Verde Station Reviews

Verde Station is by indie developer Duel Boot https://twitter.com/duelboot or more precisely Soren Silkenson a Texan developer who considers himself a jack of all trades, being also a builder, VR specialist and business entrepreneur among other things. As voiced by himself on numerous occasions, this is a walking exploration game more than just being tagged with the misleading notion of being a walking simulator and nothing more. Exploration is hereby highly encouraged by the game so that each gamer can quickly unravel the mysterious series of events that have already taken place over the year’s solo mission. Verde Station is an experimental prototype space station greenhouse. You control the protagonist who monthly is submitted to vs400 online psychiatric examinations and given impossible tasks to complete and report on a space station littered with potential hazards and rumoured not to be ready by the time it was commissioned for its trial run. Instead of the events being portrayed consecutively, rather three main points in time are experienced in a random notion as you move from room to room. The time points are when you first arrive, one month after your arrival and need to do your first repeat of the psychology exam and the very last day of your mission. As you loop the space station 3 times, your then granted access to the Stations Command desk and have your sense of reality questioned more than once. One thing I wish I knew before entering this game was that it is not a puzzle game. You see, after completing the psychology test and confessing that I have a fear of failing. I then entered into the greenhouse where your commissioned to get certain water taps working. I mistook this room as a puzzle designed to test me for failing and spent over 40 minutes in there trying to get the blasted water working, convincing myself that the game must be designed to force you to confront the very thing you fear. For instance, if you revealed in the psychology test that you fear confined spaces then I thought the game would change and force you to crawl through an air vent or something. Alas, the playful algorithm and concept of this game is nothing like that at all. I assumed this because of the misleading sentence on the store page, ‘The game reacts in subtle ways to how you play.' In truth it doesn’t, the core game is completely fixed and the psychology test your confronted with, as well as the number of things you pick up and look at really have NO bearing in the game whatsoever. The only things that alter game play is what you type your name as being, what you put down the kitchen waste chute being retrievable further below and whether you turn all the water valves off at the very beginning. You do get presented with a number of commands that you can enter in the game and these will playfully change font colour, speed up your character, or produce crashing mechanics. Essentially everything else is FIXED and requires you to loop around the four rooms of the space station, your bedroom, the greenhouse, the lounge/library and the kitchen. There are 7 computer disks that you can also find and this will reveal a Sci-Fi story, the origin and truth of which will be revealed on a SysAdmin,cmd that you need to type in every single computer you come across if you want to get all story aspects to this game. Regardless of the initial unfortunate misunderstanding I experienced with the water taps, personally I really valued the time spent on this game as I tried to unravel its several layers of skilful story telling. I bow respectfully to the developer who while stating that he prides himself with getting results than he does with getting credit, I believe with all the time spent in creating it and the many hats he had to wear in developing, that applause, salute and celebration is long overdue. In fact, I loved this experience so much that I have only one request for this jack of all trades. Can you please put on a Director cap and make this into a movie. Again Big Thanks for making this world, your world, our world a bit more special… Complete Game by me Below. Its Free check it out… https://youtu.be/lWnw2xB7KZ0 https://youtu.be/NX4Je68ooqk https://youtu.be/_o5zS81DaJY If you enjoyed reading this review, feel free to subscribe to my curator page. Thanks... http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6843548/

So what is Verde Station? A "walking simulator", a is-it-a-game-game like 'Gone Home'? A puzzle adventure light on the puzzles? Maybe. I couldn't say. All I can say is that I loved it. Do not look up anything about this game that's not already part of the store page and you'll have a great experience. Verde Station managed to surprise me a few times before I reached the ending and I'm still pretty sure I missed something. Definitely recommended.

I just finished my last playthrough a couple of hours ago and it left me with a mixed set of feelings. At first, when I started the game, I thought like: "Okay, cool, I'm about to manage and explore a huge space station." But, as things turned out, it went completely different. That's, just to say, not a bad thing, because it provided a nice surprise regarding the experience and it felt kind of nice. On the other hand, the experience itself was not so terrific in the end. That's probably because you know exactly what's going on when you take a close look at your surroundings. (I'm not going to mention any details.) Take a second/minute to take in the details and you might be able to figure out what's going on yourself. Another thing I didn't really like, but that's probably because it's still in development, is the short gameplay of each playthrough. Depending on your play speed it can be done in less than, let's say, 40 minutes. What's good? Fear, by answering a set of questions you're supposed, or you believe, you get a custom tailored portion of fear presented to you. If that's completely correct, I don't know, because I don't know how the game has been designed. But, it's done in a good way and makes you act careful for as long as it lasts. I recomend the game as far as it concerns the concept, but I don't recommend it based on actual content. It's too little at this moment. The experience doesn't last long enough at this time to be regarded as a full gaming experience. It feels more like a test setup for psychologic gameplay elemenst to see what works and what doesn't. (Depending on your goal as a developer) Conclusion: Verde Station has potential, but needs more work. It needs longer playthrough time. At the time of writing the presented content is not enough to keep you satisfied for long. For the current price you expect more material, story and interaction with your surroundings. But, I do recommend Verde Station, because at its core it's a great concept that does work in a fast way. And if the developers do something with the feeback, they'll be able to create an awesome game in the end.

I like what another reviewer said about this game providing Lego pieces for the mind. Verde Station gives the player an incomplete set of building blocks from maybe more than one story and asks them to put it all together however they see fit. If you treat the game how it's looking to be treated, you should come out with some things to think about. If you want the game to entertain you passively, this might not be the game for you. Some people are saying they did everything in the game in under half an hour. I didn't come close to doing everything and completely ignored certain segments of the game and I took almost two hours to finish it with 2 out of 12 achievements.

While I enjoyed the game well enough, I think I'd qualify it merely as a Nice Try. There's some great ideas in there, but there's not nearly enough context or development of those ideas to really make a great game out of them. I appreciate the attempt to mash together Gone Home with The Stanley Parable by way of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the results are just too unsatisfying to live up to any of those elements. It's like a meal of popcorn, tasty enough but far from filling. I'd say get it on a very deep sale or as part of a bundle, but that's about it. Be interesting to see what the dev does as a followup though, and lessons learned from this game.

[quote][i]My days have grown so lonely For I have lost my one and only My pride has been humbled But I am his body and soul[/i] ―Annette Hanshaw, Body and Soul[/quote] [h1]Foreword[/h1] [i]Verde Station[/i] is a game that should be played with as little knowledge about it as possible. That being said, this review is deliberately vague, in an attempt to not disclose much about the game itself. [h1]Quick Review[/h1] Once in a blue moon a game comes by that makes me absolutely rethink the story-telling boundaries of games. Some do it because they make me realize the medium has its limits; others, because they show me that games can be absolutely boundless. [i]Verde Station[/i] is a powerful 90-minute-long statement of the latter. With a simple premise – “Welcome to Verde Station” – and a striking conclusion, [i]Verde Station[/i] weaves the player into a well-written story by almost solely relying on the age-old “show, not tell”. By working itself around its limited game area and basic graphics, [i]Verde Station[/i] proves that brilliant stories can be told, with great style and taste, if you trust the player to ask their own questions and work themselves through the maze you set up for them. [i]Verde Station[/i] will make you question yourself. [i]Verde Station[/i] will make you hold your breath. [i]Verde Station[/i] will tell its story through the tinniest details and, in doing so, make you obsess about them. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] I highly recommend [i]Verde Station[/i] to story-lovers, sci-fi enthusiasts and curious folk. I do not recommend [i]Verde Station[/i] to those who can't stand slow-paced games. [i]Verde Station[/i] should be savored in one sitting, with a curious mind, attentive eyes and a slice of insanity. [quote]Welcome to solitude.[/quote]

Oh, Duelboot, I hate you. Why do you do this to me?! Why do you make a game that's so good to experience but so hard to talk about without completely spoiling?! I feel like I'm in some kind of weird verbal bondage where I can't really say what I want and have forgotten the safe word. Oh well, I'm still going to try treading on eggshells here and talking about this and we'll just see what happens. Here goes... I originally saw this on sale and had the words "walking simulator" and "adventure" and "sci-fi" jump out at me, all things which I'm a fan of, so I figured at 99c I probably couldn't complain either way no matter how it turned out. I didn't read any further on it beyond the general positive score, and, boy, am I glad that's as much digging as I did. This really is a game that benefits from some blissful ignorance before going into it, save for maybe the fact that it's pretty much completely devoid of conflict of any kind and is instead based mostly on "purpose". At least in as much as you have a role to play and a function to fulfil and that will pretty much be the extent of the gameplay. You awake on the titular station and are immediately given a test on your mental state and told to perform it again every 30 days. You are then given the task of maintaining the station's plant and tree life for future endeavours and to also check them every 30 days. What follows is the strange juxtaposition of tasks of tedium among a spectacular setting... basically a janitor in space. There's more to it than that, as you'll explore the handful of rooms that make up the station and read various log entries, but all that is best left to your own discovery. I know it sounds like a total non-event, but I promise you there's more to it than that. It kind of reminded me of the classic '60s TV show The Prisoner. It was weird and never really explained itself and by the end you probably had more questions about everything than answers, but still thoroughly enjoyed your time with it the whole way. That was definitely my experience with it. The only complaint I'd probably have is I was left wanting more. Sniffing around every inch of the station to try finding new things to see or possibly interact with took up the lion's share of my hour or two with this title, and I do wish it could have been eked out to something longer and the concept expanded upon. But otherwise, the brief time I spent is something that still managed to have great impact and will stay with me for a while, and I strongly recommend you take the time with it, too. Oh, I just remembered... the safe word is Verde Station.

Well I have a mixed feelings about this game. I was about to recommend this game, but I was waiting for something more to be in a game before I do this. Well, it didn't work out. [b]What's good[/b] First, it's very impressive to see such game to be developed by one man. I had a lot of fun providing feedback and bug reports on the forum while the game was in Early Access. Second, the idea of the game is good. Attempt to present it looks a bit dramatic. There are some good moments in the game which can create an illusion of something interesting happening. [b]What's bad[/b] The idea of the game is undeveloped and presented very shallow. It looks like a very short and linear story told us via game. If you compare a game devlopment to a movie development this game reminds me of a short clips directors make to present their vision to producers before they are hired to film a full movie. There is absolutely no challenge in this game. You just move further because you have nothing else to do. The game interactions that affect your story progression boil out to just moving around and using terminals. All other interactive objects are secondary and give very little benefit. The overall design of the game is very unobvious. The game lacks explanations and player assistance. You can discover some pieces of information scattered around only if you'll be ignoring story progression and specifically looking for them. These pieces of information are very disconnected from each other and won't give you a full picture or even a hint about it. Maybe if you collect them all you'll be able to see something. It seems I haven't found them all. The game still contains bugs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAS7nwjsjcw [b]Summary[/b] I was expecting this game to be in development for at least a year more. I was excited about what this game could be. I never expected it to end like this. I can only recommed it only if you're interested in studying game design. There are very good examples of bad design decisions, and a few good ideas. I would like to read post-mortem for this game.

Station Verde - Steam PC - 7 / 10 Only for those players with properly calibrated expectations…. Thumbs Up. Alone in the Space Station, travelling from room to room you monitor and report your status. Why am I here? Hack the Computer with nerdy {.cmd line} clues that you discover and earn 100% achievements; those are the goals. Lasting no more than 4 hours for my six iterations, I enjoyed this game because it was smurf short with a gentle twist of wry humor. Other reviewers have noted feelings of unfinished business after it was over. Was there more to find or is this a sign that they were entertained? This was probably an experiential project for the author, maybe a dry run for a project in development? Let’s hope for more. Worth about 1/10th the price of a BigMac. Also, it is low in salt and has not a single trace of exogenous hormones. ATTENTION Achievo hunters: 100% Achievement in 4 hours. [/seriously this will probably make some of you wet yourselves] eol

This game and I already have a love-hate relationship. I've explored everything I can seemingly explore and read everything I can possibly read and it only took me about 20 solid minutes. I hate to say it but in its current state, it's not worth the price tag. That being said, what I did experience, I really enjoyed. I just think it's really lackluster given the premise and the atmosphere. Everything was very linear, the inability to backtrack at times was extremely frustrating. I expected a lot more than I received. I know it's Alpha and I really hope it grows and evolves because it has SO much potential. Every other reviewer seems to think its the best thing since sliced bread and I just don't believe that yet. I'll be watching it closely to see just how it does shape up and I fully expect to rewrite this review in the future. Keep up the good work guys, you're REALLY on to something here, but you haven't quite gotten there yet.