I would never consider this game, an ambitious little hybrid of Silent Hill and Resident Evil to be a full-fledged finished product. There was simply too much going on that was utterly mindbogglingly about the game-play and design choices for me to believe Jasper Byrne had actually completed it.
The game-play influences the ambiguous "your-character-is-insane" story, if you play pacifistically or violently. A good idea in theory, but in practice is bewildering beyond words. Taking pills is, apparently, a requirement for further progression of the game and story, but the game doesn't tell you that. Taking blue pills are needed yet detrimental to getting the better ending, but how would you ever know that?
The answer is, you don't. Not until its too late, of course. When you get that 'psychiatric evaluation' in the credits.
Lone Survivor has some "quirky" design choices, some work, others are an 'abomination of ass' that only served to encumber you and ruin an otherwise decent survival-horror experience.
Your character refuses to equip more powerful weapons, cause its "not his style". Let the absurdity of that sink in for a second. Navigation in the 2D side-scrolling game, is a pain the backside. Its not like Metroid or Castlevania where exploring feels rewarding. Here its a chore. Using the map is dreadful, trying to orientate yourself to understand where you're going is miserable, think of 'Friday the 13th' on NES.
And then we have your apartment. Good God. Your apartment. Believe it or not, you have no basics. Nothing. Your hungry-meter is a nightmare to deal with because you lack all the cooking essentials to prepare food with. And the game expects us to believe we've survived this long after the outbreak? It takes ages to "escape" from this building because for some reason, you don't have the damn key to access your own damn fire-escape ladder *right next to your bedroom*. And its crawling with more monsters than there are out on the streets! This is your sanctuary? That arbitrary design choice just ruins the immersion for me. I don't accept that premise for a second.
I think if Jasper Byrne had some outside assistance, removed the clunky user-interface, maybe promoted the alpha via Kickstarter, we could have had a very good horror game. Alas, he didn't, and we don't.
A decent Alpha release
I would never consider this game, an ambitious little hybrid of Silent Hill and Resident Evil to be a full-fledged finished product. There was simply too much going on that was utterly mindbogglingly about the game-play and design choices for me to believe Jasper Byrne had actually completed it.
The game-play influences the ambiguous "your-character-is-insane" story, if you play pacifistically or violently. A good idea in theory, but in practice is bewildering beyond words. Taking pills is, apparently, a requirement for further progression of the game and story, but the game doesn't tell you that. Taking blue pills are needed yet detrimental to getting the better ending, but how would you ever know that?
The answer is, you don't. Not until its too late, of course. When you get that 'psychiatric evaluation' in the credits.
Lone Survivor has some "quirky" design choices, some work, others are an 'abomination of ass' that only served to encumber you and ruin an otherwise decent survival-horror experience.
Your character refuses to equip more powerful weapons, cause its "not his style". Let the absurdity of that sink in for a second. Navigation in the 2D side-scrolling game, is a pain the backside. Its not like Metroid or Castlevania where exploring feels rewarding. Here its a chore. Using the map is dreadful, trying to orientate yourself to understand where you're going is miserable, think of 'Friday the 13th' on NES.
And then we have your apartment. Good God. Your apartment. Believe it or not, you have no basics. Nothing. Your hungry-meter is a nightmare to deal with because you lack all the cooking essentials to prepare food with. And the game expects us to believe we've survived this long after the outbreak? It takes ages to "escape" from this building because for some reason, you don't have the damn key to access your own damn fire-escape ladder *right next to your bedroom*. And its crawling with more monsters than there are out on the streets! This is your sanctuary? That arbitrary design choice just ruins the immersion for me. I don't accept that premise for a second.
I think if Jasper Byrne had some outside assistance, removed the clunky user-interface, maybe promoted the alpha via Kickstarter, we could have had a very good horror game. Alas, he didn't, and we don't.