I tried 3 separate times to play this game.
Attempt 1: I sat through the startup credits, while wordy it was intriguing enough to put me in the mood for the tone i believe. I clicked on tutorial and was presented not with a tutorial but a long wordy instructions list. I started a new game, and immediately clicked on my PC. I was presented with a drone website saying “Buy now”. Clicking the buy now button did nothing noticeable. I couldn’t see where my money was and there was no feedback like “drone on it’s way” or a reduction in currency anywhere. I clicked on “Drone.exe” and was greeted with 6 blank or staticy screens, nothing happened and i couldn’t figure out how to go back a screen.
Attempt 2: Reloading the page I was forced to sit through the same wordy intro that I couldn’t figure out how to skip it. Starting a new game I this time decided to see if there was anything apart from the pc. I went right and found a radio, I clicked on the radio and got a message about writing down some station mumbers, then discovered that i couldn’t un-pickup the radio. I was stuck with no ability to exit out of looking at the radio, though i did notice i could open and close the curtains behind the radio. Even opening the menu had the radio showing over the top of the settings page. Whilst clicking around in frustration i accidentally pressed the back button on my mouse…
Attempt 3: Forced to watch the cutscene for a third time, if i alt tab to something else it pauses the cutscene -_-. Getting in this time i decided to press “Load Game”. This time went better than the last two, first of all i figured out how to get away from the radio, and i figured out how to change the channel of the radio. It started rapid fire reading out coordinates to me, i have no idea what to do with the coordinates. I started up the computer again and this time i didn’t try to order a drone, instead I went for the other options. They opened up windows with fonts too blurry to read, they were also uncloseable. I finally double clicked on drone.exe and Huzzah! This time I got into a drone.
I navigated the drone around for a while, when suddenly something appeared that was shooting yellow somethings at me. Side note: I enjoyed the graphics style here, very MS-DOS game flavored, much nostalgia. I remembered the tutorial said ‘B’ to bomb, so i quickly pressed it and was taken into a top down view of the enemy. I was swerving left and right trying to dodge the incoming yellow lasers and desperately tapping every key on my keyboard trying to figure out how to drop a bomb. Finally i think the Return key actually dropped a bomb, but it was too late “DRONE OFFLINE”
I say all this hopefully to elucidate my frustration with this games onboarding experience. I really wanted to leave a very positive review for this user as they have been putting in work rating lots of other people’s games, however the friction I experienced trying to understand and get into this game will push a lot of people away.
This game looks like it has a very intriguing concept and a nostalgic vibe/aesthetic under the surface, but sadly it has been let down by a lack of attention to detail and a frustrating user onboarding experience.
I think the user has done great work, and i especially applaud the effort they have put into rating everybody else’s work, and I’ve only gone to this much wordy analysis to hopefully provide some constructive criticism that is helpful, not intending to disparage. So great work! Continue to grow and improve your art!