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Walking simulators aka "Notgame" Thread

Martyr

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Click

EDIT: and to a lesser extent click
Ethan Carter was absolutely great, but is it really a walking sim?
I mean sure, you walk a lot, but you also solve puzzles which makes it imo a normal adventure game. Dear Esther or Gone Home on the other hand are real walking sims, nothing else to do but walk (with the exception of reading letters in GH, but that's not a puzzle).
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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Black Goat Woods !@#*%&^
Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Ethan Carter was absolutely great, but is it really a walking sim?
I mean sure, you walk a lot, but you also solve puzzles which makes it imo a normal adventure game. Dear Esther or Gone Home on the other hand are real walking sims, nothing else to do but walk (with the exception of reading letters in GH, but that's not a puzzle).
As with all these type of definitions, arguing about what it "really" "is" is largely pointless. Does a game that's 98% walking and 2% skill-based play count as a walking sim? If not, why not? Does that 2% really matter? How about 90/10? 75/25? 50/50? And does anyone really care? Not to mention that many gamers cite "exploration" as a desirable gameplay element ... and every walking sim features exploration, rendering "no gameplay" complaints laughable.

To me any game that makes substantial use of negative space in its activity loop can at least be said to have "walking sim elements". Vanishing uses negative space masterfully, so it counts in my book.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I played abzu, installed it randomly today because i need a break from pathfinder: kingmaker and monster hunter binge i have been doing the past weeks.

Bought it on humble bundle for pennies and i can say i really enjoy the game. Or not game. Whatever it is.

The visuals are breathtaking and i already love oceans as i have snorkeled in several spots around asia. I love the ocean, and witnessing its colorful ecosystem, so my favoritism is a bit of personal bias.

I quite like the story too
The premise is simple, but some of the plot twist are really good.

Of course, the main draw for me, more than anything is seeing these wonderful fishies swimming around in beautiful movement and pristine water.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
played layers of fear. my thoughts that the linearity basically hurt the game's scaries.

i finished it with the
wife and child
ending.

the best part of the game is really piecing out our painter's torturous life.

the horror elements, yeah it is kinda complicated.

direction wise it is a top notch horror. the combination of the creepy, disturbing imagery, the soundtrack is FANTASTIC. one of the best audio i heard in game. how it trick you, guide you to see what the game want to see, etc. totally top notch.

but

i think the linearity hurt the otherwise excellent direction. like you are just navigating a series of corridors and room, in which one or 2 scares will play. it become a haunted house attraction with predictable rythm. the key to horror is, unpredictability. while the details of the scare is unpredictable, the repetitive structure is hurting my scaredness. run the corridor, get into the room, watch something happens.

i really think it would benefit for a little more sense of space. for example, instead of just running trough corridor and rooms, make it a little bit free roam. like exploring the house, a series of room that doesnt lock the door behind, until you find the objective before moving on other level. that way, the players have a sense of place and not just a roller coaster. that way, i think it will make the game less predictable and therefore alot scarier.
 

DalekFlay

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I made the mistake of buying Close to the Sun in the Epic sale. Don't make my mistake.

The reviews were very iffy but I just loved the look of it and the idea of an adventure game Bioshock. It is EXTREMELY clunky though, and has very little in the environment to look at or think about. Gone Home entertained me with a solid (albeit simple) story told through environmental interaction, but this game is very much a museum of pretty areas you barely do anything in. The puzzles are too simple to even call puzzles, there is very little to pick up and look at and what you can pick up is mostly simple and useless. There's also HORRIBLE action sections where you have to run from enemies like Penumbra I guess, but done in a very bad way where you're constantly frustrated by the controls and lack of clear pathing. Also it runs like ass on a 1060.

Best thing about it is cool atmosphere and a hint of a neat spy story it doesn't actually tell.
 

DalekFlay

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I forgot one of the things I absolutely hate in Close to the Sun. You can't interact with puzzle elements until you know you need to. Example: I was told to find a hidden room in an apartment. I could easily tell a painting had a hidden thing behind it, because of marks along the edges and it being raised from the wall more than usual. However I couldn't get it to do anything, no interaction pop-up anywhere. Then I found a note that said "I hid shit behind a painting." Only THEN did the painting let me interact with it and slide it to the side. FUCKING BULLSHIT. I insta-quit shortly after, might not even go back.
 

StaticSpine

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Moscow
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Not feeling like playing anything long/complex right now I bought some cheap stuff on a sale:

Conarium - decent;
Firewatch - okayish (didn't like the ending, everything prior was not bad, plus the main theme - responsibility - was presented in all the (sub)plots);
Gone Home - so-so (didn't find any depth here, it just tells a simple story with a very clear political message);
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - nope (dropped after the first puzzle, had zero interest in the story, the game looked outstanding, though).

Yet to play SOMA and >observer_.
 

AN4RCHID

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Jan 24, 2013
Messages
4,728
Not feeling like playing anything long/complex right now I bought some cheap stuff on a sale:

Conarium - decent;
Firewatch - okayish (didn't like the ending, everything prior was not bad, plus the main theme - responsibility - was presented in all the (sub)plots);
Gone Home - so-so (didn't find any depth here, it just tells a simple story with a very clear political message);
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - nope (dropped after the first puzzle, had zero interest in the story, the game looked outstanding, though).

Yet to play SOMA and >observer_.
The story comes together nicely at the end of Ethan Carter imo. It is a little odd and incoherent for most of the game though.
 

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