Update One Hundred and Eighty-Eight: 17 June 2018
Child of Light
1.8 hours, No achievements
Did Not Finish/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Okay, this one I’m a little sheepish about giving up on. Child of Light was a game I’ve heard a lot about - everyone I went to college with LOVED it, and it should be right up my alley… but my girlfriend and I had a bear of a time setting it up, and once we finally got it running NOT in slow-motion, she thought it was cute, but I… but I…
I can’t stand this game because all the little rhyming fucking couplets drive me up the wall. It’s so twee it made me want to throw myself down some stairs, or at least get my girlfriend to beat me unconscious with my Her Majesty the Decemberists vinyl. Everything - the pretty okay gameplay and battle system and admittedly fun flying mechanic and cute art - just is just dampened by this choice of writing.
We played a session a couple of weeks ago and then just haven’t been assed to fire it up again. I asked her today if we’ll ever want to play it and she said no, actually, probably not.
I guess this isn’t the game for us / and I can declare it this time without much fuss.
THE WHOLE GAME is written like this, you guys. Every line.
Next up: What should we play next, girlfriend? This? Oh man, I haven’t played an FPS in a trillion years…
See you soon!
I dropped the game for the same reason. I’ll probably come back to it eventually, but I hated the rhyming. The story and art is what had me buy the game, but if the whole story is told in rhyme I don’t think I can take it.
Did the Uncertain not run on your computer?
RIGHT?! Oh god I’m glad I’m not the only one.
And, no, I haven’t tried it yet! I have a special section of games I play exclusively with my girlfriend, so I play three games at once. That’s why sometimes I cut in randomly with another game that’s not my last ‘Up next!’ game.
I’m going to try to fire it up tomorrow. I think it will! I got Black Mesa to run (albeit on minimal settings and without flashlight capabilities)
I was really hyped for this one when it was released, but tried watching a few playthroughs and could not get into it at all. People I usually love watching…I found myself losing focus and struggling to fall in love with the story/world. Tried several times then decided it probably wasn’t for me to play, either. (Seeing UPlay turned me off even more. hah) Agree that the whole feel of the game is lovely and the graphics are gorgeous, shame it didn’t live up to expectations. Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) had similar feelings, where it felt like I SHOULD have loved everything about the game, but fell short and struggled to pick it back up.
Fingers crossed you enjoy Black Mesa!
I definitely get that! Isn’t it strange how that happens with games so many other people really enjoyed? And yes, UPlay was annoying as hell. And it even varies between people - I myself enjoyed Never Alone. The subjectivity of taste and appeal and What Happens To Speak To You is really wide-ranging when it comes to art in general and games in specific, because of the kind of interaction it asks of the audience/player.
We’ve played a few hours and we’ve been liking it a lot! I never actually played Half-Life 1, though I know a lot of trivia about it (Did you know Gordon Freeman conducted his Black Mesa interview by phone?) so it’s really fun to finally Play The Thing (Updated!) that I’ve only read about. Seeing young Kleiner and Eli is really fun, too!
I liked Never Alone co-op (playing with someone is always lot more fun), but we both really struggled to pick it back up, didn’t completely fall in love as I’d expected. Glad you loved it though. :) Still a priority to finish it some day and I know it’s short anyways, we’ve mentioned it a couple times this past month.
That’s great! I love FPS games, particularly ones that do more than “just shoot things” or have an interesting take on it, though sometimes I just like shooting some dudes too. I’ve never played Half Life, though watching gameplay now good grief does it have a lot of motion sickness stuff, plus looking pretty dated. Am sure I would’ve loved it when it was released. Some of the lore stuff is interesting too, love that phone tidbit.
I’m guessing the Jester was your favorite character, then? ☺ (You did at least make it to the Jester, right? You should at least do that before giving up; he’s your first additional party member, so it won’t take too much longer.)
By the way, forgive me if this sounds rude, but, like, the fact that literally everything rhymes is one of that game’s major selling points. I’m a little surprised you didn’t know that going in. Then again, I’ve made similar mistakes in the past, too; it’s how I learned to look up multiple reviews of a game (especially negative ones) before making a purchase decision (as opposed to buying it merely because I “heard good things” about it).
But hey, look on the bright side: now you know…
and knowing is half the battle!
P.S. As someone who beat that game, I think you’d enjoy the story if you can ever get past the constant rhyming.
- I did. 2. She was okay, I didn’t like her design very much but her dialogue was a breath of fresh air. 3. She’s a girl. 4. is that you trying to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing? Why? (A rhetorical question, I don’t actually want to know)
You know, yeah, that is pretty rude. I’ve come to notice that every time you comment on one of my reviews, it’s a negative one - dismissive, prescriptive, rude. That makes it unbelievably unpleasant to interact with you, which is why I was thrilled that for a good several month stretch you didn’t comment on my things at all. I’d really like to go back to us not interacting. Here, I’ll start.
is that you trying to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing?
What? No, I just thought you’d like that part; that’s all.
It doesn’t matter what’s game selling point. If I don’t like rhyming I can tell I didn’t like game because of that. Esp that nothing on images indicate that whole game rhymes. And I don’t want to check few reviews or gameplays before buying, as I’m easily spoiled by plot and then don’t enjoy playing anyway.
Spoiler-free reviews exist, you know.
Besides, all I’m saying is that if you know you won’t like a game if it does something, and you see that the thing you don’t like is one of the game’s main selling points, you’d be able to avoid the hassle of the thing you don’t like by not buying the game.
I hated the rhymes too, but once I got past that I really enjoyed the game - the story, art, soundtrack are all great. I sure hope you’ll pick it up again some day.
Maybe on a better computer - we had to fight to get it to run close to its original rate. If it was easier to pick up and play and didn’t have to be a whole THING I might have pushed through another session or so…. BUT on the other hand it really didn’t capture me, what I played.
I appreciate your viewpoint, though. At least it’s not going anywhere!
If you don’t like rhymes don’t try Milkmaid of the Milky Way. It’s short, but also full of rhymes :D
You know, I somehow really liked Milkmaid of the Milky Way. That was certainly my least favorite part of it, for sure, but I was charmed by it anyway. Maybe because I really loved the art? Point and clicks? I’m a fickle bitch whose heart changes with the tides?
Good thing everything is subjective c;
It’s a bit sad to see you drop this game. Though I guess it is understandable as most people I know who enjoyed it (myself included) played it more out of curiosity and got a really great surprise. While you seem to have people (probably myself included in an earlier post) praising it left and right saying how great it is and whatnot. Raising your expectation quite a lot. Too bad it fell flat for you.
Yeah, it’s one of those times where expectations going into it were really high, but then an artistic choice (which is valid, just one I particularly personally dislike) really dampened my desire to see it through. I at least gave it a shot, and if I’m honest out of all the games on my ‘Won’t Play’ list, I’d probably give this one a shot again sometime in the future. Maybe, one day, with kids!