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Incline Northern Journey - the best indie of 2021 you haven't played (yet)
Riskbreaker
Guest
That early to mid portion of the game is godlike. Greenslit, rather than the village, serves as a hub between various areas, you have clever interconnectedness, lots of verticality, Metroid-like introduction of new equipment that allows you access to new areas. I'm not sure what I'd compare it with. A bit of Hexen, of Unreal, of Turok, all packed in this wild, oneiric vision.
Latter portions tend to have much more straightforward progression, going from one area to the next. Even then tho, he keeps introducing new gimmicks and unexpected new environments till the end. You never, ever, know what's next.
Arulan
Cipher
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
- Messages
- 313
I picked it up during the sale, but had to refund it...
Why the fuck is the FOV locked to a ridiculous 120? Fish bowl distortion galore. There are a few developer posts in the forums indicating it wouldn't be an easy fix either.
I'll probably pick it up again if and when he does.
Why the fuck is the FOV locked to a ridiculous 120? Fish bowl distortion galore. There are a few developer posts in the forums indicating it wouldn't be an easy fix either.
I'll probably pick it up again if and when he does.
toughasnails
Guest
I guess no matter what your default FOV is someone WILL complain about it... I didn't notice any offensive distortion but it is possible that it is more pronounced on your aspect ration. And the higher default FOV sort of makes sense bc it enhances the sense of scale for various environments.
Arulan
Cipher
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
- Messages
- 313
The default and only (horizontal) field of view of 120 is very high. A lot of games on PC default around 75, but I usually push it to 85 - 90 before the distortion becomes a problem.
I gave it a try on a typical 16:9 display. Just try standing next to an object and move the camera around. It's so extreme it can appear a few feet away in the center, while right next to you at the edges and completely warped and stretched. Just moving the camera left and right quickly should make it obvious.
The game looks very promising, but they need to give the option to adjust the fov. That's not too much to ask.
I gave it a try on a typical 16:9 display. Just try standing next to an object and move the camera around. It's so extreme it can appear a few feet away in the center, while right next to you at the edges and completely warped and stretched. Just moving the camera left and right quickly should make it obvious.
The game looks very promising, but they need to give the option to adjust the fov. That's not too much to ask.
Curratum
Guest
How on good god's earth did you calculate that it's 120 when there's no slider? Do you have access to the UE4 console and get it from there? How did you get the 120 degrees figure?
Arulan
Cipher
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
- Messages
- 313
I've been playing FPS for a long time, and can't reminder how many times I have battled demons from hell, fearless zombies, bulging mutants, wild rabid animals, nazis, terrorists, special ops soldiers trained to kill, aliens with unknown power, psychics that make your head explode. I am not scared of jumping head first into Inferno, foreign hostile planets, haunted underground labs or whatever awful place game designers have lovingly crafted for my enjoyment.
But seldom I have seen a game where the only mention of a place makes me walk back uncomfortably :
It was as enjoyable as it looked. This game gets horror right.
But seldom I have seen a game where the only mention of a place makes me walk back uncomfortably :
It was as enjoyable as it looked. This game gets horror right.
Riskbreaker
Guest
But seldom I have seen a game where the only mention of a place makes me walk back uncomfortably :
It was as enjoyable as it looked. This game gets horror right.
Come on, not only do you get to share with your little buggy-bug friends but, if you do, you get additional little friends with whom to share even more. Nature is so wholesome.
Really tho, the sling eventually becomes what bolts are in Stalker. You'll be conditioned into throwing stones at anything of vaguely different hue than the surrounding terrain or vegetation for, chances are, there's something many-legged waiting for you there.
The Decline
Arcane
I went into it blind and enjoyed the hell out of it.
Finished the trip, that was some good shit. Bit disappointed you can't come back and fuck around in the wonderfully crafted maps when you're done. For once backtracking is pleasantly done, you don't even have to do it that much. But otherwise, what a blast.
There's a complain I've made several times about various games, and most of them all Oblivion : the fact that despite next-gen shiny graphics, maps look bad if only because they've been made by people who never go out and don't know what a forest, a cave or a mountain looks like. But Northern Journey's dev must be an outdoors man. He managed to bring the thrills of real-life adventure in his game. It has brought back memories of treks in the Alps and their flowery meadows parted by wild streams, or from my urbex youth and its share of old ruins and cramped undergrounds. Of course a tunnel passing under a river will be dripping from the roof. Of course wild animals will merge in their surroundings. Nature has a raw, unforgiving beauty. That's the real deal, up to vertigo.
Audio tracks are also wonderful. Shooting clicks well. So many things done right. I'll miss Greenslit and the Granite Gash.
There's a complain I've made several times about various games, and most of them all Oblivion : the fact that despite next-gen shiny graphics, maps look bad if only because they've been made by people who never go out and don't know what a forest, a cave or a mountain looks like. But Northern Journey's dev must be an outdoors man. He managed to bring the thrills of real-life adventure in his game. It has brought back memories of treks in the Alps and their flowery meadows parted by wild streams, or from my urbex youth and its share of old ruins and cramped undergrounds. Of course a tunnel passing under a river will be dripping from the roof. Of course wild animals will merge in their surroundings. Nature has a raw, unforgiving beauty. That's the real deal, up to vertigo.
Audio tracks are also wonderful. Shooting clicks well. So many things done right. I'll miss Greenslit and the Granite Gash.
toughasnails
Guest
This guy just covered the game. It doesn't really fit these lists of his but he's a p popular youtuber and he was very positive about it so hopefully this will bring it some more sales.
Machocruz
Arcane
I get a Shadow Tower vibe from the NJ trailers, but that's not a Soulsish game.
toughasnails
Guest
More of his new game. Fish AI! Romero surely nods with approval.
Curratum
Guest
This man will single-handedly save indie gaming.
Ivan
Arcane
Picked this up during the Spring Sale and I'm having a damn fine time. Appropriate adjectives to describe the game are: engrossing, personal, and creative. Sure, there's jank, some clumsy platforming, frequent deaths caused by slipping off ledges, but how the game grows and integrates shortcuts is wonderful. Just as others have said, the game feels like a First Person adventure game by way of Ice Pick lodge. It also has this Half-Life quality where it tries to introduce something new with every turn. Consistently new enemies and obstacles keep the adventure fresh. I'm 6/7 hours in right and can easily recommend this.
Ivan
Arcane
finished it after 9/10 hours. 
Engrossing, though it loses its edge in the finale. Definitely feels like someone's baby, a garage style production. You will feel the charm and soul. There's plenty of jank to be sure, the (ranged) combat sucks and gets annoying, but the exploration and gameplay variety is fantastic. I kept rooting for the game to introduce new shit, and it does. All of it doesn't land, some bits are a bit boring, but novel.
my favorite bit of the game was the bit of forest with the tick like enemies (bloodsuckers)
my least favorite bit of the game was the haunted glacier (annoying combat "waves" and pretty sub-par exploration, esp when compared to the previous levels).
"review"
Northern Journey is a first-person adventure game with a big emphasis on hiking, exploration, and ranged combat. The game is at its best when you're navigating the environs and taking in the music and vistas. I loved how each new area of the game served to introduce some new gameplay hook. My favorite bit of the game was where you had to trudge through a bit of forest with bloodsucking tick enemies that reminded me of chrysalids from X-Com. The game is at its worst when it throws mobs of flying enemies at you. The reload animations are so slow that it makes it a bore to take down a large wave of enemies. It makes me wish there was a weapon with more spread or some AOE weapon. I felt the weakest bit of the game by way was the haunted glacier, mainly b/c it features a lot of boring non-interactive climbing traversal + many waves of the aforementioned flying enemies. Many of the bosses have this Serious Sam feel to them where I was just circle strafing, hoping that my shots would land. Also, I thought the Subnautica bit of the game went on far too long and didn't have enough tension on its own.
That said, this definitely feels like a garage style production. It has so much character, charm, and soul that I found it hard to put down. I loved how it kept trying new things at every turn, although not all of them landed for me. If there's one takeaway the dev takes from this, I hope they introduce more weapon variety to make fighting multiple foes not so tedious/samey. That aside, the exploration was wonderful. I wish the game gave us more reasons to backtrack as well, as often you'll find shortcuts to previous levels, but with no real objective to return to them.
my favorite self-quote when playing "the fuck do I need the strength of 9 men for?.........ooooooooooooh GOTY"
Engrossing, though it loses its edge in the finale. Definitely feels like someone's baby, a garage style production. You will feel the charm and soul. There's plenty of jank to be sure, the (ranged) combat sucks and gets annoying, but the exploration and gameplay variety is fantastic. I kept rooting for the game to introduce new shit, and it does. All of it doesn't land, some bits are a bit boring, but novel.
my favorite bit of the game was the bit of forest with the tick like enemies (bloodsuckers)
my least favorite bit of the game was the haunted glacier (annoying combat "waves" and pretty sub-par exploration, esp when compared to the previous levels).
"review"
Northern Journey is a first-person adventure game with a big emphasis on hiking, exploration, and ranged combat. The game is at its best when you're navigating the environs and taking in the music and vistas. I loved how each new area of the game served to introduce some new gameplay hook. My favorite bit of the game was where you had to trudge through a bit of forest with bloodsucking tick enemies that reminded me of chrysalids from X-Com. The game is at its worst when it throws mobs of flying enemies at you. The reload animations are so slow that it makes it a bore to take down a large wave of enemies. It makes me wish there was a weapon with more spread or some AOE weapon. I felt the weakest bit of the game by way was the haunted glacier, mainly b/c it features a lot of boring non-interactive climbing traversal + many waves of the aforementioned flying enemies. Many of the bosses have this Serious Sam feel to them where I was just circle strafing, hoping that my shots would land. Also, I thought the Subnautica bit of the game went on far too long and didn't have enough tension on its own.
That said, this definitely feels like a garage style production. It has so much character, charm, and soul that I found it hard to put down. I loved how it kept trying new things at every turn, although not all of them landed for me. If there's one takeaway the dev takes from this, I hope they introduce more weapon variety to make fighting multiple foes not so tedious/samey. That aside, the exploration was wonderful. I wish the game gave us more reasons to backtrack as well, as often you'll find shortcuts to previous levels, but with no real objective to return to them.
my favorite self-quote when playing "the fuck do I need the strength of 9 men for?.........ooooooooooooh GOTY"
This seems very intriguing for a modern game, definitely going to try.
Playing, and now re-playing, this marvel, a thought comes to my mind. This is a true successor to Doom and Quake style FPS. Forget the Boomer Shooter fad and the pixels cargo cultism, all that bullshit. Here you have a FPS with very high moving speed, huge sprawling levels with gated sections you have to cross in a particular order, unforgiving fights where a misstep makes the difference between escaping unhurt and being dogpiled to death. Giant bosses with lot of health hitting like trucks ? Check. Scattered ammo and health ? Check. Traps ? Oh yeah. Mild platforming ? Yup.
It's basically Doom in Norway.
It's basically Doom in Norway.
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