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2 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 5.8 hrs on record
Posted: 27 Jan @ 11:03am

TL;DR
A soothing mountainous archaeological expedition through a death of a civilization.

Positives
  1. A story of a hardy people that functionally experienced an apocalyptic event is richly relayed to the player without a single line of spoken dialog.
  2. Art direction is absolutely spot on. Great example of stylization trumping graphical fidelity.
  3. Level design is expertly used both as a story telling tool and to provide obstacles of an increasing level of mechanical difficulty. Several times during the experience, I came across vistas that completely took my breath away.
  4. The game stops at a fulfilling point in the narrative.
  5. In game actions are mapped to the controller organically, which makes the act of climbing exceedingly satisfying.
  6. The overall audio design errs on the side of letting nature speak for itself, letting the player explore the world in peace. Music is not ever present and comes in only to accentuate moments of importance.
  7. Exploration is rewarded with dead ends providing further flavor to the world. In particular, I enjoyed the three seashells Easter egg.

Neutral
  1. In most cases there is exactly one correct way how to proceed. While this is a shame in some respects as the 30 second loop is excellent, it allows the pacing to be tighter.

Negatives
  1. It is possible to wrap oneself around an obstacle which leads to the physics engine acting out a bit. Fortunately, the most amount of progress that I lost in such a way were mere seconds. This happened around 5-10 times in my playthrough.
  2. Triggering the devices that create shortcuts back down is a tedious experience. Sometimes the prompt shows quickly during approach. However, in some cases one has to dance around the thing for ten seconds to trigger the prompt.
  3. As I climbed the mountain I did not get the sense that the climber wants to make the ultimate sacrifice to return ballast to its kind or to bring back the rain. Thus, while I felt the final scene should have hit emotionally harder, the experience was lessened by the sudden jump in perceived lengths the player character is willing to go to in the last chapter.

Notes
  1. Purchased as part of the Humble Choice monthly subscription service for the month of October 2024.
  2. Completed at patch 1.07.1498596.
  3. Completed at around 5.5 hours with minimal AFK time.
  4. Completed exclusively on an XBox controller.

🧡💛🧡
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