Pulse Reviews

This game is beautiful and very atmospheric. I will admit that it is short but still worth it, plus the little mokos are cute!

this game was not great, just only ok it had great psychedelic visuals (if you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy do not buy this game) it was really short at least 20 mins of my 48 minute game run was just navigating the ice maze (took me like 10 mins to notice it was a maze) I didn't really understand the story other then the general gist of it each death has a slow 5 second "you died" screen edit: ehhh upon further remembering of this game I don't feel that it was worth it

I bought this during the winter sale after having this on my wishlist for a while. I was very interested in the premise of playing as a blind character and relying on sound to navigate. As others have stated, this game doesn't actually rely solely on sound. Rather, it creates a sort of echolocation where every time you make noise, throwing something, jumping, running, you create a pulse of sight in that line of sound. Still a very unique and interesting gameplay concept. Doesn't represent a realistic blind character however, as the story even opens up explaining the main character has learned to envision the world in her imagination through sound, which in itself does not represent what blindness is. The art style is similar to titles like Meadow and Shelter, but with flashing bright colors and a see through, pulsing landscape. Definitely do not play this game if you have issues with flashing lights, some levels are completely composed of your character traveling through a light show that is constantly flashing in wavelengths. Also, since this is a platformer at heart and doesn't solely rely on sound, it's not accessible to the blind. You will need sight to land the jumps and progress the story. The story is mysterious, though not completely unexplained. Others have called the story dark, which perhaps it does appear to become, though when you beat the game it feels more triumph and positive again.... And the story is explained for what it's worth, though the universe this takes place in as a whole is a mystery. We learn that the village is under some spell and trapped by our guide, who doesn't seem to remember or fully understand why this happened, and we are the only one left to attempt to rescue everyone. Supposedly our brother had attempted, though failed from being lost in the darkness, which isn't a problem for our blind character. The story revolves around helping the guide, simply by following its path and finding our way out of the hell of each level, and listening to the guide explain its dreams and memories as we try to piece together what happened. The answers to this are explained, but I'll leave it to you to finish the game and see those for yourself. Controls for keyboard and for controller (xbox in my case) are fluid and responsive, if you're having trouble just to use sprint 24/7 and trust yourself, I've found running blindly and traveling upwards on platforms gets you through the game easily. I've found keyboard better for most things, but controller better for wall jumping. You don't need to overthink, there's no complex puzzles here, just jump up and keep going. This will also help net you the achievement for completing the game in 30 minutes, though if you do try to fully explore, gameplay will last more like an hour or two. I've played through threeish times, my third involving me just messing around and throwing the hamster-like creatures everywhere, and the achievements are all reasonable to obtain in theory. The only one I'm missing is collecting all the collectables, I'm only missing about 20ish. I've found that collecting previous ones you've missed does not raise your score, instead you have to collect more than you previously have. For example, if you obtained 49/50 collectables, finding the last one in your next playthrough will not grant you the achievement. Instead you must refind all 49 AND the one you missed to get it. Which is very tedious and if anyone knows how many exactly are in each level, hmu because I'd love to 100% this gem. I'll update if I ever complete it. I recommend this only on sale because it is a very short game and I imagine will be a confusing mess to most players. But give it another go and see it through, the story was enjoyable and it's a gameplay style you won't get anywhere else. Oh and for parts people seem to be having issues with: The ice level, JUMP and never stop jumping, you won't fall through the ice then as you're always a bit ahead of it. I did this successfully on my first try, just bounce your way through it. And for the falling rocks part, if you find yourself stuck and there's a blockage in your way that hasn't fallen down, reload the game back up. You probably died right before this part and it stopped the chain reaction of ground falling for you. HMU if there's another part you can't progress through.

This is a bad game. It's hard to know what to specifically single out. That a game about a blind girl relies entirely on visual cues for progression? That a game about sound can be played with its sound off to no ill effect? That it's entirely built around the 'blind people develop super senses' trope the blind community hates? Or maybe the abysmal level and puzzle design, that combines the worst of banal quick-time challenges with the worst of rote difficulty? Or the completely nonsensical story? There are people here praising the visuals, but aside from the idea that theoretically a world built around pulsations of movement could be interesting, it just looks like LSD vomited the 70s all over the screen. Worse, that the screen slowly went black as you stood still made it impossible to survey your surroundings as a way to figure out what the hell you were even supposed to do. Any why did backgrounds frequently load before foregrounds, making it so I would just walk into walls for several minutes without realizing it? Why did I fall through the floor so many times? It seems as though the team thought simply having the idea for a game was the same as making a game. I'm not sure what the purpose of this game really is. There was seemingly no real affection put into the gameplay design, the plot, or the art. Why is this here? Why are any of us here? This game was so poorly put together I'm having an existential crisis.

While I recommend it, it's important to keep in mind about these pros and cons, and see if it's worth it for you. This game usually isn't for sale, so waiting for a sale may not work. I tried. I ended up just getting it at full price. Pros: - Incredible visuals/art direction. Each level as a unique theme, to it, both mechanically and visually, and they really nail the atmosphere of never fully knowing your surroundings, in a good way. - Lovely soundtrack. It so amazing, that I bought the OST. Has a lot of personality and charm to it. - Interesting story concept. There's lots of things about the world that fascinates you. The ruins, the creatures, the creepy crow and voices. It's an intriguing setting. Cons: - Very short (for the worst reasons). I don't mind a short game usually, and the price would make you expect the length to be short. But here's the issue. There's so many questions you have about the world, the creatures, your people (and your brother), etc, but answers almost none of them. And any new gameplay mechanic you're introduced to, or new environment, doesn't get enough time to flesh our or breathe. By the time a level gets interesting, it's over, and you're onto the next level. - Poorly designed narrative. There are many moments of dialogue, but it's all told with riddles and vague hints as to what's going on. And it's done with just text, that goes by WAY too quickly. I must've missed a 3rd of what was said because it went by so quickly. It just felt slapped together and rushed. - Usually no real danger. Most of the horror in this game is the horror of the unknown/uncertain. You can never really know if you're safe or being hunted. If your throwing of things will just help you see, or get a threat's attention. And while this does a good build up to the monsters, the moment you see them, you can run passed them, and that's the end of the level. The wolves that won people over in the demo was just for one small level. 99% of the game, you just have to worry about falling. I'm surprised by how strong of a demo they had, and how successful of a kickstarter they got, that the game came out more like a rough draft, than a fully fleshed out game of what it promised to be. It's still a good experience if you know what you're getting into before you get the game, but I just wish they started over with a whole new design for the pacing and level design.

Ugh, I wish I can recommend this game because the Mokos - I personally call them Floofs - are so insanely cute and adorable. But the game mechanics just don't do Pulse justice. Pros: - Insanely cute Mokos (Floofs) that make you happy every time you see them - Nice soundtrack - Nice aesthetic artwork - Very interesting concept with potential for an interesting plot Cons: - The gameplay can be extremely frustrating. There are parts where you have to land a jump at exactly the right corner at exactly the right time to make your landing. It is almost rage-inducing. - The visual elements in the game can also be frustrating. It's extremely easy to get lost, and sometimes it's hard to figure out where you're supposed to go. If you stop moving for even a second, your surroundings all turn to black. - The story was just confusing. There was little closure or anything to make much sense of it all. It sounded like a great fable with so much potential but the execution was poor. Pulse had so much potential - and it still has! But seriously, those game mechanics need some work. And the story needs more clarity. It's really hard to get into a plot when there's so many unanswered questions.

This game is painful to play. It doesn't help that the checkpoint system (if there is one) is atrocious. If you are still adamant about playing a game with a blind female protagonist, check out [i]Beyond Eyes[/i].

I bought the game because the idea was interesting and I liked the graphics. However, this game failed to deliver. Graphics are great, the music is nice and the spirits are adorable, but the story and some of the game mechanics won't make any sense. Making a blind girl do parkour? Really? The story also went from interesting to way too dark and confusing. The price is too high for a game this short IMO. In the end, even though I found it on sale, I don't think it was worth the 4€ I paid for. I ended up uninstalling it without finishing the game, it just wasn't fun to play.

I really didn't like this game. [b][u]Lifespan :[/u][/b] If you don't try to get the collectibles, you can finish it in under 30mins and I don't see anyone playing this twice except for achievements. [b][u]Story :[/u][/b] There's a crow that gives you vague sentences all throughout the game and it ends up with a quick written epilogue that makes you feel like you've missed half the story. You're supposed to be a blind girl but the way you see feels more like you're on drugs than your blind character giving images to sounds and you're always running and jumping everywhere... [b][u]Gameplay :[/u][/b] There's a weird mechanic that enables you to "see" where you're going... but it's done horribly. Some strokes of colour appear around objects when you get close enough to things or when there are sounds next to them ( for exemple when you throw the cute hamsters to walls ). But these strokes of colour are often just chaotic and personally they gave me a headache. At first it was okay, because you're next to the sea, there's a lot of wind=noise and everything is easy to see when you get closer. But then it's all dark, the said strokes appear out of nowhere and disappear just as fast. Sometimes you see something really far ( go figure ) and when you try to reach it you bump into a huge wall. You'll get lost a lot, you will never be completely sure of where you are. There are some parts with enemies where I got stuck and the solution was (maybe?) to just go around ? But again, it's so horrible to find your way in this game that I ended up just jumping and running everywhere until I made it. What annoyed me the most was that it would seem like you could go somewhere ( like a huge forest on the side of the road ), but if you tried, it would get all buggy ( which made me feel even more sick ) and I would get kinda stuck and had to jump and run sightless until I either found my way back to the working map or was killed by the game for going too astray. [b][u]Achievements :[/u][/b] ~2h to unlock them all with a guide, much more on your own. Some will unlock for no reason, for exemple I got the "stand still for 30secondes" just by starting the game and "Complete the game in under 30 minutes" even though I took much more time. There are two grindy achievements : "Drown 50 mokos" ( the hamsters ) and "Throw 1000 mokos"... This is going to take some time, it's just sad to think it will take you more time to finish this than to finish the game. And finally, the collectibles... there are little blue lights hidden in the game, 50 to be exact and this is a nightmare. Because of the epileptic lights I really didn't want to explore and still tried and still only got half of them. There are places where you technically can go but it feels like you weren't supposed to and sometimes you even have to commit suicide to get out of there... the problem is, if you are used to hidden collectibles you're going to look in every corner, but here I would often lose a lot of time getting somewhere for nothing, add to that the fact that's it's horrible to keep track of where you are and where you're going and you'll end up running in circles going mad. [b][u]Another game with the same theme I recommend playing instead of this:[/u][/b] "Beyond eyes" which is a pretty and nice slow game and "A Blind Legend" where you actually navigate only using sound.

Before you wonder why I don't recommend this game, hear me out. I truly enjoyed this game. The unique asthetics and the design of the world is incredible. The mokos were insanely cute, I loved them to death. The soundtrack was great to listen to. Being able to sense the world form around you in shapes and colors really made me enjoy the game for it's entirety. But therein lies the problem. The game itself is just too short. There is even an achievement for beating the game in half an hour. To me, charging $15 for a game that you can beat in half an hour is just silly. The game is very well made and absolutely stunning to look at, but there just isn't enough replay value or content for me to see that price being justifiable. The demo came out over 2 years ago, so I was expecting at least 3 hours worth of game to explore. Yes there are small orbs to collect, and I do plan on going back and getting 100% of the achievements, but that $15 price is just too much for me. I would see paying half that much at the most. This is the first steam game I have refunded.