Burly Men At Sea

 Switch
User Score
5.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 15
  3. Negative: 6 out of 15

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  1. nusco
    Aug 3, 2018
    3
    Burly Men at Sea is a point-and-click choose-your-own-adventure game. It has gorgeous, stylish graphics that I wouldn't mind hanging to my sitting room walls, a nice core idea, and beautifully quirky sound effects. That's where the good of it ends.

    Burly Men is just barely interactive enough to call itself a "game". In some sequences, you're left wondering whether your commands are    Burly Men at Sea is a point-and-click choose-your-own-adventure game. It has gorgeous, stylish graphics that I wouldn't mind hanging to my sitting room walls, a nice core idea, and beautifully quirky sound effects. That's where the good of it ends.

    Burly Men is just barely interactive enough to call itself a "game". In some sequences, you're left wondering whether your commands are having any effect on the game at all. This lack of interactivity wouldn't be so damning if Burly Men worked as a piece of fiction–but for me, it doesn't. The humour falls flat more often than not, and the branching story is just a series of disjointed encounters without a narrative arc. Worse of all, the text that accompanies the beautiful images is overwritten and dense with adverbs.

    All of those shortcomings would make for a mediocre game. What convinced me to give it a very low score, however, are the terrible controls on the Switch. In some scenes, the game just won't do what it's asked for. Combined with the limited interactivity, that makes for a very frustrating experience. There was one sequence in particular (the "green landmass" scene) where even after knowing what to do, I just couldn't make it work with the touch screen, which is supposed to be the main mode of interaction with the game. The half-baked controls give me the suspicion that this game was converted in a hurry to jump on the Switch bandwagon, and the authors didn't even care to play through the conversion to test it with the different modes of control. For a game that costs much more on the Switch than it does on other platforms, that's a lack of respect for your buyers.    … Expand
  2. normalguycap
    Mar 7, 2020
    0
    This is not a game. It is total garbage and a complete and utter waste of humanity's time. Small children and easily entertained adults might enjoy it's minimalist artstyle. It has no gameplay to speak of.

    You can sort-of make choices, but they only have two outcomes and all lead to the same place within minutes. Its events have no wit, no charm, no humor. You spend more time    This is not a game. It is total garbage and a complete and utter waste of humanity's time. Small children and easily entertained adults might enjoy it's minimalist artstyle. It has no gameplay to speak of.

    You can sort-of make choices, but they only have two outcomes and all lead to the same place within minutes.

    Its events have no wit, no charm, no humor. You spend more time waiting than playing or even reading. The endings, which are all the same, give you a code to go to their website to buy a book version of the crap you just played which is more expensive than the game itself.

    It's dull, useless, and morally bankrupt. Oh and there is a Chinese ethnic slur in it. There was no reason for that to be there. They could have chosen literally any other sound effect to use and they did not.

    They didn't care about anything in this product. They don't respect your time and it provides no fun nor even a hint of an engaging experience.

    Do not waste your time even looking at Burly Men at Sea.    … Expand
  3. TacTwo
    Nov 12, 2018
    7
    The game was an interesting creation. Cute and warm, charming feeling to it. I agree with the people that say its more of a short story than a game. As such, its a treat!

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Nintenderos
    Jul 19, 2018
    65
    Burly Men at Sea is a title with a minimalist design in which you choose your actions as they trigger small tales based on Scandinavian folklore starring three bearded brothers.
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  2. Switch Player
    May 11, 2018
    80
    Burly Men at Sea is a charming little adventure that gamers of any age will enjoy. The limited interactivity may put off some people, but this is an adventure full of whimsy and humour that I can fully recommend.
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  3. Nintendo Insider
    Apr 23, 2018
    90
    I feel like I’m misleading readers by using the word game or play because really, this is closer to a visual novel or a comic book in motion. I created bonds with those on the screen, I laughed, I gasped in shock and I missed the sense of the game when I wasn’t within the world. Burly Men at Sea is very much a folktale exploration of the world and relationships that surround us.
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