Codex Review RPG Codex Review: The Long Journey Home

[Zombra]

Geez, the slower you drive, the more shortsighted you become? What the hell?

Excellent

and

review.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

"major problem with the game: The interface. TLJH is designed to be played with a controller, presumably for easy porting to consoles, and this has resulted in an interface that is frustratingly obtuse"

... and that right there is where we lost all interest. Disappointing, it sounded good up to that point.

 

[Infinitron]

TLJH is designed to be played with a controller, presumably for easy porting to consoles

Funnily, that's something it shares with Star Control 2.

 

[MRY]

Other than the tiny minority of people who played SC2 on the 3DO, I don't think anyone played it with a controller. It just had the simple controls that were ubiquitous in action games on the PC back then.

As I understand it, the problem with the minigames in TLJH is that they require analogue joysticks or whatever, not that they use a WASD + shoot + alternate control system that would be easy to replicate on a console.

 

[Infinitron]

Other than the tiny minority of people who played SC2 on the 3DO, I don't think anyone played it with a controller. It just had the simple controls that were ubiquitous in action games on the PC back then.

By 1992, most PC games that could use it had mouse support. Star Control 2's keyboard-only interface for stuff like the starmap was very unusual. The reason why:

The reason Star Control II doesn't require a mouse is because the prequel, Star Control, was released on just about every commercially viable gaming platform (and a couple of non-viable ones) in 1990. While most of them had keyboards, some of them only had controllers, and only 2 or 3 of them had mice. It's easy to see from there why the controls are so simple. Star Control II was originally intended to be released on far more platforms than it was, but for various reasons only 2 versions were released.

 

[MRY]

Just to be clear, "Star Control 2's keyboard-only interface" was "designed to be played with a controller"? o.O

Anyway, it seems like the fallacy (not sure if it's deliberate trolling or an innocent mistake) of your position is that "designed to be playable with a controller" (which is the most you can say about Star Control II) is not the same thing as "designed to be played with a controller." For example, Doom was designed to be playable with a mouse, but Half-Life has designed to be played with a mouse.

Nothing about Star Control 2 is difficult to control on a keyboard, but even TLJH's vigorous supporters say that it is extremely difficult to control the lander on a keyboard.

 

[Infinitron]

Nothing about Star Control 2 is difficult to control on a keyboard, but even TLJH's vigorous supporters say that it is extremely difficult to control the lander on a keyboard.

Sure, that's why I didn't quote this part of DU's post:

and this has resulted in an interface that is frustratingly obtuse

 

[Jinn]

"major problem with the game: The interface. TLJH is designed to be played with a controller, presumably for easy porting to consoles, and this has resulted in an interface that is frustratingly obtuse"

... and that right there is where we lost all interest. Disappointing, it sounded good up to that point.

While I haven't had a chance to play more than about and hour of this game, I really haven't been bothered by the controls much at all, and they haven't seemed overtly consolish to me yet. The only thing I've had difficulty with is the planet lander parts, which to my knowledge are intended to be quite challenging and tense. Besides that, I can navigate menus with direct mouse clicks which is all I really need in my PC ui.

 

[Archibald]

What the fuck got wrong with the Codex? Good indie stuff gets mostly ignored and undiscussed, shit like this gets a positive frontpage review.

Better than having 4 PoE reviews.

 

[Goral]

What the fuck got wrong with the Codex?

(((Infinitron))). He decides what goes and what not.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Implying that there are barely any people writing reviews.

 

[agris]

Thanks for the review oasis789 , I’m going back and actually giving this a shot and I find it really compelling.

Even the lander mini-game and star system control have grown on me. All the landers you can start with suck outside of ideal planetary conditions. I don’t think that’s an accident, if you want to explore more challenging environments, the lander needs to be upgraded to handle them.

I think this is called diegetic narrative in games. Where mechanics meshes with narrative and the world. The way the game so sincerely shoves your face into the dirt is refreshing.

I think another issue with TLJH is that it was marketed as an RPG. It isn’t. It’s a roguelike strategy game with some arcade mini games and an illustrated CYOA component presented through alien interactions.

 

[udm]

Didn't even know this was out already, and even on sale at 90% off. Thanks for bumping the thread Myron and for the review oasis789

 

[agris]

Didn't even know this was out already, and even on sale at 90% off. Thanks for bumping the thread Myron and for the review oasis789

Motherfu.. I’m agris baby, agris!!

Real talk it’s a roguelike and it’s not very hard. I beat it on normie (w/ controller) on my second-first playthrough.

It’s a charming rogue-like, players be bitches.