All That Remains: A story about a child's future Reviews

Ugly and mostly boring game.

[h1] All That Remains: A Story about a child's future [/h1] Surely an interesting story, with a lot of dialogue. Short game, easy achievements.

The good: The island looks really good, and the controls handle smoothly. The bad: The notes that you have to find are waaaaaay, way, way too long and uninteresting. I generally love exploring games and piecing together stories through notes, but this game just falls completely flat. It's not fun or interesting at all. Also, I'm not sure what audience they're wanting to appeal to, but it feels like this game was made for 6-10 year olds. The themes and style of writing seem like they're aimed at children. Since you play as a ten year old, perhaps this really is meant to be a children's game.

Here is the first in-depth review of the game: Game Revision I Played: 3.1 Game play: The description of this game on its store page says it all. It is essentially a walking simulator. You walk around, find one of several panels, click on said panel, and the text that pops up is read to you. That text goes through different aspects of a girls life starting from 10 years old to about right before the start of college. That's the whole game. Very basic in design, no mechanics in any way. It is ONLY story driven by the voice narrator. Controls: Description says Xbox controller is best, but honestly it feels exactly the same on mouse and keyboard. Except for the fact that you cannot adjust mouse sensitivity for some odd reason (more on lack of menu options later) Graphics and Map Design: 1st: The game was made in 2019 but in no way does it look like a AAA title. Nor does it have to with its intended goal and audience. With that being said, it still feels lackluster. The small island you are placed on (and the only map in the game) has no map boundary, and therefore you can walk off the island to undeveloped map areas. On the bright side it is one of the rare games that actually lets you see your avatar's body and feet by looking down. 2nd: Pretty much all textures in the game look very low resolution, and therefore blurry or very aliased. 3rd: There are some objects that look like you can interact with them, like a Ferris Wheel that looks like it was designed to be used, but instead just spins in a circle and does not let you in. 4th: As you walk into certain map areas you can see a flash of light as if you are about to watch a memory, instead you just hear some white noise of a large group of people and you continue looking around the area normally and nothing else changes, this feels like it was supposed to be a flashback cut-scene but instead only went halfway and honestly felt unpolished. Had this been a cut-scene, or at the very least changed some aspects of the area like adding actual people, changing the time of day, or auto starting the narrator reading the next section without touching the panel that flash of light and white noise would feel like it belongs in the game, and not a broken element. 5th: Contrary to what the game makes you feel there is an end goal, but you have to find ALL the panels to get it to trigger. The only issue is that there is no indication to the player anywhere as to how many panels they have found and how many are left. At one point I thought I found them all and nothing was happening when in reality there was one left. One could argue that because there is a path that there is no reason for it, but due to the fact that the path splits multiple times in a hilly, dark map, it can get very easy to lose track of where you have been. 6th: The atmospheric goal of this game would have made it an awesome candidate for VR, however the low res texture pack element of this game really kills that. (More on this next) 7th: Very few times did I really feel like this game was atmospheric like the creator intended. Nothing about the "atmosphere" really captivated me, 70 % of the map is a couple of hills, trees, and a long car trail you follow to the next area. That being said the next 30% are map areas that somewhat look good enough to stick around to check out, but not always. 8th: I have to mention this only because it bothered me a bit. But the voice actor reading the script very often skipped or completed changed words and sentences which made it a bit difficult to follow along at times. Menu Options: This is probably the least polished area of the whole game. Never have I seen a game menu without a mouse sensitivity slider. Graphics settings can only be changed with preset settings (can change from "low" to "highest") with no indication as to what they change as even the "Highest" setting still barley wakes up my graphics card and textures still look like blurry low resolution texture packs. There is no way to change basic things like resolution, max fps, or anti-aliasing. You also can't access the graphics menu without leaving the game. That being said this game is very conservative in power requirements, however the menu needs a major overhaul. Overall / Would I Recommend: The game under its own description has a few main goals. 1st: Be a very relaxed story based walking simulator to be played with the intention of not having to do much work. The developer achieved this with flying colors, and this game can be completed in about 2 hours going slow with minimal effort. 2: Provide an atmospheric experience. For me, I have to say they failed to deliver here. Most of the game felt like an alpha test in the atmosphere and map development department, and thus a large aspect of the game felt missing and made the game feel dull. 3: Tell a relatable, and memorable story for children and/or the player I feel like they partially delivered here. While the story was very relatable, and at times makes you laugh and play at your heart strings, it often times feels like its dragging and that some of these entries are to long. It made some of it feel uninteresting and therefore somewhat disconnecting me from the character. Would I recommend: I really want to say yes, as it has potential, but in its current state in version 3.1 like I marked at the top it needs a lot of work, and right now I can't really say I would recommend it. I hope the developers see this and release future updates.

A very charming 'walking simulator' that is fully narrated. The island is crafted nicely with a couple of spots where memories are triggered, or just spots to sit down and relax. There is even an original song in it. If you like relaxing walking sims, don't skip this. Sadly, I only learned of its existence because it will be removed, so if you read this and it is still for sale, go get it.