Eye of the Beholder
My Experience
The game got off to a semi-interesting start, and I became invested in the story pretty quickly. It’s always a little odd playing a game that was designed for VR without a headset, as the sensation of being on rails and being teleported forwards is more prominent.
The game fell apart a for me during the scene that takes place after the radio repair. The character that had been helping me said to an enemy combatant, “There is no place for your kind anymore […] You Sokranian scum get what you deserve […] You don’t belong in our country.” Immediately, I lost sympathy for this character and his “side” in the conflict. As an American, I just can’t get behind this sentiment. These statements hit too close to home with respect to the way that some intolerant people see those south of our borders. Of course, on the other hand, we have a faction that is acquiring and planning chemical weapon attacks that run afoul of international humanitarian law. So no sympathy here either.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Documentary Casual Games.
Experienced on the Oculus Quest 2
This is a mostly narrative-driven, cinematic experience with some basic interactions. You’re basically in a war-torn situation in the Middle East involving the possible use of chemical weapons. You basically have to decide which side you’ll be helping early on and then live with the possible consequences. Whole thing took me 16 minutes.
The game is running on the Unity Engine. On my RTX 3080, I was getting a steady 90 fps. There is no locomotion, instead you are automatically teleported from one scene to the next. You use a flashlight to highlight objects to either make a decision on how to act or clear an objective.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours
TL;DR: For anyone interested in Half-Life, Valve or game development in general, this is an insightful and inspiring experience that takes great advantage of a compelling storytelling medium.
In the words of Robin Walker, this is “the story of how we fixed Valve”. The reader is privy to the conversations, considerations and concerns of Valve employees as they attempt to shore up instability and quell the anarchy caused by a company “boss free since ‘96”. This storybook provides information on previously unknown projects including story ideas, concept art, script excerpts and development timelines; brief insights into the backgrounds and work lives of various Valve employees as well as anecdotes and conversations; and a greater understanding of Valve’s shift in focus to developing both hardware and software.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Documentary 3D Games.
Visually it looks good, it’s presented well, and like Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar it’s certainly interesting. But it reflects a flawed product, leaves a ton of stories out (including the flaws), and left me questioning if it justified a pricetag.
Missing pieces:
Reliability issues
There was a push to link the sales of the Valve Index and Half-Life: Alyx but there were a lot of hardware problems, with a critical one being the unreliability of the Index controllers - a problem compounded by poor design choices in Alyx that made playing with one controller far more difficult than it needed to be, along with a badly handled RMA system (and the impact of the pandemic ontop of that bad RMA system). Why would a book on the exact subject of those products leave all of that out, especially if it was written by a journalist?
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Indie Game: The Movie
Main Feature:
A candid look into indie game development. We follow Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes of Team Meat through uncertain times during the development of Super Meat Boy. From the insane three month crunch to finish their project to Microsoft’s careless handling of their release, it’s a harrowing journey. We also follow Polytron’s Phil Fish and the drama spiral that surrounds him. He struggles to release Fez, his passion project in development for nearly 5 years, despite a bevy of roadblocks. Like him or hate him the film provides an honest look at the personal difficulties and pressures that affected the game’s turbulent development. Fish seems open and vulnerable here, far separated from the man making headlines for inane, egotistical comments. There are also interviews with other indie developers, such as Jonathan Blow (Braid) who provides some unique insight into the indie movement and how developers try to connect meaningfully with their audience.
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Documentary Indie Games.
The struggling artist is a trope that we’re all familiar with, but most of us don’t associate it with video game developers. That is pretty understandable because until 2009 or so the only games we saw were big-budget games being put out by large corporations. With the indie game scene exploding in the last few years, it became much more obvious that there were people making games purely out of passion; people who put their financial stability and reputations on the line to create something beautiful. And that’s art.
– Real player with 10.8 hrs in game
Portal 2 - The Final Hours
I bought this game along with Portal and Portal 2. I read a little bit of it earlier but I really read a lot yesterday (I was on a plane, hence the low playtime,) and even finished it. Portal 2 - The Final Hours covers the development, release and post release of Portal 2 inside of Valve. If you like betas, like the Half-Life 2 beta, this is for you. I also reccomend checking out The Final Hours of Half-Life 2. Look it up online and there is a free version.
What makes this so different, though? For starters, it includes interactive content. The second picture (Destroy Aperture) is my favourite, as you can use the mouse to destroy some areas in Aperture Laboratories! There is also music that you can listen to, like the songs that inspired the soundtrack of Portal 2, and lots of pictures. There are chapters and polls even.
– Real player with 25.6 hrs in game
This is my very first interactive e-book. I’m a bit suspect to say anything regarding this e-book (since I’m a crazy lover of the Portal series - and of Valve, their brilliant creators), but I loved this SO MUCH! I was honestly expecting more of a screenshots/pictures showcase and a few gadgets here and there with a little bit of text, but reading about each team and each developer of this game and the problems they’ve faced in this journey was an amazing experience. I always admired Valve products, even before falling in deep love with Portal, and I knew making games as part of such a huge (and world-class famous) company was a tough task, but I REALLY underestimated how complex the process of game creation could be.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
The Mind of Marlo
Welcome to The Mind of Marlo. In this narrative-driven, point and click adventure disguised as an hour-long documentary, you will observe Marlo Davenport and you will become Marlo Davenport. Capture his life as he deals with a rare condition called Spontaneous Silly Head Syndrome. A condition that results in his transforming into various creatures uncontrollably. While living a fairly normal life, his condition becomes uncontrollable. After his girlfriend leaves him, Marlo decides to go see Dr. Davenport (The Specialist) to see if he can rid himself of this affliction. Using his recommendations you must help Marlo find a way to get rid of all of his transformations one by one, so he may once again return to the outside world and lead a normal life. The film crew is there to document everything as he tries to reclaim himself and his life in this tale of love, loss, and transformations.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
The Mind of Marlo is a point and click game, delivered in the format of a documentary, where the viewer will witness the struggles of a man named Marlo who must deal with a severely debilitating condition called Spontaneous Silly Head Syndrome. This causes Marlo’s appearance to rapidly change into various animals and elements and has the player attempting to cure Marlo of his ailment. Click here to watch my playthrough of The Mind of Marlo .
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
That Dragon, Cancer
Cancer. Tragedy.
Two words that have ended as synonymous far more often than anyone cares to remember. Cancer and other terminal illnesses are something that almost all of us have been touched by in some way. Whether it be from a person very close to us, ourselves, or just someone that has influenced us in some way. If it hasn’t, odds are it will at some point in your life. These diseases invariably impact us in a negative and tragic way. We have experienced loss due to them and watched others suffer unimaginable pain trying to survive and fight to stay alive.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
The worst tragedy parents can experience
Really heartbreaking story, it’s sad, it’s devastating and it could be hard to play this at times. Some people might not even finish this. But I have a lot to say, not necessary about the game but i’m gonna ramble now. This is not even a proper review, just my thoughts but so is the game, it’s not actually a game, more like an interactive story.
I have this fucking disease myself, I must deal with it, I know how hard it is and how it breaks you in both – physical and mental way. And it hurts not only you but everyone around you who love you and care about you. Of course you question “why me?” or “why them?”, “what they’ve done to deserve that?” Many people turn to god and say he’s in god’s will now. That thought never occurred to me because I consider god a mythical creature as real as fairies or dragons.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Zero Days VR
Nice documentary about virus and the new way of wars
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
It’s an interesting story , esp if you have any interest in IT tech. As a VR experience fell completely flat I’m afraid. Paid £5.50 but felt lik eit’s a £1.50 product (if you have that tech interest). All of what;s covered and more you can gleam from wikipedia if its the story you want. If it’s the VR experience that’s drawing you in there are soo many more that will wow you for the same or less money.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Brukel
I completed the game and earned all achievements in the game, also created an achievement guide. I believe, that I experienced all the content and so I can share my experiences about this game.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
This is an Exploration/indie/Visual Novel/Oral History game about a teenager growing up in Belgium during WWII.
This is a personal story. The devs grandmother is who is telling it and voices herself. You see the farm she was raised on.
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Story
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Graphics
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Unique Puzzles via your phone and keywords
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Voiced by the woman who lived through it
After finishing this I had to sit and just think about it for a while; it is a powerful story.
How many family histories are left behind that future generations will never know?
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Imaginaria
Very story driven adventure with some simplified pixelart
Interactive objects (on top part) give you more details about the environment/storyline
Lots of areas to check & explore!
Funny little details & objects, story as well has it’s funny moments
Can’t really compare it to nowadays or big adventures games for sure it has a really old classic vibe,
which is nice if you are into that kind of games!
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Imaginaria is a short game where you explore an antarctic science station. It combines walking simulator and point & click elements, but the game side of it is light as you only have a handful of choices to make. It’s more of a fun, interesting exploration of the dev’s experience.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
COVID: The Outbreak
get it in 80% off
one of the best game during Lockdown or Quarintie or stay at home order !
compared to another Honor/ shooting / War fighting games flooding in Ste-am Va-lve playing million per day
this is great education game for upperclass and Private school or mutilanguastic or Frequency traveler to learn how the Commerical tycoon/Politican thinking
however according to mogolia/KAKZ conlony PRC citizen think , the wuhan bio-Weapon dead rate is 5% but if they don’t Work in nightlife, the dead rate is 100%
– Real player with 21.2 hrs in game
So I found this game by a pure accident a couple hours before getting published and rushed to buy it, hoping to find a game that’s complex, detailed, realistic and most importantly, let’s me cope with the zombie apocalypse going currently in the world and the quarantine shitshow.
The game turned out to be exactly what I expected and far more, the amount of data available is truly astonishing and immersive, all the actions you can take, quarantine, public order maintenance, research, border closing, decisions you have to make during various random events that can appear, all this makes for an excellent simulation, and the fact that I’ve received a product that already looks very polished despite probably being made rather quickly is mindblowing. I really hope it’ll be updated accordingly as the situation develops and more knowledge about the virus will be gained.
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game