to like this game.

I must echo what I see as the dominant issue with the game:
The inventory system is absolutely dreadful. I want to say it'd be fitting on a mobile device (as in perfect for swiping); it's NOTHING but annoying here.

You have two buttons bound to Previous and Next Action. Not sure if that works in scrolling through your inventory; there is no proper menu for the inventory. It is a drop-down thing at the top of the screen that you can scroll through with the mouse wheel (if something else that you can interact with isn't in the vicinity of the reticle, otherwise scrolling cycles through the actions with that item). Once you get to the item you want, click and drag the mouse down. Click and hold to bring up a radial of your possible actions with the item. Drag towards the action you want to do.
Theoretically, that Previous and Next Action could nullify this gripe; once you get down the action icons, it's (theoretically) quicker to do the mouse dragging.
More often than I'd like, either dragging an item from the inventory or dragging to an action - the visuals show that the game accepted your action, but the result isn't shown (either no item equipped or nothing done with the item). Such finnicky-ness would be fine in a "casual" puzzle game, but in one with action...

I shan't criticize the puzzles, as I'm glad to see another vague first-person puzzler (Kairo, FRACT OSC, Ilamentia, Antichamber, etc.) that isn't grounded strictly in the abstract (that has practical puzzles, i.e. lockpicking and rotating pipes to allow for flow). All I can say is, if you're stuck, go back and pick up every object that seems of some interest. Upon entering a room, most interactions with them will be Observe and Drop/Throw. Once you get a step closer to progress, make the rounds again to find that you can now Use some objects.

Along with the Inventory system, the general actions are extremely clunky.
Also: Why does Longy only hold onto an object for a few seconds before dropping it on his own?!?!?!
No words can describe my stupidity. I misunderstood the controls in the Options (rebind-ed them). For some reason, the "Previous Action/Next Action" at the top threw me off.

I made it to the fourth room, found some shears, Longy commented on another eyeball (it wasn't hostile before then). I decided to Fight with the Shears; a few spams of the mouse button (after selecting the Fight action from the interface, which was a pain - one must wait a certain amount of time before the game decides to register the action you dragged to) and the shears flew out of my hands. Eyeball seems to have escaped.
EDIT: Shears flew out of my hand because no words can describe my stupidity.
Monster didn't escape; another story with actual Eyeball.

I have to assume that the issues with the game are because the dev wanted it to be as "realistic/immersive" as possible, taking cues from those games that did away with "intrusive" interfaces. For example, games like Montague's Mount, Dream, and ASAMU don't allow the player to actually pick up pages, only to zoom in ever so slightly.
That vision of realistic/immersive impedes the accessibility and intuitive-ness, making the game little more than infuriating.
The story and atmosphere necessitate that I leave a Positive recommendation... The game itself gets in the way of that, though (and not in the way one would assume (i.e. puzzles)), so I must do what I did.
Know that the point of the *Thumbs Down* is more to get the attention of the dev, rather'n to dissuade you from buying/playing it. MAYBE it simply comes down to getting used to the interface; thus far, when I've thought I've gotten it down, it acts unresponsively ("one must wait a certain amount of time before the game decides to register the action you dragged to") - I get discouraged from slogging any further into the game.


EDIT: I would have turned this review positive because I cited an issue that furthered my case in DownVoting the game that wasn't an issue with the game at all, but with mine own intelligence. However, I made it to the fifth room and am still having to wrestle with the mechanics just as much as with the big and hostile Eyeball residing therein.

I hope (and actually expect) to turn this review positive, if I can beat the game.
Not to end up saying "Psh, it wasn't that bad, I can recommend this game because I beat it, though I couldn't while I was in the prcoess of beating it."
It's to say - as I said - that the premise and atmosphere is very alluring; should the story ultimately satisfy, the "slog" will have been worth it, contrary to what I said.


TL;DR
((This whole review serves as further proof for the definition of "review"; how can one review something without having experienced it "well enough" (in this case, actually beating the game)?
Tynon_1221 has no business writing reviews. Do Downvote this))
Albedo is a first-person puzzler set within an intriguing universe.
Those who don't get frustrated with the puzzles, will probably with the Inventory system.
The developer should be proud of the game, abso-fickin'-lutely.
Tynon_1221 shouldn't be as impulsive.

After over 5 hours of entertainment, I can proceed to write down my humble review.
What I liked:
- Puzzles are NOT too easy. Hurray!
- Well-crafted sci-fi graphics
- The detailed scenes full of ambience
- Uniqueness all-around.
- Frequent updates
What I didn't like:
- The controls for the inventory
- Some unpolished mechanics

To be honest these are merely silly details, the game is fun and challenging, nothing really holds you back from the full experience. Also, the publishers/developers are quite promising.

All in all, I find this to be a great game, and totally worth the money. It has something old fashioned (myst) but also something very new.

+1!

It's just another boring night on the job for John T. Langley, nightwatch at the space station JUPITER, and the only solace from this monotonous position as a lowly guard amongst the important scientists working on god only knows what kind of experiment is yet another drinking binge. Who can blame him really? With the mundane day-in and day-out occupation of sitting and watching, wondering what exciting experiments your peers at the base could be conducting, left only to guess what the strange sounds behind doors late on the night shift really are.

The last scientist leaves for the night, wishing you a goodnight and marking the start of he most boring, lonely part of your job. You get up to stretch your legs shocked only to find the ground beneath you suddenly crack apart and swallow you into the depths of the unknown recesses of this diabolical research facility amongst its many secrets.

Developer Fabrizio Zagaglia sets out to create a new kind of first person experience, shedding the current trend of bland military shooters and free to play models in favor of a rich 60's sci-fi style and a unique approach to adventure game story telling. When asking Fabrizio what brought about his decision to go with this unique setting and its retro flavor he replied, "The main goal was to make something with this kind of mood, maybe a bit naive, simplistic and ingenuous... but full of mystery, astonishment... amazement that I can find only in old sci-fi operas, rather than make an explicit rip off of 60s sci-fi series. Nowadays it's all too serious, realistic, evil... cold..."

"I aimed to avoid the current mainstream typical features. Take for example the flatness of games like COD... or the F2P and socialgames drifts etc. Of course, still there are good things, and still exists interesting "new" or derivative genres ( sandbox, narrative and art games and so on)... but overall I feel a lack of "something" that I can find instead in 90s games... something similar to what I can find in 60s scifi series and can't find in the newest ones."

Albedo isn't just a first person action game as it may seem at first glance, it's clearly a thinking person's adventure that sets out to wrack your brain on tough and puzzling situations in order to make your daring escape from each obstacle-ridden area. The starting room alone had me guessing for awhile, combing through the locked and wasted sci-fi storage room for pieces of the trial-and-error puzzle I had to put together in order to trick and trap the oncoming and unseen terror from beyond the locked door before me. I was reminded of a much tenser, trippier and sci-fi oriented Myst, and that's a very good thing.

Albedo: The Eyes from Outer Space is a sci-fi geeks dream come true, a wonderful combination of adventure game situations and logic solving from the perspective of a first person shooter. All with just a touch of retro-inspired action and brawls with strange alien creatures that evoke the same kind of love I have for monster designs of classic series like Doom.

Each of the different rooms of the sprawling space complex acts as a tough situation of trial and error puzzle solving, forcing you to use the surroundings to your advantage scavenging pieces of useful material to combine with parts of the environment and further reveal the path ahead. These are extremely small details usually and will require every bit of your unbridled attention to even find. You'll be forced to keep your eyes peeled for the tiniest of details from grabbing a paperclip off of a seemingly unimportant stack of papers to recycle as a lock-pick to finding secret notes slipped under locked doors with mysterious passwords. It's beyond easy to gloss over the most obvious clues, but ultimately they feel very rewarding when discovered.

Although the logic and puzzle solving are tough as nails and may even leave you feeling as if at a dead end sometimes, there is always hope thanks to the strange and terrestrial Temporal Dilation Tool, which seems to show some sort of an alternate world where problems are fixed and solutions are highlighted.

The settings are detailed and vibrant in a grotesque organic sort of way, with each living membrane that plasters the wall gleaming with vivid texture and giving off strange phosphorescent lights of warm and strangely comforting natural hues. The lab itself and the tools around you, including the aforementioned Temporal Dilation Tool give a very retro/future feeling to your surroundings with the tinted green and static-y glow of the hologram and rustic qualities to metal surfaces.

One thing is certain when stepping through the deteriorating halls of JUPITER; a lot of care, love, and devotion to the genre went into creating this intense set-piece.

Even in its early access state of ongoing updates it's hard to find faults with Albedo: The Eyes from Outer Space, especially with the small amount of people involved with its development considered. With an exciting cliffhanger ending and more content on the horizon there's really no bad time to get involved with the game and watch the adventure of John T. Langley continue to spiral into something even more insane.

First of all, not everything is negative. If Steam would have a thumb, pointing to the side, I would had choosed it.

Pros:
- Demanding riddles, which can be compared to riddles of Point & Click adventures.
- Good story telling in the end of the game.
- Suitable sound effects.

Cons:
- Exhausting controls.
- The most of the rooms weren't pleasant to me.
- Unnecessary fights with aliens.