Firmament Reviews

If Curie is your least favorite Fallout 4 companion, you will hate this game. Maybe it was because I just came off playing the Riven remake, but this game was a major flop for me. The narrator is annoying, the puzzles are unenjoyable and clunky, and the story is nonexistent. I wasn't sure it was possible for Cyan to swing and miss on this scale--they talked this game up for years prior to release, and I was so excited to bag it on sale. For me, my disappointment with this game really came down to three things, all of which Cyan has historically been stellar in their handling: story, world, and puzzle design. Beginning with puzzle design--the puzzles simply aren't well-designed, in my opinion. They're clunky, awkward, and rely exclusively on manipulating machines. There's no cool "learn this new writing/numbering system and associate clues with numbers in order to find out a code" here, largely because outside of the sockets for your Adjunct, there's literally nothing TO interact with in this world. There's no "write this down, it'll be handy later." You're thrown into areas with puzzles that move and do things, but you have no idea what the end goal is. You know it's a puzzle to solve, but you're unsure what that solution looks like so you spend the first half hour fumbling in the dark, trying to find the goal so you can work towards it. This theme of being thrown into the dark is carried by every single puzzle in the game. These puzzles seemingly are designed with the delusion that their solution should intuitively come to the player. Moving on to the world design, don't get me wrong, it's beautiful. Each of the three realms has its own theme, and are filled with towering structures and mountains. You're excited each time you step into a new world, but that excitement wears off pretty quickly. The more you walk around, the more you realize that although these worldspaces are huge in vertical scale, their actual playable area is...really small. I feel like Riven, made in 1997, had a larger worldspace than this game did overall, and even for an indie studio, I feel like that's a bit of a low blow on Cyan's part. Tied into the puzzle design, this game also doesn't reward you when you solve puzzles--you'll gain access to a tiny new area where you'll immediately be hit with a new puzzle that's even more frustrating than the one you just finished. The sound design also falls incredibly short here. There's a bit of atmospheric synth music, but the tiny things in previous games that made this world feel real simple isn't there. No footstep sounds, minimal sounds when interacting with anything, and overall a feeling of sterility. No one *lives* in these worlds, and that's a bummer coming from a company that used to have "turn off the lights, turn up the speakers, and let Myst become your world" as a slogan. And finally, the biggest disappointment coming from a studio like Cyan--the story is simply not there. Maybe I'm spoiled to Cyan's OG titles that I grew up playing, like Myst and Riven, but one thing I have always loved about Cyan's games is that story is woven into every detail of their games. Journals, books, items in drawers, all filled with not only relevant info for solving puzzles later on, but story context, character details, pre-history, and little things that make the worlds feel completely alive and immersive. Firmament shares none of this, and the story is only told in vague narrations by your mentor (whose name you never even learn?) in a way that never really explains anything. You're only given any context for WHY you're even there at the end of the game, with no real resolution. You started the game alone, and you end the game alone, but with an annoying French NPC trying to make you feel guilty for something you have no memory of. The premise of this game is AMAZING, don't get me wrong. But given that the premise is never explained until the long monologue just before the end of the game, you don't get to enjoy the setting at all. You are a Keeper. You don't know what that is, other than a janitor for these three small realms that are static and don't do anything unless you're making machines do things, yet somehow that job is of paramount importance. You hear big, capitalized worlds like Threshold and The Embrace, but never really find out what they are. The ending "twist" is predictable from the beginning. I found the mentor to be more annoying than anything else, but maybe it's just because I find French accents annoying. In addition to all of this, there's annoying bugs that threaten to break the game. I got stuck on a stairwell for ten minutes because I had the audacity to run, and got caught on the banister. Collision meshes in this game are a dumpster fire, and made several of the puzzles much harder than they needed to be. The cherry on top is that this game costs $35. For a game like Riven, or especially Obduction, that would be worth it. But if you pay more than $20 for this game, you are going to want at least part of your money back. I suppose, for me, this game falls apart because I grew up playing Cyan's other games, and more recently, Obduction and the Riven remake. I know what this company is capable of. By itself, if you've never played any of the Myst games, or really any of Cyan's other games, Firmament is a fine game that is thin, but stands on its feet okay when you have no expectation of it. But when you compare it to what it *could* be, it feels empty, hollow, and cold. Sorely disappointing coming from such a wonderful studio.

At first I gave a thumbs down and requested a refund immediately after 30 minutes of game play because I got stuck with the first crane (reached with 3 minutes of game start). I moved the crane to one direction until it's out of sight, then when I move back it simply got stuck in both direction. As I read the other's comment before buying this game about soft locking in various place and I'm still in the 2 hours of refundable period, I rushed to request for a refund which is my "safe bet". As I wait for refund, I continue to try the game and finally got the crane to work. [spoiler] At first I move the crane just left and right, but it got stuck on both direction so I though it's somehow bugged. But then I discover I can also move the load up and down, so after a bit of juggling it's no longer stuck. [/spoiler] The remaining game goes smooths and without any bugs. The graphics are very nice, sounds are nice, FPS is smooth, no stuttering besides during occasional auto save. I cancelled the refund, finished the whole game almost without any help, except the "broken cathode" which I found some hint from the steam community. Overall, some puzzle are easy and some are very challenging. Total play time 15 hours, a short game but still worth the money. Thumbs UP.

I have to agree with the other reviews. the settings looked cool, the puzzles were underwhelming, difficult to figure out on purpose but easy to solve by playing around. you will spend atleast 25% of your time playing this game just waiting and walking (tip, caps lock can lock you on run). the story seemed interesting and the set dressing was nice, though there Needed to be more lead up, more clues, more documents and journals to Really give a sense of what was going on and the story. (tip 2, turn off the conveyance orb animations, each one takes like a full minute as a loading screen). the game is also Very taxing on the cpu/gpu, I have never had my fan run audibly for a puzzle game before, usually its games with over the top graphics or calculations (looking at you stellaris) the ending is super confusing and really clashes with everything else in the story, can't explain why without spoilers

Very fun and occasionally frustrating but extremely satisfying in the end. Can't wait to play this again and for the next Cyan Worlds game. Remember to save often, there are still some glitches in the game that can make you stuck and thus have to load another save file.

This game has awesome puzzles... but... I was falling several times through the map and had to start the whole section agian. I was stuck several times into objects. I want to love this game because it's visually so stunning and the atmosphere is relaxing plus the concept is good but it's really really annoying with those bugs.

This game is really beautiful and exactly what I was hoping for. I think I avoided it because of the name or the logo or something but it's just like the other puzzle and exploration games that I love to play. Highly recommended!

Wonderful game with a couple clear flaws. Recommended for fans of Cyan's Myst, Riven or Obduction, or fans of similar games like Quern. [h2]The good[/h2] [list] [*] Great puzzles as usual. Like their other games you have to sink in to the puzzles a bit, these aren't panel puzzles. Some of them are quite rewarding. [*] Stunning visuals [*] Good music, but not constant and overwhelming. [/list] [h2]The bad[/h2] [list] [*] While the voice acting itself is quite good, the narration is just not well written, and doesn't flow with the game. It's clumsy and gets in the way of the grandeur of the game and makes pacing awkward. I'd have preferred the main story be dropped in diaries or something. Pro tip: The narration is not necessary for the game at all. Shortly after visiting "The Swan" I decided to just mute it and turn off subtitles. I played all the way through to the credits this way (though the ending was very slow due .... A while after finishing, I reloaded a save to hear some of the final narration. Some interesting concepts but I am indeed glad I skipped it the first time though. Massive exposition dump.) [/list] [h2]The ugly[/h2] [list] [*] Some of the puzzles are a bit finicky, even buggy. Sometimes have to reload saves or work around things in other ways. I don't expect this from Cyan, especially a couple years after release. [*] Ladders. Fix them. [/list] So, my recommendation: mute dialog, hide subtitles, and enjoy this game as if it were another Myst.

Beautiful game keeping the feeling of Myst etc but with a modern twist at the end. Though I don't get the reason for the realms given the ending. Only issue is I found the puzzles hard to solve and depended on walk-throughs.