The Old City: Leviathan

 PC
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 35
  3. Negative: 12 out of 35

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  1. Sorcerer88
    Dec 16, 2014
    4
    uninformed pseudophilosophy, tedious gameplay, environments pretty but uninspired with lack of interesting and meaningful objects.

    3 basic, pseudophilosophical ideas the game centers on: contentness, satisfaction, perfection = stagnation, nothing to do, always need new goals belief should be open ended, you can't know for certain, shouldn't hold on to ideology (= anker), the world is    uninformed pseudophilosophy, tedious gameplay, environments pretty but uninspired with lack of interesting and meaningful objects.

    3 basic, pseudophilosophical ideas the game centers on:
    contentness, satisfaction, perfection = stagnation, nothing to do, always need new goals
    belief should be open ended, you can't know for certain, shouldn't hold on to ideology (= anker),
    the world is bad and we don't know much, but we can improve step by step, but need to deconstruct everything first.
    These ideas aren't bad. But they aren't brilliant, deep or new either and instead of making them sound complicated for 2 hours, one could have added to them differently.
    i feel like the creator didn't read a lot of literature, because these ideas have been done hundreds of times before and much better. It's not even well-copied for lack of ideas.

    dialogue = simple ideas made to sound complex with naive complication of terms and syntax
    also, depressing setting, especially in the beginning, with no justification, needs to be good to be worth it.

    also, tons of game design flaws:
    horror athmosphere in the beginning, but nothing ever happens to you, so you ignore the scary feeling.
    a train that takes long to go through only to need to turn back, no reward for exploration.
    too many long texts scattered throughout the levels that want you to stop to read for a while. especially with Solomon's notes, that's too long and not that interesting. this is not a book, but a game.
    crab in the last chapter does nothing, you go a long way into a dead-end. takes you a while to realize there's nothing happening there, then you have to backtrack.

    Dear Esther is the much better game of this exploration story-driven type.
    I'm sorry to give this such a scathing review, there's surely quite some inspiration and motivation behind Leviathan, but the result just doesn't hold up in any way.    … Expand
  2. dajhorn
    Mar 21, 2018
    0
    The Old City Leviathan is a tedious overwrought book pretending to be a video game. It isn't mysterious. It is slow, plodding, and poorly written. It is like that chore homework that a self-important associate professor gave you for that mandatory undergraduate course in philosophy.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 16
  3. Negative: 4 out of 16
  1. GameCritics
    Mar 5, 2015
    40
    The longer I played The Old City, the more I kept hoping that it would end sooner than it did. While each chapter can be completed in about ten minutes or less, the lack of involving content and Jonah's unbearable droning made it all feel much longer.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Mar 4, 2015
    20
    Yet another sorry first-person walker with a convoluted, rubbish story pretending to be something deep and valuable. [02/2015, p.53]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Jan 25, 2015
    45
    The Old City: Leviathan is good only for one thing. Leave it running on your computer and go to sleep. Let your friends think that you’re philosophizing all night long.
    Read full review
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