Corpse of Discovery Reviews

Achieves the impossible in making most of a 3hr game feel like filler. Incoherent story and sluggish movement mean that isolated well-executed vignettes (sarcastic AVA and planet of the pillars) can't save this walking simulator. Feels wrong not to mention the horrific, game-breaking pop-in: platforming segments and even general exploration are almost impossible when you cannot see the ground around you.

[h1]Good and even Great in certain regards, but also fairly Broken and Shambling in others. [/h1] Walking sim? More like somewhat-plodding, not fully-rendered platformer sim with some great writing and voice-acting and some cool surreal spaceman vibes reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which probably would have had a better initial reception if not for No Man’s Sky and Astroneer releasing shortly after it. Corpse of Discovery’s main gameplay loop involves waking up in a small spacestation, listening to audiotapes from your family back home, and then setting forth to explore several planets. Unfortunately, once you are on the planets the exploration gameplay element can feel very drawn-out and bland. While initially visually-engaging, the planets have a strange “not fully loaded” appearance frequently, with textures not mapped to the terrain at times or patches of grass inexplicably floating above where a platform should be. I’m not sure if this game incorporates procedurally-generated mechanics, but it often feels like the idea of the scale of the game didn’t match the technical limitations or aptitude of the development team. Pair the inconsistent visual fidelity of the game with a fairly bland main gameplay goal of ‘find (walk up and press a button after locating) X amount of items on Y planet’ on every single locale you visit and it’s hard to not feel like the game is just padded out for the sake of having 6 or so planets the player traverses rather than a more tightly-condensed and better-looking 3. While these criticisms may sound harsh or even petty, I say all of this as a pretty gung ho fan of both the Walking Simulator genre AND Surreal Sci Fi, so it’s not as if I wasn’t giving the game a fair bit of patience in how it presented its overall content but still found myself kind of wondering when I would just have ‘seen it all’ while finishing the game... Which is unfortunate, because the presentation and themes of Corpse of Discovery (outside of its gameplay) are so engaging otherwise. The game’s chatty but somewhat-monotone (it is a robot after all..) assistant AI character AVA presents several moral quandaries to the player throughout to mull over as you progress through the game, delivered with good voice-acting on par and in a similar fashion to either the QUBE or Portal games. The gameplay segments I found the most evocative were listening to the player character’s messages from his family during the intro spacestation segments before each planet. These range from fairly innocuous to tear-jerking as you listen to how the family misses the player character during the excursion. I’m going to go out on a limb that these are actual phonecalls the director of the game received from his family that are then incorporated into heart-wrenching messages -either that or these kids deserve an award for their impeccable voice-acting. Corpse of Discovery I went into with fairly high expectations after being impressed with the trailers I saw only to be disappointed with the main gameplay. The platforming in the game isn’t bad, as you are able to unlock a [spoiler]jetpack[/spoiler] at a certain point to increase your mobility dramatically, as well as sections where you have to evade scary-looking geist creatures that fly about the environments. If not for being so keen on some of the theme of this game -stranded spaceman seeing surreal shit- I’m not sure I would have felt like bothering to finish the game due to how drawn-out and one-note the main campaign felt. Either way, I’m glad I stuck with the game for its memorable moments listening to the messages from his family and ruminating on some of the questions the game’s AI presents, I just wish that the rest of the game didn’t collapse as much under the weight of its own ambitions. Still, at the very low price of $1.99, the game does enough right to be engaging to those who are into this type of game, I just wish it were condensed down a bit to be more quality than quantity.

This game is a 3 hour first person walking sim with some parkour set on a planet in space. You have to follow instructions to slowly uncover your fate and that of your family. The indoor station setting reminded me of Tacoma with that constant 2001:Space Odysse vibe. Once you get outside to discover the planet with your trusted robot AVA, the game reminded me of No Man's Sky. Movement is really good and exceptionally great with vertical parkour. Each day you start in your station, get your mission and head out to fulfill your mission. There are obivous story elements with classical sci-fi topics. But there is also the underlying "real" story that will become obvious on your last mission. The developers do not force feed you the ending ... you will be left to decide what it really means. I like walking sims and I like classical sci-fi topics. They did a good job blending both together and the robot goes full claptrap in the last mission.

I don't understand how this game is rated so poorly. Maybe it just resonated with me harder than others, but man was that a heavy story... The ending was amazing and completely changed my views on what was going on, but the very end left me a bit confused. The only downside I can say is that the game suffers some performance issues at times. I noticed it got especially bad on the very last planet. I'm not sure if it was the rendering of all the grass or what. Either way, I was able to get through without too much trouble.

I felt like playing one of my regular go-to games, but was going to start this little game first to quickly see what it was like before resuming business as usual. But I totally underestimated how “Corpse of Discovery” would pull me in. I kept going for six and a half hours straight until it was done. It turned out to be a truly remarkable exploration of, not just the alien landscapes on the screen, but also the meaning of life, what it means to be human and to be alive. It ponders our existence, our significance (and/or insignificance) in the universe; the meaning of family, of everyday choices, the existence of a higher power, our fate, the significance of artificial intelligence and what that holds for the future of human life. Does the greatness of man’s accomplishments actually mean anything beyond the human context? Does the universe care about any of that? Are our technological advances actually taking us anywhere in the bigger scheme of things? Gameplay-wise you will, as an astronaut (in 3D platforming style), explore the surfaces of mysterious alien planets and the lifeforms on them, aided by an AI drone, a jet pack and waypoints. You will encounter things that blurr the line between reality and fiction, between the present and the past, between visual observation and thought. Real historical recordings of famous speeches are incorporated, even surprise messages by famous actors. “Corpse of Discovery” was a delight to play and intrigued me throughout. I was a bit frustrated with the platforming in the final level, but that was probably because I desperately wanted to see how the game ends, and I guess I was feeling fatigue setting in by then. Ultimately it was a very worthwhile experience. I am richer for it.

This game is so weird, I have no Idea where to begin. Maybe I Should start with the bad things fisrt. So I had two cons about this game One, the optimization, Oh lord, the optimization is poor. My frame rate was terrible and I had to have my settings set to low the entire time, and I STILL had crap frames. It was terrible, but I paid the 15 dollars for it so, at first, I thought, ok lets just push through that and see what the game has to offer gameplay wise. My second and only other gripe with the game was that I would occasionally glitch through the floor when I would jump, so nothing to out of the ordinary there. As for the Pros, Well... The first time you wake up you're on your ship. Its a pretty self sustained looking palce....but you've just crash landed due to some unseen force, so the automated messages play thoughout the ship and have you walk through for your mission breifing. after that, once those doors open, things get weird, The good kind of weird. Throughout the first half of the first planet you're on, this robot, the AVA if I remember correctly, walks you through your mission, which is placing becons on the planet to map it out while she calls for a distress signal. once you place the becons down, she says she can not find a signal and tells you that you will die alone. She then loses all he battery power and drops to the dirt, lifeless. and now you're all alone right?.....Right? The events that happen after wards? well, you need to play this yourself if you can, because I woulnd't want to spoil it for you. Is it worth 15 buckaroos? I would wait for it to go on sale, maybe catch it at 10 or hell, I bought this at 10% off and Idont regret it. If you got the money to spend, I would recommend getting this and playing it through. From what I could tell, it controls nice, the story is incredibly amazing and as of this review, it leaves me wondering what happens next. Oh, and if there just so happens to be a content creator ("youtuber") out there reading this. I think It would make for some pretty decent content.

Played through this game today. It was a beautiful game with a fairly interesting story, although presented in a somewhat bizarre fashion. Sort of similar to Lifeless Planet in this regard. However, unlike Lifeless Planet, this game just kind of droned on. It took me a little less than three hours to complete, and I really wish it had taken about half that. It became a very boring affair going out to basically do the same things over and over with minor changes to your base in between. That actually kind of killed the immersion for me. As far as the actual gameplay, it was pretty smooth. It's an exploration game, so you really just move about, jumping and when available, using your jetpack to navigate alien planets. You will interact with your objectives, but mostly you just take in the visuals and listen to what also seemed like overly long dialogue. Now, I dont want to pan this too hard because it is evident that this game was a labor of love, and it definitely had its positives, but overall, I just ended up finding myself bored. The pacing never changes throughout. Just sort of you wandering at what amounts to a casual pace with, as mentioned before, somewhat droning dialogue. I'd say it is worth checking out when you dont have anything else you'd like to play or simply want an interlude between other games, but I'd also bet you will end up feeling bored like I did. 5 out of 10 for me personally. I'm giving it a no as a recommendation because, like I say, it ends up just being boring. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, it would be appreciated. Cheers. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/[/code]

You control an astronaut waking up on a space station as a recorded voice wishes you good luck with your mission, after listening to a message from your family and your mission briefing you set on the planet while an hovering robot blurts out mission parameters and HR slogans. The aforementioned story doesn't have to be taken at face value though as Corpse of Discovery wants to use it as a metaphor: while the game has an interesting premise and some good moments its dull gameplay and ham-fisted narrative hold it back. [b]PROS:[/b] -the art style is pretty nice -good soundtrack and voice acting -the first levels are interesting -there's a good amount of dark and vitriolic humor that makes you both smile and think -some dialogues are pretty good and function as high points in the game [b]CONS:[/b] -graphics are a bit of a mixed bag, while the levels look from decent to nice the draw distance is bad and there's some noticeable graphical glitches, the framerate can also be dodgy at times -repetitiveness sets in after a couple levels, this is made worse by the amount of ground you have to cover between points of interest and some instadeath threats that'll see you go back to the previous checkpoint -the narrative as a whole is pretty awkward, most of the time it's content to just be obscure but when it's time to make a point it comes out as too obvious and cliched http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=547984285 Corpse of Discovery is off to a strong start with its mistery story and weird locations to explore, sadly its attempt at a more active take on walking simulators doesn't always work well: jumping and jetpacking around is quite fun but it eventually grows dull when you realize there's quite alot of space between objectives, even more so if you want to explore optional stuff, and that getting there is for the most part a boring affair. The story also takes a dive once you realize it's used as a metaphor about something else, sadly it's done in an unoriginal way for the most part: without spoiling anything the point the game tries to make also explains it being deadset on giving you task after task to grind through, too bad this intentional repetitiveness helps the point as much as it hurts the gameplay. All things considered I can't recommend Corpse of Discovery, a few good points notwithstanding its story and ending were ultimately not good enough to make its dull gameplay worth slogging through over and over.

Wow. That was very good. Moving, really. And sad. Or happy? I don't know... For me, it was sad. Definitely recommended, particularly if you are a parent. I can only assume the 'mixed' rating has more to do with the audience than anything wrong with the game itself. I took it as a story about regret. That some things in life you never get back. Anyway, definitely a very good game.

This game blasted me away - don't listen to the bad reviews, most of them did not understand the game. Maybe you have to have made a special kind of experience to aknowledge and value the metaphor that is being told. It is an extremely deep, meaningful gaming experience, that transports an important message to all workaholics and career-fetishists. Additionally it is filled with humour, witty comments, smart cross-references to pop-culture and the gaming industry. If you like intellectual & philosophically challenging games like Ether One or Mindpath To Thalamus you definitly should give this title a try. Explore the details. Enjoy the weirdness. Wait for the mind fuck. I highly recommend this title, although I fear that not many gamers will have the patience to experience the whole master piece (which is a pity). Thank you Phosphor Games for an utterly interesting game! I hope that you took the moral of your game to your heart during the development of this title itself ;)