Little Brother Jim Reviews

[h1]The Heck Is This?[/h1] Here we go: Mr. Bodur's 12th, and arguably best, submission to the Steam canon o' games. Only...huh? I'd read the game description and so anticipated a departure from the walking-sim/adventure-style games we'd come to expect, but the beginning of this game REALLY took me by surprise! I was like, "Omigosh! I'm a bear driving a jeep!" Then I was all, "Dang! This is totally practice for driving in [i]Cyberpunk[/i]!" Finally, I was like, "Holy moly! This jeep handles better than vehicles in [i]Cyberpunk[/i]!" Nice car physics, Mr. Bodur! On the 11th level, growling victoriously after another successful parking job, my gorgeous low-poly bear disappears and the game reverts to a classic (and classy) walking sim. Beautiful high-def landscape. Syrup-slow first-person walker. Random letters scattered throughout. Familiar waters. Almost. Some important differences stood out. First of all, the detail and render quality of [i]Little Brother Jim[/i] is just brilliant. The lighting effects are on par with [i]Dear Esther[/i] and even [i]The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux[/i]. Strolling around a digital forest has never been so beautiful--at least for the first segment. Secondly, the writing is also much better than I've come to expect in a Bodur game. Jim's letters to Paul are thoughtful, simple, and nostalgic. Usually there's a lot of philosophy and unnecessary imagery in a Bodur story, but not this time. It works too because the emotional paradox of sadness and hope accompanying the lost of a loved one would only be convoluted by anything more grand. Keep it simple. Make it real. Oh, and then there's more bear driving a jeep! Yay! It took until the 3rd walking segment for me to understand how the dual elements of the game work together. Seriously, I thought I was losing my mind, like, both aspects would make for excellent games, so why combine them? But as the story unfolded, everything came together. This is a terrific game! If you only ever play one Bodur game, make it this one!

Decent walking sim again from Tonguc Bodur. This time however he mixed it with a driving/parking minigame which is kinda fun and gives the game more gameplay than usual. However I am not sure if it fits well to the rest of the game.

If you think you'll like both halves of this game (driving, walking) I recommend it. IMO both halves are equally well made. I'm quite impressed that, most of, the lights on the jeep work. Headlights, right turn signals, brake lights, backup light. The music is nice. The water flows, leaves blow in the wind, birds fly. It feels alive, abandoned, but alive none the less. I do wish there was more interactivity.

Thank God you can skip the parking levels without consequence! I loved the walking simulator portion of this game, but I'm not a fan of the jeep parking simulator bit. It just feels like a totally different game and doesn't mix with the walking simulator portion at all. I get why it's there at the very beginning, as that does serve a purpose, but the transitions out of the walking sim and back to the parking sim after the beginning felt very jarring and really broke my immersion and took me out of the experience. I enjoyed it over all. I've all played all of Tonguç Bodur's games and each one is better than the last. The walking simulator portion of this game is his best walking sim yet. That parking sim doesn't mix though and really detracts from the overall experience. I do feel that if the parking mini game was taken and developed further on it's own it could be it's own thing. Overall I do recommend Little Brother Jim, especially if you are Tonguç Bodur fan.

If there is one thing I know about Tony Bodur's games, it's that they try to keep interactivity to a minimum, but Little Brother Jim turns this formula on its head. In this game, you play as both a bear that drives a van around some obstacle courses and Paul, a doctor who goes for a hike through the woods while finding letters from his eponymous sibling, in typical walking sim fashion. I have no choice but to review this as two separate games, as the two gameplay sections have nothing in common. First, the driving levels. In a sense, I like that the graphics in these levels are such a stark departure from the normal TB shtick. It's a refreshing change of pace at first. As the levels go on, however, they become very monotonous. As far as the gameplay mechanics go, imagine you are playing a game of Operation, only with a van instead of tweezers, and you have taken just as much Diazepam as the doctor in Surgeon Simulator. In fact, that game is what kept coming to mind during these segments. I tried to imagine that the van actually was the ambulance from SS, which made the whole ordeal marginally more pleasant. However, it was an ordeal. You have to drive painfully slowly to survive the levels, and the camera angle made it so that you could not possibly see anything in front of you. Furthermore, it caused me quite a bit of motion sickness, so you win this time, Tonguc. I'm still queasy. Also, just as a nitpicky side note here, who asked for a "parking" game? Driving games that are fun are fun because they involve racing, or chasing, or evading, or high-speed obstacle courses. No one has ever said "You know what I want out of my driving games? More parking." Except maybe James Nguyen. The saving grace of the driving levels is the next level button, which allows you to skip all the levels you wish to. On to the walking levels. These follow a completely prototypical walking simulator format, with story coming in the form of letters, so you have to go from mailbox to mailbox until the level ends. But wait, there's more! Occasionally, a large object appears, then disappears, the nature of which is somewhat related to a recent letter. This pattern follows a trend of TB's that I have noticed in other games (such as Nephise Ascension), wherein he uses a purchased asset in place of actually creating a poignant moment. It must seem like doing this will guarantee a great return on investment, but it comes off as forced and cheap. Dear Esther created poignant moments through the storytelling, not gimmicks. The story itself is based around the two brothers and their histories. I won't spoil anything here, but the major plot point is apparent almost from the beginning. More than anything, the story focuses on the character of Jim, who is whiny, self-deprecating, and rude to Paul at just about all junctures referenced. The times he isn't making Paul's life miserable, he's depending on Paul to save him. Then the game has the gall to ask you if you think Jim's a great guy. Yes, this game has a few "moral" "choices," which "affect" your "ending." Speaking of which, the few lines of voiced monologue in the game are...rough. Roughly translated also. I was perfectly content with having no voice acting in the game up until that point, so I'm going to go on acting like there wasn't any. In terms of gameplay during the walking levels, you can walk, run, jump once, toggle walk (AKA autowalk, AKA the best feature possible in a walking simulator), look around, and interact with padlocks. None of this comes close to excluding LBJ from the "Casual" category. Now that I think about it, this game is a lot like another LBJ I know: a little too big, clumsily indiscreet, and getting involved in arenas far out of his league. All in all, Little Brother Jim is certainly the most infuriating Tony Bodur game I've played due to the driving and the motion sickness, and the walking segments are typical in their "all sap, no substance" style. If you like that sort of thing, give it a try, I guess. Just get ready to press N a lot. May peace be upon you!

I recently bought another few titles by Bodur and this one unfortunately drops on the lower set of walking sims by the maker. Little Brother Jim is another tale with philosophic tone and environments change from beautiful forests to vast valleys so generally it is quite generic walking sim experience. However, it turns flat for I was not able to understand who the protagonist was or his intentions. All you do is collecting letters written by protagonist's brother Jim and how they used to grow up together. Granted, that there was few emotional and smart moments, but not enough to bring the feels. Then to the more original part of this game - the driving. Alright on first sequence when I realized I was driving a car from the top view and not walking in some forest I was interested, but few moments later it gets boring and while the controls are fine the levels feel more an obstacles than entertainment. I know that the car and bear might be a reference, but fewer maps could have highlighted the same idea. Do not get me wrong. The game fills all good Walking Sim standards and new features are to be considered controversial, but it lacks that breath lasting moment of pure joy, fulfilment or awarness to remember on.

I'm gonna say no to this one. I'm a big fan of this indie developer and I appreciate the urge to try something unique, but these two games don't blend together whatsoever. The reviewers saying they do are engaging in magical thinking and are full of poop. Both the parking sim and the walking sim are very well done, but switching between the two is jarring to say the least. Stick with what you know, my guy, and if you want to try something different, release it separately.

Alright. [i]Little Brother Jim[/i] is done and dusted. This is an interesting game from Tonguc’s catalogue that offers a different approach to his recognizable style. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3171977671 Why? Because while the story is told with excellent pacing via the walking simulator parts of the game (which he is known for); at the beginning of the game and used as interludes, the game is also a parking simulator, where a bear drives a car through an obstacle course until it finds the parking spot in each level, presented in four sets of eleven courses with the fourty-fifth course being the game’s finale. Which is pretty funny in concept, but the walking simulator part of the game almost immediately tells you why the parking simulator part is there, and ties everything together immaculately. As you progress through the sets of eleven parking courses, new wrinkles are added, such as deer crossing and needing to bunny hop your car over an obstacle. And, the artistic design here is very lighthearted and fun. The walking simulator part is trademark Tonguc work, and is arguably the most beautiful game he’s produced (at least of the one’s I’ve played to date). Throughout, you will be presented with notes that develop the actual story, and as it progresses, what starts as whimsy and fond memories slowly turns to wistful longing and sadness, but ends on a hopeful note. And so it’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3171977934 There are a few puzzles, but the solutions are provided in the same areas, so you won’t really have to search for them, and they’re really more about just making sure you’re still paying attention IMO, and keeping you engaged. The music was all stellar with dedicated guitar tracks and dedicated keyboard tracks in a variety of playstyles. I quite enjoyed it. This was Steam Deck compatible, although UE4 does require an additional download before you can enter the game. Took like 2 seconds. Battery life was right at an hour. The game is around 10gb, so plan accordingly. I think this was probably Tonguc’s most interesting title so far, and a very imaginative way to deviate from the norm while still providing a familiar experience. It also happens to be one of his longer titles at about an hour and a half. Cost vs value is there, and I think it’s a worthwhile experience. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]

As I was playing the previous game from the developer, I decided to check, if they've released something after that. This was available at half price. I've mostly liked their previous games, so I decided to get this as well. I was surprised to find that I could actually park the Jeep. Slowly and with some dents, but still, I played those levels instead of skipping. Even found them slightly entertaining, which was a surprise as I'm a horrible driver in games. The walking parts have nice scenery as usual. The "blackouts," which occurred frequently and transported me to another place, were a bit annoying. The walking sequences aren't that long, so I wonder about the need to chop them up like that. Also, there are moments when the camera forces you to suddenly look into a certain direction. That's always a bit disorienting. I liked reading the letters and finding out what happened, although showing the full text at once would have been better than making the player watch as the text slowly gets written. I actually didn't know how much of an eyestrain it could be trying to read the text as more of it keeps appearing below the line you're reading. I ended up looking elsewhere until the text was all there before reading it. Also, white cursive on a light background isn't the best choice for readability. I frequently misread words and had to reread to make sense of what was said. So, it's an okay game, but the two parts of it feel too separate, and the walking parts would have been better without the interruptions.

This reviewer won’t pretend to understand Little Brother Jim as a whole game. Driving and walking seem just about polar opposites, and the two halves never mix (but do share references.) And the walking is in a nonexistent, fantasy-based world of memories where a little brother has left dozens of letters from beyond the grave, and lakes have lighthouses and mailboxes are just about everywhere. Yes, the driving is simple, if a bit unusual. (Invisibility? Jumps? Block breaking? Deer dodging? And SO MUCH of it!) But it’s pleasant enough, though a bit too simple for someone with hundreds of hours in driving / racing games. But there seems to be an emotional connection between the two aspects, so why not? If you’re like me and never had good a relationship with a sibling, this might be a nice way to feel that closeness, if only for an hour or so. (I spent three hours in the game, but only half or less was walking and finding letters.) At three points the player is asked what they have learned in the game, though those questions (and answers) seem to have little point, and never come up again. If the developer is listening, I'd be curious about the answer. Still, a nice, harmless way to easily get game completion, if that’s your goal.