Trelliz wrote:Another one to the pile; Hob, an Epic Store freebie.
This epitomises the kind of indie game which boils my piss. Action platformers/Metroidvanias that think dropping you in a world with no indication of who/what/where you are at all creates a sense of mystery or intrigue, along with characters who speak but in alien words with no subtitles.
What happens for me is I run around for a while doing...stuff. Machines light up, doors open, i hit some bad guys and get given a marker on a map to go to because...? As such I have no reason to give a gooseberry fool about anything that happens, which is only amplified by what would be minor setbacks like dying and respawning, even if the respawn point is close by to the point where I completely check out.
Other indie darlings like Hyper Light Drifter had the same effect - games journos go on about "It made me want to explore the world, sometimes i'd sit for a while and look at the scenery and think about what happened to the people who used to live in these ruins and that spark of emotion made me have a little cry, 10/10 GOTY, Best of E3" but I quickly go "why am I here, who am I, why should I care?" and without an answer I quickly and irrevocably don't, as the answer is rarely worth the effort.
I thought I'd search on the forum for this game as I just tried the demo. I feel exactly the same, word for word.
I'll add....
As I wandered around aimlessly, things opened up, which look like you should stand on them, I think they are the checkpoints you refer to. You can't stand of them, at least at this point, so the design is very confusing (even if something happens later). There's a weird alien-looking plant thing that you can interact with - an on screen prompt appear to indicate "Press 'Y' " (finally! Something you can do) but you just tug at it ineffectively - nothing happens.
After wandering around for ages with no sense of place, with all areas I walk to looking the same, I thought I was stuck. Eventually I did the 'follow the left hand edge of the maze and you'll get through it' and discovered a new area.
At one point I somehow upgraded and could kill things, but I couldn't tell which things I was supposed to kill - good or bad they die anyway with seemingly no difference in outcome.
I eventually did enough for the demo to end - I was hoping to discover why it was so highly rated - and I was presented with a video of a dramatic, high action game that bore little resemblance to the aimless wandering around I had just endured.
I don't know why it annoyed me so much, but it did.