When I first laid my eyes on this game, I knew I had to have it. The thought of drifting around space in such a beautifully-realized world instantly had me. I disregarded the negative reviews and purchased anyway only to find... the reviews were right. This game is hard to recommend, even if you're a scifi/space nut like me.
Ultimately the game boils down to one thing: boost your wayWhen I first laid my eyes on this game, I knew I had to have it. The thought of drifting around space in such a beautifully-realized world instantly had me. I disregarded the negative reviews and purchased anyway only to find... the reviews were right. This game is hard to recommend, even if you're a scifi/space nut like me.
Ultimately the game boils down to one thing: boost your way between air-recharge-stations before you suffocate. A trail of recharge stations will lead you to a button you have to press, before you sending you on another trail of recharge stations to another button you have to press. Eventually, once you've pressed all the buttons, the game ends. It's simply mindless. There are no puzzles, there's no problem solving, you just blindly follow the waypoint marker until you get to the next switch.
Tragically, the game can't even do that well. For one, you move at a snail's pace for most of the game too, which made it a chore to play. Bumping a wall or sparked wire can also spin you out of control, which became enraging by the end. Worse, the game's compass can be very difficult to read and there's a lack of variety throughout the station, with reused rooms, switches, etc. Add to that the inherent disorientation of 3D movement and it becomes extremely easy to get lost. Like I said, you'll ultimately give up, zone out, and mindlessly follow the waypoint marker. Tragically, I encountered a few bugs that worsened my confusion. A waypoint marker early on in the game didn't disappear when it was supposed to, so for the entire rest of the game, I had a second waypoint marker, urging me to go in the wrong direction (trust me, I didn't miss anything, it was a bug). I also encountered a weird situation where a door was closed when it was supposed to be open. I died outside the door, but then respawned inside it and the door was open. WHAT?!?
The game tries to spice up the experience with some flourishes but they also fall flat. There's a cryptic story going on throughout the station, that's told through audio logs and diaries. Unfortunately, it never hooked me and it definitely did not make up for the mediocre gameplay. Also, you gain a few powerups over the course of the game but every single one of them boils down to allowing you to go longer distances between recharge stations. These jumps become longer and longer, making it harder and harder to stay engaged with the game. Your final jump at the end of the game is FIVE MINUTES LONG and actually requires that you don't move in order to conserve air. Adding insult to injury, my game crashed right after this jump and I had to redo it. The second time, I boosted my character toward my destination, put the controller down, and went and made a cocktail. When I came back from my kitchen, I still hadn't made it to my destination. This ridiculous jump isn't fun, it isn't immersive, and it perfectly epitomizes how tedious this game becomes.
I wanted to love this game so much. It delivers so well on its promise of drifting through the beautiful but empty void of space. However, this game thoroughly proves that looks aren't everything, as its gameplay fails to deliver at almost every turn. It's Metroid, minus the varied powerups and excellent level design. It's Alien Isolation, minus the Alien. Ultimately, I feel like this game's developers don't understand the difference between isolation and boredom.… Expand
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