Immersive Poetry Reviews

The concept of [i]Immersive Poetry[/i] is solid, however I found that it fails to deliver on the ideas behind its construction. I love poetry, philosophy, puzzle games, and a well-told story. I went into this hoping for the existential storyline offered by franchises like [i]The Room[/i] and [i]House of DaVinci[/i], but found a walking simulator punctuated by excerpts of poetry (rarely full poems) that don't even seem to be closely tied to the story of the Wilkins Family that you are uncovering. On a more mechanical level, the graphics of the game can be rather clunky and specific levels suffer from bugs. The soundtrack is good, the maps are beautiful, but the game itself does not deliver on all that is promised. It needs refinement and further development, but it has potential.

Not a great game. It is not free of bugs, the movement speed is too slow and maybe a bit boring. But for that price you can give it a try.

From premise to execution, this game is solid. I love the poetry, the direction, the simplicity of the idea. Is it perfect? No. Is it really good for the price? Hell yes. Pick this up and educate yourself. https://youtu.be/jAekDIrBjk8

I honestly have to admit I mistook this game for a casual title where I could stroll about at my own pace. And I could, on some levels like Yellowstone, the cabin and island levels. But on some levels, the game wanted to be an action game. Which I didn't much care for, but at least the dev tried building a game around poetry. My two cents: put the journal entries before the levels. It's a lot better than letting players wander around helplessly and it makes sense of the levels. Levels in order please. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be alive, dead or neither on some levels. Again, giving the journal entry before the level would help, so would a logical progression in the game. Overall, it's pretty enough in a throwback graphics kind of way. There's nice enough music (though it is grating if you are stuck on a level searching for an object) and you get to do a bit of photography. But there is poor execution and the rules change form level to level. Stay on the path, go off the path. It tried to mix a nature walking sim with an action game and feels unbalanced as a result. But at least the dev tried something different and you can go back to roam around a level once you've finished it. I'd say it's OK for .99 cents USD, but better on sale.

I can't believe I found a game so awful that even though I only paid 50 cents for it I still feel I was ripped off. When I first started the game, the scenery looked beautiful. As long as I didn't move, it stayed that way, but as soon as I began walking and looking around the camera got jerky and blurry. There was a list of 4 things in the top left of the screen, but no instructions on what I was supposed to do with that list. After a few minutes of wandering around I guessed, correctly, that I must need to take a picture of each thing on the list. As soon as I take the 4th picture, the "mission" ends and I get a message saying I only completed 75% of the mission. What???? Mission #2 starts with me standing inside of what looks like a huge pit surrounded by rock walls. My only instruction is "explore the passages", and if I don't finish before the timer runs out I'll go insane. The deeper in I go, the darker it seems to get. Combine the darkness with the blurry vision, and I can't really see what I'm doing. Poetry lines keep coming on the screen, 2 to 4 lines at a time, fading in from the left and fading off to the right ALL AT THE SAME TIME at a very quick rate of speed. So even if I can read the first line in time, the left half of all the rest of the lines are already gone. (If you go to the screenshot page for this game, I posted a pic of the janky onscreen poetry lines.) So I'm fast-walking in what is basically a rock maze, in the dark, with blurry vision, trying to read poetry before the timer runs out. Sound fun yet? Wait, there's more!! Of course the timer runs out, so I hit 'retry'. The timer seemed to be about 15 minutes on that first attempt. On my second attempt I make all the correct turns and get through the maze within the 15 minutes, only to be told I now have to find a key somewhere in this maze with the few minutes I still have remaining. Of course, the timer expires on me again. On the third attempt, I get through the maze AND find the key in time... only to be told I now have to find the gate in order to escape. And that darn 15-minute timer is almost up again. A walking sim is supposed to bring to mind words like "slow", "relaxing", "enjoyable", and "peaceful". It is NOT supposed to be a speed-run. At this point I decided I was done with this game. That's 52 minutes, spent in frustration, that I'll never get back. And if this game still sounds interesting to you, do yourself a favor and try the free demo first.

ORIGINAL - I bought this little game on sales, and was satisfied. It is flawed (uneventful, uneven gameplay, poetry not so present), but also endearing thanks to its calm, soothing dimension. Some levels are indeed immersive, others are a little disappointing. The journals entries were what made me find the game nice, as they gave the key to the larger story. There are also 20 Steam achievements, which you can actually achieve, a bonus considering that for some games it's unfeasable if you're not a hardcore gamer. So, for a small price, you can get an unusual little game which is not perfect but rewarding in the end.

I'm not a fan of puzzle games or puzzles in games, and, regrettably, I haven't played many indie games, so for Immersive Poetry to get my attention is a pretty remarkable thing. What this game has going for it is its use of poetry in creating its worlds. Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allan Poe are all referenced, and while I would have preferred the stages to be more literal interpretations of the poems (an actual yellow wood and not Yellowstone), the fact that poetry is being used at all in a video game is a pretty revolutionary thing. Jumping from Frost to Dante was a bit jarring for me, and I ran out of time wandering Limbo. However, I was able to play the Heaven stage, and I could see a connection there between it and the first stage at Yellowstone through use of the sepulcher references. I'm willing to bet the locations and poetry all tie together, but with my loss at Limbo, I was more than happy to return to Yellowstone and watch the dragonflies flitter about by the brook. With camera in hand, that stage is where the game shines, and though the other two stages I played were different in design, Immersive Poetry is memorable for me as a poetry-inspired photo simulator.

I love poetry, and I love walking simulators, but this doesn't quite work. The poems appear on the screen, but you're often busy looking for things or trying to complete a timed level, so you aren't able to read and enjoy the poems. And they're abridged, so you only get short sections of the poems anyway. I don't care for that. The music is very beautiful, and some of the levels are nice and relaxing, but even then, it's not the best environment for reading and absorbing poetry. It's not a bad game (thought there are bugs, especially in the limbo level), but it also doesn't deliver the expected experience. That said, I did like the twist at the end of the game. I didn't expect that.

What a great little gem is this game. Although gameplay and instructions are sometimes very unclear. This game is something special, music and poems on point although a voice over for the poems or at least bigger cap size imo would have been great. It's a unique experience and now i want to read Dante.

This game is a welcome change of pace to the life consuming AAAs or seizure-inducing indie platformers out there. Even if you're not into poetry or walking simulators, you will enjoy yourself! Great value for the price. Update (1st content update): Great addition to the game. It's lovely to walk the woods. The quality-of-life changes and fixes from launch until now are also really nice. Update 2: There have been a lot of updates since my last update to this review. This is great. Now there is controller support and yet again a new level, on top of bug fixes. It seems the trend nowadays is "release and forget". Not with this one!