Neon Blood

Давно добавил данный проект в список желаемого. Скриншоты и видео выглядели очень заманчиво, приятная стильная 2,5D графика, сеттинг киберпанка - прям хотелось побыстрее уже ознакомиться и поиграть. Но когда игра наконец вышла и я ее запустил - я почувствовал, что что-то тут не так. Да, графика всё ещё на высоте, сюжет вроде интригует, но я не увидел интересного геймплея... Очень медленно ходим (поэтому играть приходится с постоянно зажатой кнопкой бега), читаем двух-трех строчные диалоги с NPC, сканируем окружающее пространство и места преступлений, изредка устраиваем jrpg сражения. Вроде разнообразие есть, но это если не углубляться, а глубины тут как раз никакой и нет. Нет никаких головоломок, нет возможности отыгрыша, персонажи все плоские и кибер-нуарно-стереотипные. Боевка тоже не блещет - нет никакого тактического подхода, любого противника можно тупо закликивать самым первым скиллом глав героя, а хп после каждого сражения восстанавливается до 100%. Нет интерфейса, нет карты, нет инвентаря с какими-нибудь расходниками или снаряжением, нет прокачки. Я ожидал получить что-то наподобие Dex или Anno Mutationem (из которого тут даже есть камео одного из персонажей), а получил визуальную новеллу с большим количеством ходьбы и абсолютно не нужной механикой jrpg. Учитывая, что игра (по нынешним меркам) стоит не так уж и много, то возврат оформлять я не собираюсь, и всё же постараюсь пройти ее до конца чисто ради сюжета. Вдруг ещё будет повод поменять оценку. Но кому можно порекомендовать такой самобытный и нишевый продукт я, если честно, даже не знаю...

The puzzles in this game are not good at all. You’re mostly just running back and forth. I ended up dropping the game during the bar section where you need to collect credits to pay a bribe. When you first enter, there are several NPCs you can interact with (each has an icon above their head indicating they have dialogue). You talk to them, collect some of the credits, then you head through a door (which wasn't interactable before) to grab another batch of credits, and then to get the rest and progress, you have to talk to one of the NPCs you already spoke to. Here’s the main problem: every single NPC still has that exact same interaction icon above their head. At least here, I got zero hints or indications on what to do next—from a door that suddenly became interactable, to an NPC who had the exact same dialogue icon as everyone else, yet magically had something new to say. So you’re left walking up to every single NPC, one by one, listening to the same lines repeatedly, until one of them finally has something new to say. A simple visual cue would have completely prevented players from having to sit through repeated dialogue. The combat is just as underwhelming. You can easily clear every single encounter by spamming just one or two skills. And as for the main character’s face... I honestly feel like I’m looking at Tim Lockwood (the dad from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) after a hair transplant. I don't know much about game design, but across the board, the overall design really could have been handled a lot better. If you like the vibe of this game, definitely give *Replaced* a try.

This game forced me to write my first review so here it is: It has everything I love - Cyberpunk setting, graphics style and a detective protagonist BUT it starts falling apart after finishing Act 1. The story switches suddenly from a detective story to a narrative mess that is incredibly difficult to follow. Everything is happening too fast - so many story beats and revelations happen close together because of it's short length. New members of your "team" are introduced and you just do not care because the writing is so subpar. I would not care about the team members being uninteresting as this is not that kind of game but it obviously wants you to with this epic last stand cutscene at the end that does not feel earned. The full price is a bit steep for 3 hours that took me to finish and later acts writing quality. The bosses have QTE mechanics that were bothering me a bit because I could not focus on the beautifully animated fight scene. Just to end on a good note - It is a very nice looking game and some easter eggs to other games like Anno Mutationem and Stray made me smirk so that is something at least. Wishing the devs best of luck on another project as it is clear a lot of love was put in and hoping we can get less messy storytelling next time.