Playtime:
63 minutes
I WANT to give this product a Yes! I promise.
Into The Darkness is on the precipice of being something huge.
The pros:
Every asset is made with love. The game feels spectacular and looks spectacular.
The physics engine is sensible. Interacting with weapons and level assets like ropes feels intuitive and fun.
There are some great ideas on display, and the equipment the main character possesses is flavorful.
The game clearly has a tonne of potential, and the VR marketplace is crying out for something just like this.
The game's UI is diagetic, which is awesome.
The player character has Half Life: Alyx-inspired pickup and throw mechanics, which are fun to interact with and intuitive.
The player character has Metroid Prime's "scan mode" and interacts with it diagetically, which is super cool.
Other mechanical ideas are present that feel utterly unique and perfectly suited to VR.
However, as it currently stands in Early Access, there are critical issues that need to be fixed before the game is playable. The structure of the tutorial is primarily to blame, as it is seriously underdesigned.
Tutorial Issues:
Firstly:
At the start of the tutorial, the player is told to arrange their Quick Slots - quick-access inventory slots - on their body 'in a comfortable place'. This is a fundamentally important setup moment, and will effect the experience the player has for the rest of the game, as this decision affects the entire experience of interacting with the gameplay.
- The instruction box for this moment grays out the screen, which is design language that implies the player must proceed from the instruction box before adjusting the Quick Slots. However, clicking Confirm on this instruction box actually immediately proceeds, leaving the Quick Slots unadjusted. This caused me to need to reset the whole game.
- The player's avatar is not visible during this configuration step, meaning the boxes can be placed inside their own avatar. This caused me to need to reset the whole game again.
- Once the player proceeds, the Quick Slots cannot be adjusted. No testing step is provided.
- The Quick Slots care about hand orientation and other factors, so may be positioned in unusable places with no feedback provided. This caused me to need to reset the whole game a third time.
Related:
- No method to pause the game or return to the Main Menu is communicated to the player.
Secondly:
- During the tutorial, the player is invited to look at gear and weapons before proceeding. The option to proceed without acquiring any weapons is available, and the player is not recommended or reminded to choose weapons beyond a short verbal cue in the previous room. This impacts the next step of the tutorial.
Thirdly:
- The tutorial includes participating in combat. The player is not given any way to test their weapons or learn combat in a safe environment prior to this. It would be extremely sensible to include a 'firing range', and introduce the player to dismemberment mechanics by ripping something harmless apart, prior to testing these skills.
- During this combat, audio cues indicate the player is in a risk environment, and little information about enemies is provided. The experience is simply overwhelming, rather than instructional or tense. It is an extreme introduction to combat, landing far too early in the experience.
- This isn't a "get gud" thing. Dropping the player into an extreme experience as one of their first moments with the game cheapens the well-designed escalation of risk that occurs in the first mission and left my expectations ricocheting.
Fourthly:
- The tutorial does not introduce the player to moving and manipulating the character. It would be sensible to introduce the player to crouching, crawling, jumping, and climbing in safe environments prior to testing these skills in the first mission.
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Once the player exits the tutorial, the game begins. The opening sequence of the game provides vital context to the game's world, and introduces the character to useful and cool mechanics. Putting your gloves on is really cool, and the mechanics afforded by the gloves are huge useful.
It would be sensible to have the player experience this prior to engaging in the tutorial, but the events occur in the opposite order.
--
The player begins their first mission with a powerful weapon, then engages with a few enemies in live combat at a good pace in a well-designed environment. Unfortunately, while the enemies are an opportunity for the player to experiment with combat mechanics, the availability of a firearm at this point cheapens the opportunity to interact with dismemberment.
Exploration is encouraged in the mission, as secret goodies are hidden in certain places. This is great, but the goodies are ammo, encouraging the player to ignore dismemberment and continue using their weapon.
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During the first mission, the player is encouraged firstly to "step carefully" and then to "Run!" past an obstacle.
No method to run is communicated to the player, and the need to 'step carefully' prior to "Running!" implies the player should be slow and careful. These mixed messages caused me to fail the challenge and die -- which sent me back to a checkpoint that was several minutes old.
--
I spent the whole experience frustrated with interacting with my Quick Slots, which rotate around the player in world-space according to the orientation of the player character's shoulders. Reaching for the Quick Slots, however, drags on the character's shoulders. This meant that the act of reaching for the Quick Slots caused them to rotate around the player. This is one of a few highly-apparent frustrations with the player character's rig, which constantly feels dragged off-orientation compared to the player.
I stopped playing at that point and I'm considering refunding until the game is further baked. There are some excellent ideas and a lot of love here, but I fear the game designer may be blinded to the need of new players to be introduced to the game's opening moments in a way that opens them up to the experience with confidence.
👍 : 9 |
😃 : 0