Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
The graphics suck actually because they have a very short draw distance and the game is quite simple, you must explore the island but you're always afraid of the creature. If you ever get lost, and you will, and the creature is there, you're fucked. Choices and consequences. As always it feels like an indie game because the gameplay just isn't deep enough, but it's good stuff.
Game is pretty bad, you walk and walk and walk slowly for hours, backtrack constantly looking for edible plants, and occasionally you might stumble on the monster. Also I have rarely seen 3D graphics that bad, the graphics are so saturated that they give me a headache, it completely ruins any atmosphere that the game is trying to create. I have one of the most powerful PC configurations currently available, and it slows down all the time.
Playing it now. It's pretty fun. I guess it's Pathologic meets Penumbra meets Trespasser? Something like that. Movement feels clunky initially but, barring a few issues of scale, it's a pretty accurate portrayal of hiking in the woods (while dehydrated and fighting a fever). You can't just hold down W to go straight from waypoint to waypoint like in, say, Skyrim; you need to watch your step. Uneven terrain, steep hills, cliffs, etc. are dangerous.
I'm not sure why they used this engine. It runs like shit and, while looking serviceable, doesn't seem to do much of anything other readily available engines can't.
I think it's a little weird that you need to choose between carrying a knife/weapon and a torch.
Sound design is pretty good. Music is used sparingly. Most of the time all you hear is the wind, birds chirping, rustling leaves and your character breathing, which is nice.
Very much worth three dollars or whatever they're charging on GOG.
I'm not sure why they used this engine. It runs like shit and, while looking serviceable, doesn't seem to do much of anything other readily available engines can't.
Played through it. Guess it took me roughly 10 hours, maybe a little bit less.
For what it is trying to do, the length felt just right. Making it much longer would have probably just made it feel tedious.
The exploration part is handled in a very unique way, with the map and triangulation system.
Likewise the idea of researching different plants to create different medicines and tonics to improve aspects of your physique.
As others have mentioned, the sound design is quite nice. Minimalistic, but very fitting for the game.
I found the engine capable enough for what it's trying to do, while not Crysis, it's quite impressive for the work of only two persons.
Also it didn't crash once, but performance seemed to drop occasionally.
As for the story:
The premise is that you arrived on the island to find the cure for a plague you are afflicted with.
The plague results in an overall pure health - basically at the beginning of the game you can barely sprint more than 50 meters, will drown after swimming a couple of meters and are prone to fever attacks after exertion.
This is were the plants come in - you collect plants to research them at campsites and larger outposts. Once researched, the different species can be used (or combined) to create basic medicine against the fever or tonics to boost/give certain traits for a short duration or even permanently. Of course the more powerful/important a plant is, the more remote the locations were you might find it.
During your hiking over the island, you will find the traces of other scientists working on the cure and begin to stitch together a rough idea of the background story.
Scattered over the campsites and outposts you also find clues to the whereabouts of some esp. important plants and their use.
Your task gets complicated by a strange creature that occasionally stalks and attacks you - and fleeing/hiding is pretty much the only thing you can do for most of the game.
While you will find some weapons or be able to use stones and burning branches as make-shift weapons, they serve at most to distract the creature.
Eventually, putting the story and different hints together (warning, spoiler ahead, don't klick unless you want to spoil yourself)
it becomes more and more certain that you are one of the original scientists gone mad by the plague (and probably responsible for the murder of the others), and the creature is just a hallucination, a manifestation of your fears
Some things make me wonder if the devs originally intended to put some more things into the game. E.g. the weapons don't serve much purpose and while you constantly have to prevent dehydration, you never have to eat. Maybe it was originally intended to include some form of hunting?
All in all, it was a quite interesting game. Might play again eventually.
