Sorry it took me a few days to try this game out… Aesthetically, I this thing game is quite lovely and peaceful! The environmental effects fit wonderfully.
While I love the grapple mechanic in general… I feel the gliding mechanic bothers me. After playing for about 20 minutes I think the issue came down to a disconnect in the controls for me. I can grasp the “Hold Space to Glide” part, but the needing to use “A” and “D” to turn while gliding breaks with my expectations. When I go for a glide, I totally expect to be able to move my mouse to turn. As my brain is constantly trying to figure out why I can’t move, though I’m moving my mouse, I’m loosing altitude and by the time I remember what I’m doing wrong, I’ve lost too much height. Similarly, going into glide mode seems to force my view downward. While I understand a glider does not go upwards, it almost feels like it’s forcing the downward view and I loose sight of the grapple point I’m aiming for.
I feel the glide mechanic irks me more as I can freely use my mouse to turn when grappling. So, I finally gain some altitude and I’m trying to line up the next grapple point, but I’m falling, so I go to glide and between the downward view and now needing to remember to use “A” or “D” to steer instead of my mouse, I loose sight of my goal and I hit a wall or a tree and I fall, having lost all momentum.
I think it would have been easier (for me in any case) if both the grappel and glider kept the same control scheme. That is to say, let them both use the mouse to look. That’s what my brain is used to. Swapping between using the keyboard to turn and using the mouse (especially when these two mechanics are supposed to be used interchangeably and quickly), I fail more than I succeed.
Don’t get me wrong, for the (short) durations when I can keep these two mechanics locked in my aging brain, the sensation of the movement is wonderful! But, sadly, that happens far too infrequently for me.
I managed to make it to and through the first cave, out the top to the open forest valley. After that, because of my difficulty with the mixed controls, I just couldn’t make it out of the valley. I keep hitting a tree or a rock, killing my momentum, and it takes me forever to get to a height when using either mechanic is actually fun (trying to get off the ground is difficult. Grappling a tree or one of those rock ledges takes sooo long to bring me up and I feel like I get stuck in the geometry too much).
Over all, I think this is a lovely game, and it could be so very satisfying, but I just can’t get the key movement system down to get very far.