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Little too familiar, gameplay needs work

A topic by Abyssalzones created Apr 10, 2021 Views: 846 Replies: 5
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I received this game as part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, which was 10 dollars and included plenty of wonderful games. Last night I was looking through to see what would interest me, and the preview images caught my eye- namely, this reminds me strongly of a French indie game called Naissancee, which is free on steam. At first I was unsure of whether the game author for Fugue In Void had been inspired, as it's a relatively unheard of game.  I adored Naissancee, so I was very excited to play this game and see what was different. Upon playing the actual game, the similarities were so apparent that I honestly felt pretty grossed out. This game leaves much to be desired in the way of gameplay, storytelling, a narrative experience, interactivity, or even inspiring any feeling. The intro sequence is unforgivably long and is nothing more than a slideshow of pretty visuals that take up far too much of your time for what the rest of the game is. 


While I'm sure the creator of this game saw something in it, we, the player, are given absolutely nothing to work with. Naissancee meanwhile conveys absolutely no narrative but manages to captivate its players and invoke emotions wordlessly. 
This game is a proof of concept. Any time I started to engage with an environment, it felt like I was briskly pulled away into another 15 second sandbox of unity experimentation. 
The reason I brought up Naissancee before is because it is not sheer coincidence that the games feel similar- maybe I would say as much if it was only the geometric architecture and walking simulator aspects, but it felt as if every corner I turned there was another "Wait a minute..." moment. Puzzles based on perception of lighting, environments that change when you turn around in the dark, blocks of white light that move with the player to help them through an environment, vast oases of sand with geometric statues and structures- even a mock replication of the defining moment of Naissancee's early chapters, where you come upon an open pseudo-MC Escher style environment with guardless stairs, a complete lack of directions, and square doorframes with square lights above each one. 


In terms of what this game did well, I thought the lighting and atmosphere in most spaces was absolutely gorgeous. The brutalist atmosphere is incredibly inviting to anyone looking for a unique game environment to experience. Many of the visual elements were striking- I was fond of the effects used to create unnaturally organic looking textures for something that should by all means be rigid. There are genuinely good, original ideas here! My advice would be to focus on those original concepts for any future projects.

TL;DR: Great visuals, suffers from lack of gameplay and minimal attempts at "interactivity," may be a case of creative plagiarism of another indie developer. 

i love this review! I agree that it is almost predictable but, I think the challenge is really striking a balance between in how directed the maze is. But, as a proof of concept, I think it is a nice formula to experiment on, each transition can even be randomly assigned so everyone can potentially have unique play through everytime!

That's a great idea! The formula could prove really interesting... The game really does have potential from what I experienced when I played :]

(2 edits)

This is an interesting review. I've been thinking a lot about interactivity in games and the players need for constant interactions to keep them engaged. Your review comes at this game being bad in some parts due to your expectations and perceptions of what makes a game enjoyable to you. 

You came in wanting NaissanceE and judged the game through the lens of another game. I don't think any of your criticism makes the game bad for me. In fact, the things you found bad actually brought me enjoyment. "Suffers from a lack of gameplay" is a bit harsh. Have you considered that this was possibly an intentional design choice? The whole game is gameplay to me. It just didn't have the layers of gameplay you may have wanted.  The long intro you disliked was a meditative experience that put me in a much needed trance. I loved every second of it. 

I'm very wary of reviews like this. Art isn't bad. It's all so subjective. I've started reframing my thoughts on art that doesn't move me as not bad, but instead "not for me". Because what I don't enjoy is something others would love. This game is exactly what I was looking for. 

I'm happy to hear from other people and their experiences of this game, as I've had a long time to think on this and namely the review I posted. While I may not have enjoyed the game personally, I've come to understand through other people's perspectives of games that my experience was also subjective. Thank you for sharing your thoughts in a polite manner :]
Admittedly it's entirely possible my own experience with NaissanceE clouded my judgment of this game, as I'm sure a lot of effort was put into it. While I am not big on the final product, there is a lot of the creator's hard work and meaning behind it, which makes it special in its own sense.

Developer

Thanks for the honest review.