You step into the shoes of an ambitious young man named Price. In order to forge a partnership from a famous company, Price seizes the property of an elderly woman. In that very moment he fi... Read allYou step into the shoes of an ambitious young man named Price. In order to forge a partnership from a famous company, Price seizes the property of an elderly woman. In that very moment he finds out the price of his humanity.You step into the shoes of an ambitious young man named Price. In order to forge a partnership from a famous company, Price seizes the property of an elderly woman. In that very moment he finds out the price of his humanity.
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We have yet to see you dance, son
You play as Price, an ambitious young man who is seizing property in order to make it to the top of a prestigious company. The guilt is starting to overpower you. Will you keep going? Should you?
This is a side scrolling point-and-click. I'm not going to pretend I've ever encountered one of those before. Like, certainly the camera being to the side is quite common. However, usually it's the mouse you use to move, in addition to dealing with the puzzles, which, here, are plentiful, as varied as they can be considering the limitations, and there's usually either logic to them or hints to the solutions to be found. There was only one that I found to be actually frustrating. The rest are just great brain teasers. And I understand why that one was ultimately thought to be fine to put in. Also, it's not like it's gonna make you rage quit or something. I'm starting to get the distinct sense that this is simply what the user interface is these days. I've played some of the oldest of the subgenre, way back when you actually had to construct a sentence in order to accomplish anything. My favourite remains The Curse of Monkey Island, where when you LMB on something, you can choose to interact with it using your eyes(examining), your hand(grabbing/picking up) or your mouth(talk to).
This one much like others have played recently such as Adios and Rusty Lake Hotel you can only do one thing by Using, unless you have an item from your inventory, which obviously streamlines it, which means that you can immediately pick up and play these. I feel something is lost in handling it like this, though they do still get you thinking. And certainly I can appreciate that this was actually made by just one person, the Finland game developer Jesse Makkonen. He did a fantastic job. This doesn't feel like it's limited. Rather, it was clearly always intended to be this way. He understands the importance of not trying to tackle something that is beyond his means. This is the first thing he's made that I've played, but based on how great this was, I went ahead and bought several more on sale.
There are a number of quote unquote spoken lines, albeit no dialogue tree. This has no voice acting; you read them yourself, and it's always colour-coded so no matter how many characters are on screen you're never confused as to who is speaking. There are 2 times where you can tell that English is not his first language. They're not distracting and it's rather impressive that the rest of it came out so well, especially considering how distinct Finnish is, though I understand he did get others to help with the translation. I've seen some say that there's not a lot of nuance here and I can't really argue with that. Rather, what I propose is that the problem that it tackles is so important, not to mention clear cut, that it makes perfect sense to tell the story this way. It really is just about greed versus empathy. It's a major problem that we're dealing with today all over the world. And I really admire taking a stand like this when it might hurt sales since there are still a number of capitalism apologists out there.
The psychological horror is incredibly well handled. This reminded me a lot of early Silent Hill, if shorter and without the combat element and with less mystery. In both those and this it is made clear from very early on that at least some of what is being experienced can't possibly be literally happening naturally. And is at least someone influenced by the mind state of the protagonist as they are trying to process something that makes them feel truly terrible. There is a consistently creepy atmosphere that gradually increases in intensity and every so often we get a brief yet incredibly effective flash of brutal bloody gory violence. In a number of ways I actually found that more impactful here which I credit to the fact that in this it is always directly tied to the actions of the player as well as those he works for. None of it is there to put you in a world that is at least somewhat controlled by supernatural evil with a history. I'm not saying that this is better than that. Overall I prefer them to this. Rather that this was the exact right choice for this and also helped make it not feel like an actual ripoff; it's inspired by, not the exact same thing.
This might be the only case I've personally come across where when the VG is scaring you, it actually shows the face of who you're running around as, without taking away your input and simply subjecting you to a cutscene. In fact some of those have you moving around so you can see how it's getting to him. Sometimes it will completely leave you in darkness from 1 second to the next. It toys with your perception of reality in a way that grips your attention. The original version of this was so well received that we later got what is referred to as the Deluxe Edition, which improves the graphics adding more colour to the greys, dynamic lighting and smoothing out the hand drawn designs and animations further. It appears that it is superior in every way. In certain places if you buy the most recent version you get both of these so if you are nostalgic you can easily go and re-experience the original something that isn't always the case. Dear Esther does not allow this.
I recommend this to everyone who likes a solid test of their problem solving skills, who enjoys being terrified and it's definitely a plus to agree with the political message of this, as I do. Based on other reviews, Conservatives despise this. 8/10.
This is a side scrolling point-and-click. I'm not going to pretend I've ever encountered one of those before. Like, certainly the camera being to the side is quite common. However, usually it's the mouse you use to move, in addition to dealing with the puzzles, which, here, are plentiful, as varied as they can be considering the limitations, and there's usually either logic to them or hints to the solutions to be found. There was only one that I found to be actually frustrating. The rest are just great brain teasers. And I understand why that one was ultimately thought to be fine to put in. Also, it's not like it's gonna make you rage quit or something. I'm starting to get the distinct sense that this is simply what the user interface is these days. I've played some of the oldest of the subgenre, way back when you actually had to construct a sentence in order to accomplish anything. My favourite remains The Curse of Monkey Island, where when you LMB on something, you can choose to interact with it using your eyes(examining), your hand(grabbing/picking up) or your mouth(talk to).
This one much like others have played recently such as Adios and Rusty Lake Hotel you can only do one thing by Using, unless you have an item from your inventory, which obviously streamlines it, which means that you can immediately pick up and play these. I feel something is lost in handling it like this, though they do still get you thinking. And certainly I can appreciate that this was actually made by just one person, the Finland game developer Jesse Makkonen. He did a fantastic job. This doesn't feel like it's limited. Rather, it was clearly always intended to be this way. He understands the importance of not trying to tackle something that is beyond his means. This is the first thing he's made that I've played, but based on how great this was, I went ahead and bought several more on sale.
There are a number of quote unquote spoken lines, albeit no dialogue tree. This has no voice acting; you read them yourself, and it's always colour-coded so no matter how many characters are on screen you're never confused as to who is speaking. There are 2 times where you can tell that English is not his first language. They're not distracting and it's rather impressive that the rest of it came out so well, especially considering how distinct Finnish is, though I understand he did get others to help with the translation. I've seen some say that there's not a lot of nuance here and I can't really argue with that. Rather, what I propose is that the problem that it tackles is so important, not to mention clear cut, that it makes perfect sense to tell the story this way. It really is just about greed versus empathy. It's a major problem that we're dealing with today all over the world. And I really admire taking a stand like this when it might hurt sales since there are still a number of capitalism apologists out there.
The psychological horror is incredibly well handled. This reminded me a lot of early Silent Hill, if shorter and without the combat element and with less mystery. In both those and this it is made clear from very early on that at least some of what is being experienced can't possibly be literally happening naturally. And is at least someone influenced by the mind state of the protagonist as they are trying to process something that makes them feel truly terrible. There is a consistently creepy atmosphere that gradually increases in intensity and every so often we get a brief yet incredibly effective flash of brutal bloody gory violence. In a number of ways I actually found that more impactful here which I credit to the fact that in this it is always directly tied to the actions of the player as well as those he works for. None of it is there to put you in a world that is at least somewhat controlled by supernatural evil with a history. I'm not saying that this is better than that. Overall I prefer them to this. Rather that this was the exact right choice for this and also helped make it not feel like an actual ripoff; it's inspired by, not the exact same thing.
This might be the only case I've personally come across where when the VG is scaring you, it actually shows the face of who you're running around as, without taking away your input and simply subjecting you to a cutscene. In fact some of those have you moving around so you can see how it's getting to him. Sometimes it will completely leave you in darkness from 1 second to the next. It toys with your perception of reality in a way that grips your attention. The original version of this was so well received that we later got what is referred to as the Deluxe Edition, which improves the graphics adding more colour to the greys, dynamic lighting and smoothing out the hand drawn designs and animations further. It appears that it is superior in every way. In certain places if you buy the most recent version you get both of these so if you are nostalgic you can easily go and re-experience the original something that isn't always the case. Dear Esther does not allow this.
I recommend this to everyone who likes a solid test of their problem solving skills, who enjoys being terrified and it's definitely a plus to agree with the political message of this, as I do. Based on other reviews, Conservatives despise this. 8/10.
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- TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
- Jan 27, 2024
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