Recent reviews by Leo

This is essentially 2D Obra-Dinn, with graphics that reminds me of Sierra On-Line games of the past. The music and settings are similar to Obra Dinn... you're also presented with an incident, frozen in time... that you're free to explore and peruse to understand what had happened.

At times it felt long winded and confusing, but by the end of the game, I'm left wanting more.

Solid 30fps on my rtx 3080 rig 👍

ps: Love the game. Especially beautiful music, story and characters..

The total experience length of 6 minutes is fine, IF it's a pretty special 6 minutes... unfortunately the 6 minutes you're getting here is nowhere as detailed and impressive as, say, TheBlu.

My observations:

1). The flying stingray monster is just a whale model, modified/crossed with the stingray model. When it's close enough, you can see that it has a whale's body/face/tail, except for the added wings. (Is the whale one of the default model from Vive SDK or something?)

2). The art direction/color choice, is pretty meh to me. Neither cool, enchanting nor elegant.

3). The events that 'unfold' within the 6 minutes are pretty meh... the only kinda cool thing happened too far away to observe or 'feel', and there's no way to see it closer.

4). Did I mention that there's only one scene and you can't seem to move at all from your initial location? Or did I miss that option.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a beautiful game.

This game is not just beautiful because of its technical prowess: number of models crammed in the game, how high resolution the textures are, how it handles long distance views, etc.... but mainly because of the artistic directions chosen. The warm autumn colors, the softly billowing clouds, how and which trees and leaves are swaying, softly moving mists and light flares, and all the little details... all combined to make a pleasant environment just to walk around and enjoy the scenery.

Luckily for us, it's not just a pretty walking simulator.

So as you're thrust into Ethan Carter's world, you hear a short narrative by your (detective) character for the first minute or two... then, nothing. You're left standing all alone in the middle of a beautiful forest and It's all up to you to find where the stories are and to tinker with the game and figure out the puzzle mechanics. I didn't know this at first, so I kept walking (passing some of the obscure puzzle pieces) looking for an area that would trigger the next narratives... if it hadn't been for the super nice environment to enjoy, I think I might have already thrown a tantrum for this ;) But in the end, it makes for a really nice and visually rewarding walk around the island.

The story parts and puzzles are littered all over the fairly small island for you to discover and most of them can be completed in any order you choose, except for the few final ones. This can be a good thing, as it gives you the feeling of freedom to roam and explore... but in my case it was a little bit confusing as I missed a key encounter (that hints on the backstory) until it was the very last one I did before the finale; and at that point I was a little disappointed at the story I wove myself in my head about Ethan.

The ending though, tied everything together nicely... and it was a really satifying ending that explained just about all the loose ends for me. I came to appreciate all the little tidbits and details that were peppered throughout the island and all the characters and happenings to reach this conclusion.

So, if you ask me... The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not just a beautiful game, it's also a fine story.

JULIA is... an okay game. The varied settings, atmosphere and general pacing of the game kept me glued til I completed the game.... but I have to say that it climaxed about 75-80% into the game for me and sort of sputtered in the end. The story got wilder and wilder and introduced some unnecessary layers and characters. The visuals are great and I love the accompanying background music (unintrusive, good looping, sets the mood just right), and some of the main characters are quite memorable, but I doubt I'll remember or care about the story even a week from now.

The game interactions are heavily flavored with computer assisted interfaces and graphics. This fits in with the storyline and actually works well to frame your limited options. If it weren't for this, I would make a bigger deal from the fact that YOU CANNOT PAN THE VIEW in any scenes. There are hotspots that you can click, and they may let you zoom in\out of points of interests or lets you move between places. NO ANIMATED zoom in\out motion or movement between spots, except for the cutscenes. Most of the screens have animated parts, though (flickering light, billowing dusts, etc) so you'd never think that you're staring at a static picture.

Oh, another negative point for this game is that the puzzles are generic ones that are skinned to fit within the game's universe. That's right, (just) visually skinned to fit in. They look right for the settings, but bears minimal logical connection to the storyline. The ones that tied in the most to the storyline that I can think of are the language translation puzzles and the password guessing ones.

I can't say that I'd recommend this game... especially at the current price.

What an interesting game!

Let me start by classifying this gem as an 'Adventure 3D platformer' :)

For the most part of the game you would be looking for and following clues to progress the story and you'll be doing quite a bit of 3D jumping and jet packing to traverse the incredible landscapes (more and more as you progress). i really love the environment depicted in this game; the way they portray the hero in proportion to the landscape, how he move around, tight control, it's truly immersive for me. The screen is completely devoid of 2d overlay (no health bar\no maps\no nothing) and all the clues are embedded to the landscape themselves.

Even without the gripping story, i would enjoy traversing thruogh the planet :)

it's not perfect though, there are a few detractions that i think may be addressed in the future;
- During scene change, your character may move\change position. It can be disorienting.
- During night scene, you can easily lose your way because of somewhat repetitive environment.
- Some puzzles can get 'stuck', you need to quit and restart the game to overcome this. (i 'ran out' of explosives on one).

considering the whole, these are really minor gripes though.

i'd give it 7.5/10