Exographer Reviews

It's not a bad game exactly, but I also don't really feel I got what I was promised. First off all that noise they make at the store page about a science fiction author being involved can be completely ignored. if you are not a physicist good luck making any sense of this as absolutely ZERO effort is put into making any of the science accessible to a layperson. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not making that clear on the store page is false advertising as far as I'm concerned. Aside from that there isn't any store except what amount to some text entries that you unlock as you photograph things, which is the main mechanic. How metroidvania is this? It isn't. It features some abilities that are needed to progress, but the game is completely linear, there's no benefit to revisiting old areas. The abilities are from an MV-standpoint non-standard and that can be interesting, but the thing with standard abilities is they also work. And many of these - particularly the glove - you have to keep redoing shit because the abilities don't work right - and not trying to do something you shouldn't, but approaching the puzzle as you should using the right abilities. No combat. Puzzles & Platforming: This is the core of the game and it is largely good, but suffers from some problems. The puzzles are largely good. There are analysis puzzles (using a special thing where you have to analyze patters with some tools to place cards right and this is where I would assume if I understood any of it or they bothered to explain to a layperson that the science is accurate), some puzzles & platforming that's based around using you various abilities to navigate around certain special materials (4 of them) that get in the way. Secondly there are some larger puzzles as well that basically work on the same principle but you have to navigate a big room with other overarching goals. And and then there are some where you have to input a password. The puzzles mostly work fine. Some are frustrating, some don't really work all that way with a character you have to move around as you have no overview and NO way of moving the camera independently of the character. Although I did experience one puzzle that was bugged out - solved it right, even checked with guide and redid puzzle too and it wouldn't work. Fine game as a puzzle-platformer albeit frustrating at times, as a metroidvania or narrative experience it delivers little.