GuiltBlade said:
trying to adjust to the half a dozen different shades of grey, half of which are transparent and so almost invisible is not enjoyable in the slightest. If your going to use shades of grey then at least make it clear which are walls, which are floors and what's a bottomless pit of inescapable doom.
The sound bites into my skull like a swarm of insects, and while that may have been the idea that does not excuse it being painful, unless their designed to be never played.
Congratulations on letting the game completely victimize you. It wanted to confuse you and put you off and so it has.
The mood certainly reminds me of that first time I watched Eraserhead. But I think it says a lot that, even in a game as creative and decidedly unconventional as this one, you still end up shooting alien creatures with a blaster. How long is it going to take us to figure out a way to make a first person game that doesn't rely on point-and-click weaponry as a primary form of interaction?
As for the simplistic design, for a designer who self-admittedly wants to avoid typical 8-bit retroism I was surprised how much the low-res environment reminded me of early FPSs like Wolfenstein and Faceball (not counting little details like transparent and dynamic textures, of course.) Especially the "facial animations". I think abstract environments like this will benefit when artists find ways to effectively combine high and low resolutions with purpose and intent, rather than relying on simple polygons to convey alien creepiness.
But as far as alien creepiness goes, this game sure has its own kinda mojo. Looking forward to playing it tomorrow, in the light of day, when it should be easier to cope with this 'high octane nightmare fuel'.
