Is this just a walking simulator?

[Trueblue1878]

I have to say, for £25 from an indie dev, I expected something more significant. But after 1h+ it just feels like a walking simulator. Does it get any better?

[s_salmon2005]

There's exploration and decision making after the initial helpless lost section.

[Harth]

like firewatch you walk and explore its an interactive Story/Adventure

[Trueblue1878]

Originally posted by s_salmon2005:

There's exploration and decision making after the initial helpless lost section.

I'll try it again when they've worked on it more. But for the current price, It is a poor game IMO.

Originally posted by Harth:

like firewatch you walk and explore its an interactive Story/Adventure

I liked Firewatch but that game wasn't charging £25 so I didn't enter it with higher expectations I guess.

I asked for a refund, I'll try it again in a year or so.
Cheers all!

[Terroristhawk]

Yes, it is a walking simulator. That in itself need not be a problem.

[Flybye]

If it walks, it’s a walking simulator. Every other game using walking is a walking simulator. It’s time to put the “walking simulator” term to rest.

[Terroristhawk]

Originally posted by Flybye:

If it walks, it’s a walking simulator. Every other game using walking is a walking simulator. It’s time to put the “walking simulator” term to rest.

Why?

Walking simulators have their place.

Is Doom a walking simulator?

There is nothing wrong with a story based narrative, with no action.

[Flybye]

Doom is also a walking simulator. You walk. I am simulating walking while blowing baddies up.

[Terroristhawk]

Originally posted by Flybye:

Doom is also a walking simulator. You walk. I am simulating walking while blowing baddies up.

Walking simulator is a term to demote a special kind of game. Doom is not that type of game.

[Flybye]

Originally posted by Terroristhawk:

Originally posted by Flybye:

Doom is also a walking simulator. You walk. I am simulating walking while blowing baddies up.

Walking simulator is a term to demote a special kind of game. Doom is not that type of game.

I don’t think there is a committee that puts any of this in stone. If you walk, you are simulating walking. Thus, Doom is a walking sim. You walk in Doom and The Invincible. Both games you walk around doing stuff and interacting with things. It’s silly to call The Invincible a walking sim just like it’s silly to call Doom a walking sim.

[Terroristhawk]

Originally posted by Flybye:

Originally posted by Terroristhawk:

Walking simulator is a term to demote a special kind of game. Doom is not that type of game.

I don’t think there is a committee that puts any of this in stone. If you walk, you are simulating walking. Thus, Doom is a walking sim. You walk in Doom and The Invincible. Both games you walk around doing stuff and interacting with things. It’s silly to call The Invincible a walking sim just like it’s silly to call Doom a walking sim.

No. Walking sim is a special term to denote a game that is very story focused with less or minimal action moment and a game that is not.

A walking simulator does not need to have a good working gunplay for instance.

There is nothing wrong with the term walking simulator. But it is also important to know when a game is a walking simulator and when it is not.

The reason is that otherwise people will be angry and make bad reviews when they otherwise could have ignored the game.

Take a game like death stranding, if people do not know what is it when they go into it, they will be disappointed.

[Табушка]

Originally posted by Flybye:

Originally posted by Terroristhawk:

Walking simulator is a term to demote a special kind of game. Doom is not that type of game.

I don’t think there is a committee that puts any of this in stone. If you walk, you are simulating walking. Thus, Doom is a walking sim. You walk in Doom and The Invincible. Both games you walk around doing stuff and interacting with things. It’s silly to call The Invincible a walking sim just like it’s silly to call Doom a walking sim.

You are being disingenuous. A walking sim is a game that has no engaging gameplay mechanics aside from just pressing WASD to get to your destination. It's silly to call Doom a walking sim because it does have gameplay mechanics, it's a first person shooter after all. It's not silly to call The Invincible a walking sim because you spend the entire game just walking from place to place. Once you realize that, there isn't even a reason to explore anything in the game, since there are no hidden crevices on the map that add extra lore or story to the game. The story was great, and nothing wrong with liking the game, but you are lying to yourself if you say it's not a walking sim. You do nothing but walk in this game.

[Solyaris]

I'm someone who hates pretty much all "walking simulators" (a term that should never be used in a non-sarcastic way), and I loved this game. I just finished it (outside of Steam). I think it's a brilliant work. Extremely good writing, out-of-this-world art (pun intended), well put together, adequate lenght. I'm very glad I played this.

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by Табушка:

Originally posted by Flybye:

I don’t think there is a committee that puts any of this in stone. If you walk, you are simulating walking. Thus, Doom is a walking sim. You walk in Doom and The Invincible. Both games you walk around doing stuff and interacting with things. It’s silly to call The Invincible a walking sim just like it’s silly to call Doom a walking sim.

You are being disingenuous. A walking sim is a game that has no engaging gameplay mechanics aside from just pressing WASD to get to your destination. It's silly to call Doom a walking sim because it does have gameplay mechanics, it's a first person shooter after all. It's not silly to call The Invincible a walking sim because you spend the entire game just walking from place to place. Once you realize that, there isn't even a reason to explore anything in the game, since there are no hidden crevices on the map that add extra lore or story to the game. The story was great, and nothing wrong with liking the game, but you are lying to yourself if you say it's not a walking sim. You do nothing but walk in this game.

Walking sim game is not restricted to walking. There are several walking sim's games where you don't walk at all or have very little walking.

A walking sim is a game where the main objective is not to solve puzzles or shoot at things, but to move from start to finish while served a story in the form of narration, visuals, cut scenes etc. With mostly very limited "game play".
And there are plenty of walking sims that are also a full interactive game usually with some puzzle solving or looking around for story elements.

This game fits both a visual novel (tho very bareback), walking sim and interactive story since it got elements of all of them. But mostly its an interactive story.

[Trueblue1878]

Thanks all
Appreciate the feedback. In the end I asked for a refund because it just felt like there wasn't enough gameplay to make it fun enough to play rather than just watch. I think I'd rather it was a movie or a book. Not my type of game but I did enjoy firewatch, although I got that for much cheaper so there was higher expectation. Cheers

[Kamahl1234]

I feel like you're setting this weird expectation of gameplay features with pricing, over well, the game core itself as well as age. Firewatch is shorter and frankly much more of a walking simulator than this game is. Firewatch is about a 2 hour game IIRC, I finished this game in roughly 9 hours, and the story has different endings based on your choices, so effectively I've only seen one possible story from it. Firewatch has a single story ending.

If you enjoyed Firewatch, I'd wager you'd really like this game and the fact that you have actual choices to make, rather than simply a story told to you.

The game even evolves a bit over time, through the story, and is quite good. Especially after you go through the initial hour where you're effectively laying groundwork for the story to jump off of.