Honestly a little disappointing

[Rotav]

Maybe I'm missing something in comparison to what most other people have posted here, but for me this demo was a bit lackluster. Throughout the time I spent with it I found myself constantly asking "What kind of game am I even playing?" This wasn't in a good, breaking conventions way, but rather wondering what the developers focus for this title is even meant to be.

In their previous title, the answer to this question was more obvious: Furi was a boss rush game with pretty tight controls and engaging gameplay. In Haven however this is anything but the case: Controls feel clunky when gliding through the world and combat is rather basic and gives very little feedback on what is going on (was there a way to target different enemies for example? I couldn't tell). Cooking and resource gathering also exist amidst sappy dialogue exchanges between the two barely established protagonists, all of which is enough to make one throw the sour taste of appledew back up.

Maybe the significant aspect that I'm missing is that this is a co-op focused game - But if this were the case I'm confused why "Play two characters at the same time, to explore, fight or in the dialogues!" appears as the first key feature on the store page, whereas "A second player can join in or drop out anytime in co-op to share the adventure." is at the bottom. It makes it seem as if a single player experience is taken as more of a priority instead.

This post is quite rambly and all over the place, but I think that only reflects what I was feeling when I gave the demo a try. This new game differs a lot from Furi, that much is certain. But it does feel like Haven - at least from this initial impression received by the demo and store page - is trying to wear too many hats at once.

I wish The Game Bakers all the success in the future, but unfortunately Haven doesn't seem like my cup of tea at all - a real shame because I was looking forward to their next title a lot.

[BlackstarMate]

Yup, I feel you - I'm in love with Furi and this project was on my whishlist since the day one, but.. after playing the demo I'm out.
Not only because the characters so far are uninteresting and dialogue is cheesy, but mainly because the gameplay (as you mentioned) lacks polish.. Floating is cluncky at best and the combat seems very flat.
Yeah, I know it's beta, but even if some bad things will be fixed it's still not for me.
Sorry Game Bakers, not interested this time.
BTW Music is still great ;)

[CoastalHaze]

Well, it affects people differently. Honestly at the start I thought the art direction and music were cool, but got turned off by the conversation screens and dialogue. After finally moving from island to island and getting a taste of the exploration style I got more interested. I'm not familiar with Furi at all though.

[Chocos Ramabotti]

My problem is that the game goes a liiiiiitle bit too much in that lovey dovey department, like it solely identifies itself by celebrating the "cute" relationship between the two main characters. Title screen, loading screen, idle animations, combat, snappy flirty comments over the course of the whole demo. There is rarely a moment where there romantic relationship doesn't get portrayed/shoved into the player and they always behave like a fresh couple.
As someone who is averse to flirtious behavior (ever was) the dialouge makes me simply uncomfortable.
I kinda imagine that the writer of these dialouges get all blushy themselves over the place while creating the story.

I kinda understand that this is probably something that exactly draws people to the game, since their is so much focus in that single relationship with so much supporting dialouge, but on the other hand this doesn't emancipate the characters from each other well.

Maybe you can get better into the game if you play it with your gurlfriend (which I lack), on the other hand you play 2 freshly written characters who totally behave on their own. I would also assume that the co-op feature is probably just a bonus, since the premise of the game allows it. I mean even in single player you don't have to watch out too much in the gameplay, it only becomes easier when you merely have to play one character.

I respect the decision of the devs it's just something that focuses on another playerbase than their last game. I mean at least it shows that their willing to make experiments which is kinda cool.
I just hope that their next game will again go more into the challenging game direction. Since I always value gameplay over story.

[Krystalmyth]

Originally posted by CoastalHaze:

Well, it affects people differently. Honestly at the start I thought the art direction and music were cool, but got turned off by the conversation screens and dialogue. After finally moving from island to island and getting a taste of the exploration style I got more interested. I'm not familiar with Furi at all though.

Treat yourself.

[м]

well, the controls are awful, so are the graphics. i guess i won't buy it, even if it seems cute.

[Vandal Savant]

It's all reasonable criticism, but comparing Furi to this in any capacity is really weird to do, like wondering why Overwatch doesn't seem more like Warcraft 3 even though the two games are made under the same company name. It's apples and Siamese cats.

[Texus]

I started liking the game first because of the coop aspect and the romance thing in the game.

However looking at it today, I noticed the main hype is kinda gone and I would like to know a bit more about the gameplay and story.
I mean if they can die /get an game over here and stuff like that.

It seems I forgot a bit about the game or what I had read about it, but I remember fighting a certain big animal and gathering some energy. Like one of you said the flying was more or less difficult to controll sometimes.


I can't describe it better than saying I hated steam dig a bit. I mean just digging till you arrive at the ground and the game ends. Beside upgrading your stuff I don't remember anything interessting to happen there.

I hope in this game there will be more if you know what I mean.

I'm not really prepared right now and just got the sudden idea to take another look at the game.
Then I noticed the hype with which I started is kind of gone and I would like to know a bit more since 2020 is not that long anymore.

The game should be out soon enough I guess.

It's not the games fault but I already lost interest in two games that either delayed to often or just took really long and I suddenly thought, why was I interessted again?

[S_Jake]

I agree that the controls are somewhat ropey and the dialogue could use some work. The demo also seemed a little bare bones to me, though I hope that this is just because the demo represents the start of the game.

That said, I think Haven has promise: I really liked both the visuals and sound and I liked the core gameplay, the game just needs better controls and more depth.

[Doctor Gitgud]

I thought the characters were likable enough but the gameplay was just bad. Like you can either walk way too slowly, or you can glide around with stiff controls. Ever heard of tying walk (and run) speed to how far the analog stick is pressed?

[Lolo]

I hope we will see fight tutorial in the future. I had no idea what I was doing. Also running button would be nice. Mouse sensitive option is also needed.

[stevesteve]

The way she acted when it went dark because she forgot to flow the ship. Ugh, no thanks. Imagine if the male character acted like that...

[Panpan ♥]

It looked interesting at first but then realized only local co-op was a thing. Honestly a solo game made from a "couples" point of view for only people who are already together "sitting next to each other on a couch." Kinda disappointed because I really wanted to play this game with someone who lives across the map.

[Zastier]

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

There is rarely a moment where there romantic relationship doesn't get portrayed/shoved into the player and they always behave like a fresh couple.

Well, they are a fresh couple aren't they? They couldn't be together so they ran away to be together that's the whole point isn't it?

I imagine things will not be all lovey dovey and peachy all the way through. That wouldn't make for a good story.

Originally posted by Panpan ♥:

It looked interesting at first but then realized only local co-op was a thing. Honestly a solo game made from a "couples" point of view for only people who are already together "sitting next to each other on a couch." Kinda disappointed because I really wanted to play this game with someone who lives across the map.

Steam Remote Play Together is your solution. One person needs to own it. Unless the devs disable that but I doubt they would.

[Texus]

Originally posted by Zastier:

Originally posted by Chocos Ramabotti:

Originally posted by Panpan ♥:

It looked interesting at first but then realized only local co-op was a thing. Honestly a solo game made from a "couples" point of view for only people who are already together "sitting next to each other on a couch." Kinda disappointed because I really wanted to play this game with someone who lives across the map.

Steam Remote Play Together is your solution. One person needs to own it. Unless the devs disable that but I doubt they would.

If I understood it correctly someone told me that's not exactly for playing with someone somewhere else, it's just using a handy or whatever as an controller.
Because of that it seems to be more or less the same.

Not sure if I missunderstood something. I wanted to try that out once, but that's more or less what I got as an answer.

[Zastier]

Originally posted by Texus:

If I understood it correctly someone told me that's not exactly for playing with someone somewhere else, it's just using a handy or whatever as an controller.
Because of that it seems to be more or less the same.

Not sure if I missunderstood something. I wanted to try that out once, but that's more or less what I got as an answer.

Remote Play Together is literally for playing local only games with someone far away. There is no other use case for this feature.