Honest Review: This game was rushed.

[The Alchemist]

Great game - scary, intense, super unsettling and eerie - but the lack of polish shows and causes me to think the devs rushed it out to meet the Halloween sales.

Think about it: a literal week ago, tons of people, myself included, thought this game was either dead of in development hell due to budgeting issues or internal issues in the studio. Then they drop a trailer the length of a teaser, using a lot of footage from previous trailers, to haphazardly announce an Oct. 30th release date. Seems a little fishy.

There are a number of major, game-breaking bugs in this game that range in severity. From constant load-crashing/hanging, which requires the use of task manager, to parts of the game where an interactable won't "work" properly, essentially making the player stuck unless they are lucky enough to have a recently saved game that they can load into in hopes that the interactable will work on the second attempt.

That last bug in particular essentially ate 4 or 5 hours of my game-time as I got stuck with a bugged-out item that wouldn't work, and was forced to reload a save which was several hours back in time. I nearly quit the game then.

The technical state of the game is also quite bad.

For reference, here are my specs: RTX 3080, i9 10900k, 32GB DDR4 4400MHz, gaming installed on an M.2 SSD

Terrible frametiming on the level of Ubisoft open world games. The game feels like stuttery garbage when using a controller because of the bad frametiming and the only way to "fix" it is to play in windowed as well as limit your frames below your max (e.g. I use a 60HZ monitor so I capped to 58). I imagine a lot of people don't notice this point and will say it runs "smooth as butter" as uninformed casual PC gamers tend to do, but in reality the frametiming poor and very noticeable on controller.

Also, devs, what in the holy ♥♥♥♥ were you thinking labeling the resolution scaling as "high, very high, epic" "??? Aside from a graphical setting being labeled as "epic" in an earnest horror game being weird and cringy as hell - NO ONE understands resolution scaling in this way. It needs to be in a percentage!!! How did this get past testing? It's small non-sense ♥♥♥♥ like this that really, really, make this game feel rushed.

Also - two years and maybe 5-6 hours more in content. I didn't play this game prior to it's full release because I seriously feel early-access games are a cancer, but from what others tell me, the "Rakan" chapter and the non-existent 4th chapter do not justify the wait or the price hike.

This game was rushed. Shame it wasn't given more time or resources, but is hard to justify as it vacuumed up the money of early-access fools for the past two years and has come out on the other side with not much to show for it.

[davedarkotv]

I'm pretty sure that the development team changed midway through, because the 2 beta chapters were amazing, the new one + the puzzle ending are garbage, I'll let the 3rd chapter pass, but man, the last part + the ending is pure garbage and ruined everything for me. No way this game was made by the first people all the way through
With that said the game as a whole is still good, not as good as it was (hell, for me it could've been a 10/10), but passable, maybe a 6/6,5

[The Alchemist]

Originally posted by Decadent Darko:

I'm pretty sure that the development team changed midway through, because the 2 beta chapters were amazing, the new one + the puzzle ending are garbage, I'll let the 3rd chapter pass, but man, the last part + the ending is pure garbage and ruined everything for me. No way this game was made by the first people all the way through
With that said the game as a whole is still good, not as good as it was (hell, for me it could've been a 10/10), but passable, maybe a 6/6,5

They also don't communicate well with the community... so yeah - there's something to all of this that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Haven92]

I agree. It's a tragedy. The game can be phenomenal. That ending is so brief and nonsensical. Then to add insult to injury, I get a colorful background during the credits with mountains and birds and rock music. Like what game am I playing? How is this the ending to Visage?

It can be so good but my lord the bugs were plentiful and that ending was a huge disappointment.

Rushed for Halloween.

[🅱🅾🆁🅶]

That is sad to hear ;(

[Kexol]

I thought the game lived up to my expectations. Was super tense and scary. Controls weren't the best but that can be forgiven. Easter eggs were amazing and it felt like a lot of love was poured into the making of the game. The only disappointment was the endings themselves. The journey was great but the endings needed more.

[Hank Hill's Disappointed Sigh]

Originally posted by 🔥 C L O A K 🔥:

The technical state of the game is also quite bad.

For reference, here are my specs: RTX 3080, i9 10900k, 32GB DDR4 4400MHz, gaming installed on an M.2 SSD

Terrible frametiming on the level of Ubisoft open world games. The game feels like stuttery garbage when using a controller because of the bad frametiming and the only way to "fix" it is to play in windowed as well as limit your frames below your max (e.g. I use a 60HZ monitor so I capped to 58). I imagine a lot of people don't notice this point and will say it runs "smooth as butter" as uninformed casual PC gamers tend to do, but in reality the frametiming poor and very noticeable on controller.

I am playing with a 3080, 8700k stock, 32gb 3200MHz c14, game on an 860 evo, sytem on 970 m.2 with an xbox1 wireless controller, in fullscreen mode and I am getting a constant 120fps with settings maxed out at 1440p. Very occasionally a frame drop stutter changing major areas.
Try turning your resolution scaling down.. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference. What is your native res?

Here is a video. The youtube compression makes it look like trash but you can see it definitely is not "stuttery garbage" on my end.

https://youtu.be/gnc71fEVEkw

[westingtyler]

yeah about op's post.... goodness, goodness.... there are some design issues here that hamper an otherwise fun game. I made a whole big text document full of the problems, but it's just a rant right now, and maybe I'll post it if I can organize it. Delores's chapter is the closest to what i wanted from the game: 1) takes place mainly in the creepy house 2) is not linear and you can do objectives in the order you want 3) has puzzles. naturally the chapter where you're being chased every two seconds down linear corridors in a hospital, was not the experience I wanted. it degraded into a "wooo spooky run away haunted house!" experience there.

[Rohannu]

Originally posted by westingtyler:

yeah about op's post.... goodness, goodness.... there are some design issues here that hamper an otherwise fun game. I made a whole big text document full of the problems, but it's just a rant right now, and maybe I'll post it if I can organize it. Delores's chapter is the closest to what i wanted from the game: 1) takes place mainly in the creepy house 2) is not linear and you can do objectives in the order you want 3) has puzzles. naturally the chapter where you're being chased every two seconds down linear corridors in a hospital, was not the experience I wanted. it degraded into a "wooo spooky run away haunted house!" experience there.

i get you. after chapter 1 and 2 i expected that the other chapters change the house in a new fun way with new random events and unexpected changes to the house. when i realized this is not the case (aside from the little sections in the house in rakans chapter) it felt a bit disappointing for sure.
I think if Dolores chapter would have been released in the full release instead of Early Access I wouldnt have felt this way in the end but who knows. Still a great game overall imo.

[westingtyler]

yeah. Visage has imo made the same error Silent Hill 4 made: the devs getting bored of the "hub" environment, so they add in a bunch of random locations. i would have loved Silent Hill 4 way more if the entire game centered around the apartment building and surrounding buildings (subway, bar, etc.) instead of saying "now it's time to go to a water prison off the coast", etc. Visage is the same way. a random hospital, Escherian stairs, being in some guts, etc. are cool ideas.. kind of... IF they make sense within the context of the meta narrative, but all that energy should have gone into secret areas of the main house imo.

imo the best way to do this would be like Eternal Darkness (or how I wish Eternal Darkness was) where each chapter takes place in the same house but in different time periods, each revealing new/old secrets of the house, for use in the hub section of the game to progress its meta narrative. I still haven't finished Visage (almost done but I need the crowbar to respawn in the storage room before I can continue, so I'm waiting on that bug fix.) but this is the vibe I get.

PS another tiny game thing that did this idea pretty well is Scary Tales Vol. 1 by Puppet Combo. it's a hub world made up post-hoc to connect several unconnected game apps, but it's still a cool idea worth experiencing.

[🅱🅾🆁🅶]

Off topic a bit . Do you guys have recommendations on some other games like this one that might have more polish?

On a side note, about performance. I just tried it on my laptop with a GTX 1050TI using a Dualshock 4 controller and performance is quite solid at 1080p resolution with everything maxed . Getting 60FPS solid (I lock it with Vsync), no microstutters or anything. I wish I could show it in recording but the moment I record I do get a FPS hit and I drop to high 50's with some stuttering.

[westingtyler]

actually not really. at least not in terms of visual polish. is that what you mean, or do you just mean less buggy? The only other games that LOOK as good as Visage are.... Layers of Fear? hm. your question has made me realize that most games I enjoy playing are ugly and buggy. The other horror games I play are Puppet Combo and Chilla's Art games, which are visually like PS1 games or simple-looking games with a few bugs (but not NEARLY as buggy as Visage is.) They are also pretty short, most completed in under 46 minutes, but they are cheap, too. Scary Tales Volume 1, Babysitter Bloodbath, Night Shift, are Puppet Combo games worth playing. Chilla's Art games worth playing are The Convenience Store and Stigmatized Property. I love "domestic horror" even if it looks like a PS1 game.

Incidentally I don't really like Layers of Fear but have only seen others play it. I don't like linear experiences but I love hub environments where you unlock more stuff. The Blair Witch game is linear and some like it, but I watched MrKravin play it and wanted a different experience, so I never bought it. but it's visually solid.

If we're being honest I'd recommend Resident Evil 2 (2019). in an abstract way, it's like Visage except takes place in a police department and includes minor gun combat against slow zombies. it has visual polish, gameplay polish, a cool story, and a puzzle hub like I want, assuming you can tolerate simple gun combat.

I'd also recommend Resident Evil 7. it starts as amazing hub-based domestic survival horror and slowly degrades into linear action, which I don't like, but others do.

I've seen youtubers play The Park, but it really wasn't appealing to me for some reason. really not sure why.

If visuals can be old and combat is allowed, I'd recommend Silent Hill 2 and maybe 4 and definitely Eternal Darkness.

People like Alien Isolation, and I would have liked it more if it was less linear.

I hear good things about Soma, and I just bought Alan Wake, which I hear is good but know nothing about.

But if combat is allowed, the top for me is Resident Evil 1 HD Remastered 2015 on steam. It's THE survival horror/mansion hub/exploration puzzle masterpiece imo.

but yeah I wish there were more non-combat domestic horror photoreal games like Visage, PT, and Allison Road (I wish Allison Road existed).

[westingtyler]

oh, and check out Home Sweet Home, a thai domestic horror game that is photoreal like Visage. looks good from mrKravin videos. Honestly just watch everything MrKravin, John Wolfe, Gab Smolders, and Bowlingotter have played relating to horror.

[🅱🅾🆁🅶]

Heh you named some of my favorite games.
- I am a veteran of Resident Evil games. Loved all of them up until 4 . Played 5 but it was too action oriented. Ignored 6. 7 was a great experience for me. Best so far for me is resident evil 2 remake. Resident evil 3 is meh and somewhat of a downgrade to 2 remake because they downgraded some stuff including enemy ragdolls and dismemberment which I think really added to the atmosphere.
- Silent hill is another series I love but I only like 1-2 and 4 mostly.
-Alien Isolation started great but I started to get bored after sometime because it became same old same old. I had to actually put a mod in that enables the alien to be free of its scripted moments and free to roam and pop up anywhere in the ship which added a lot of the experience but in the end it was just okay.
-Alan wake is one game that is a masterpiece in atmosphere, setting and story. You will be thinking about it even after its done. They actually just tied the story into their other game called Control.
- The first Amnesia Dark Descent is great however the next one Machine for pigs was a let down. I haven't tried the third installment yet but so far it just looks average.
- SOMA I tried to play but couldn't really get into it. Just didn't have what I was looking for in atmosphere or scares. It just left me wanting to play other games of similar settings like Bioshock (which I love too)
-Outlast 1-2 were fun but nothing groundbreaking. Just fit the current trend at the time so it got a lot of recognition
-Evil Within 1 was amazing for me because of the tension and art design from Shinji Mikami maker of Resident Evil. Evil Within 2 had nothing to do with him though so you can expect that the quality and polish degraded a lot. It was almost like they were not related at all.
-Condemned. A combat based game from the developers F.E.A.R but man was it creepy. Great game overall
-F.E.A.R. Really intense FPS combat with insane particle effects and for its time it had the most advance AI that were so smart they would kick back granades and knock down furniture to take cover and move in on your position. F.E.A.R 2 was also good however the third installment went with the current trend that was Call of Duty style gameplay so it was destroyed.
-DeadSpace. Love 1 and 2 ALOT but 3 became an arcade action shooter. Hope they make another installment with next gen hardware that's more true to the first games atmosphere and gameplay.
-Until Dawn. Great polish and experience on this slasher game. However the Anthology the developers are trying to create right now with Man of Medan, Little Hope and so on. So far have been nothing but disappointments

Notable mentions
System Shock
Stasis
SCP Containment
PT
Allison Road (Cancelled :(

You can tell I'm a horror fan even with movies lol. Thank you for taking the time to explain Visage though. I haven't got the time to actually play it. I just tested performance but I think even with the current issues I still want to experience the good parts. Who knows maybe I'll actually like the whole thing because I never even played the early access version.

[Sotomar0]

I didn't really want to write it, but i suspected such a disaster. It was simply a too extensive as well as elaborate project for 2 or 3 developers. This could only go wrong. And to fix that mass of bugs the game has now it will takes month. A pity, the waiting was not worth it. it would have been better to sell only the first 2 chapters for a price of maybe 12 €. I had have not a single bug in lucy or dolores chapters in the EA game.

[westingtyler]

I_No_se_ProBleM, I wonder if Visage has made the same error a LOT of devs make, which is being so obsessed with photorealism that content is relatively slim because photoreal assets take so long to create. As a dev myself, i can whip up an entire Silent Hill sized city in a weekend as long as I don't care if it looks like garbage or has good painted textures or normal maps. Honestly, lighting and sound MORE than make up for limited visuals IF the gameplay is good. If I insisted on photorealism, I can get done a single PROP per day, including the modeling, painting, and normal mapping. Since I'm making a big game, I long ago decided to sacrifice normal maps and photorealism and go for a painterly aesthetic. I just have to if I want my game done this lifetime. I genuinely don't understand how it can take 5 years to make a game as relatively simple as Visage, except that maybe they REALLLY made sure those normal maps were high quality.


And Borg, you mirror my thoughts about pretty much all of those games. Resident Evil 4 is a masterpiece... that I don't really enjoy much because it's linear action, whereas I prefer non-linear/hub-based survival horror. 5 and 6 just ramped that further but without 4's packed content, and RE6 is just call of duty with a coating of zombie. I agree with all your thoughts about pretty much all those games. I'll raise FEAR further on my to do list.

I'm gonna start Alan Wake next considering everyone says it's cool. i know NOTHING about it and kept getting it confused with the 2009 Alone in the Dark that everyone hates. haha

I'm excited about the System Shock remake since I've not played System Shock before. And SCP Containment Breach, as janky as it can be, to me is a masterpiece of game design in terms of skill and balancing. There's just so much possibility there. I've not gotten the same vibe from SCP Unity, but that's not finished yet, so who knows.

And to be clear, I don't think Allison Road is TECHNICALLY cancelled. it had the kickstarter, cancelled that to team with Team17, then that partnership ended, then a few months later the devs said the game dev was back on, but that was like 3 years ago. it's a nitpick to say it's not cancelled, but I want to keep that 1% of remaining hope, haha.

in the meantime i'm developing my own game that combines all those things I love into a big game, which helps me not get so upset when other games fizzle out. my game is basically if you had an open world zelda game, except it's Earthbound and Silent Hill and majora's mask and goosebumps in a halloween time loop, with lots of spooky places to explore and you are basically an archeologist/detective. it's like if you mashed up Stranger Things, Goosebumps, and Monster Squad. possibly too ambitious, but I love making it, and i can dump in all the lessons learned from playing other (often frustrating or unsatisfying) games as well as everything I WANTED those games to be.

As far as Visage goes, you'll enjoy it if you wait a few days for bugs to get sorted, then go in expecting it to be an atmospheric exploratory scavenger hunt that ends a bit sooner than it could and yet still takes a long time because, well, scavenger hunt. and if you go in bracing for the dumb inventory controls, and understanding that each chapter is a unique gameplay style. In terms of just keeping me on edge the whole time, nothing really beats Visage, though RE2 2019 was exhilarating - having to crit path and solve puzzles while a tank monster was hunting me down. i wish RE3make hadn't dropped the ball on that concept so hard, haha.

oh. my game: http://westingtyler.com/2019/notss.html