Tried the demo of this when it first came out and honestly wasn’t a fan.
The demo was very short and didn’t have any difficult puzzles. I get that it’s just a demo, but I wanted to see a taste for how far the mechanics could go.
I also really didn’t click with the story, which was most of the demo’s runtime. I assume that some people will be interested in the story, but personally I’m not interested in a minute of gameplay being broken up by 5 minutes of watching a guy trying to figure out how Japan works.
Shenzen I/O had a similar theme, but approaches it with a “less is more” philosophy; portraying character personality and interactions in a few lines of text.
It was a bad demo. I solved every “puzzle” near instantly except the robot, where I didn’t realize the arm had to be on a specific side. The demo was basically the story prologue and intro tutorial, but then it stops without ever giving you a proper puzzle. It didn’t do a good job of showing depth in its mechanics. Each puzzle has a single correct obvious solution. I wanted to optimise, but that single solution doesn’t give anything to work with. Forget single solution though, most levels are a single part. I get that they’re introducing new parts, but you’re allowed to what you’ve already taught even when introducing new mechanics. The lack of interaction between parts is a large part of what makes it seem so shallow. It makes me question if the dev even knows how they interact.
I didn’t mind the story at first, but it overstayed its welcome. Your “less is more” is an excellent way of putting it.
Hopefully the full game will be better, but I’m not counting on it.
That looks cool. I’ll have to try the demo. I’ve definitely enjoyed that kind of game in the past.
