GRcade

About the game

A child with an odd ability stuck in a strange land. A dangerous natural environment inhabited by a strange civilization. Vane is an open-world adventure game based on mystery and exploration.

Vane is a single-player game being developed by a few ex-members of The Last Guardian team. The game focuses on unraveling the mysteries of an unknown land via exploration, puzzle-solving and other features yet to be revealed, in an atmospheric and powerful setting.

PLATFORMS: PC first, others TBA

RELEASE: when it's done

http://www.friendandfoegames.com/vane/

About the team

Friend & Foe is an independent game developer founded in 2014 by five devilishly handsome artists & unlettered programmers. We've set up shop in lovely Tokyo to put our years of experience and complaining to the test - going full indie and bringing our own games to the world. We consist of three-fifths Swede-in-exile, and two parts Southern European madman. We are clearly up to no good.

We are currently working on two games in parallel - Vane and Dangerous Men. We believe in extremely nimble game development, with self-funding and self-publishing our titles as far as possible.

Our work experience as individuals span some notable AAA stuff, including The Last Guardian, Battlefield 3, Bionic Commando & Killzone to name a few. As many before us, however, we grew tired of working for big companies and chose instead to bet it all on pooling our talents and set out on the great indie adventure we always wanted. We're now at a point where we're ready to start showing our projects to the world. We really hope you enjoy the ride and see what we get up to!

http://www.friendandfoegames.com/

Harry Bizzle » Mon Jun 23, 2014 1:20 pm wrote:I will buy this and may even play it.

NickSCFC wrote:Will probably launch before The Last Guardian too

It's all over very soon, too. This is a short game that constantly feels like it's still gearing up towards something better, a way to tie together all its mechanics. The last sections of the game are quite lackadaisical, simplifying the game's systems right down while relying on an investment in the game's thin lore. It's not just that the game doesn't give you easy answers--it also gives you little incentive to come up with your own. There are moments where you can see what the game could have been--like when you soar through a valley in bird form, or morph the world around you--but Vane lacks a voice and a strong sense of purpose.

While Vane may not reach the heights of its contemporaries, the bleak world it paints presents some interesting concepts. However, these ideas fails to coalesce into truly memorable moments, and it continually gets tripped up by technical issues.

ane is a game that feels like it wears its thematic elements on its sleeve, all without a single spoken or written word. Those themes include “instinct” and “exploration” at the ground level, and from there are likely up to how the individual player perceives the story as it develops. In its refusal to hold your hand or even guide you a little, Vane feels like it stands out among its peers as a vehicle to deliver narrative agency for players, not because they have a list of choices to sift through, but because they are presented with an environment and scenario that is so freely open to interpretation. With Vane, you get out what you put in, and while you may not come back to it multiple times, that first one is a doozy.

Though it boasts a resoundingly striking aesthetic, a haphazard save system coupled with a raft of glitches and a misjudged waypoint system all manage to tarnish what should have been one of the first major indie darlings of the year. Vane is simply too frustrating to recommend in its current form.

There is a charismatic boldness in the presentation and striking polygonal minimalism — a style that, admittedly, has seen more frequent usage since the game was first conceived — that Vane wants to cheerily bring to the table, but it’s hard to come up with excuses to hide its most apparent defects. Even when it’s bug-free, the camera is so obnoxious and the movement speed so slow that nearly any activity feels spoiled. Simply soaring through the air as a bird should be more enjoyable than it is here, but it feels inconsequential in the wide-open area and then of limited purpose further into the game, which on the whole feels lackluster and indiscreet in its purpose, though it’s occasionally lovely to look at and listen to. In the early 2000s, Vane might’ve blown minds and earned a cult following, but in 2019 it feels like a chore which doesn’t respect your time.

Like the pearlescent shimmer across its desert surface, Vane is difficult to observe and define with precise clarity. Its world presents either an invitation to wonder or a provocation to explore and it’s often seized by the tension pulling it in opposing directions. Vane can be brilliant and subversive or confusing and frustrating and it’s impossible to separate its intentions from its misfortunes.

Vane begins with me joyfully soaring above sun-bleached sand drifts. But it gently dissolves into me slowly pushing a giant rock from one tiresome puzzle to another. This feels like an apposite visual juxtaposition for my entire experience, which slides from admiration to mild boredom.