STONE Reviews

I thought I'd like this game.. it seemed promising... however... It lacks serious polish, even with it's interesting and varied soundtrack, it's interesting setting and style... the characters are just so stilted, the dialogue delivery lacks finance and Alex feels about as stiff as a dry breadstick and as flat as a 2x4 as a result. And it's more software end then actually bad voice acting that makes it suffer the most. The gameplay is about as linear as a point to point sprint in a racing game. This game had so much potential.. but just needs to be met with a buffing machine.

Stone is a passable walking sim. You play a drunk, drug-addled PI who wakes up to find his partner missing. For the next hour or so you stumble hopelessly around town talking to people to try find out what happened. The overall story is okay, but the dialog is forced and the characters don't come across as believable. What pushes this game into thumbs up territory for me is the soundtrack. The tunes do a great job putting you into the sleazy world of this washed-up douchebag and his dodgy mates. Keep your expectations low, but if you don't mind janky walking sims and this one is on sale it might be worth a go.

This game is the epitome of what a singular vision, communicated well by the creator, but made by a team can be. It's a love letter to a genre understood by few, in a new medium and a genre (walking sim) that is readily dismissed by many. If you enjoyed Firewatch, Gone Home, Tacoma, Dear Esther and others as I did, then this game is perfect for you. It's chock full of Australian wit and colloquialisms that make it both representative of what the country is able to produce in terms of art and a hilarious drumming of the country's own issues, while remaining accessible. It's also a game that never over stays its welcome nor does it have the obscene density of a Thomas Pynchon novel, which makes it a great introduction to the genre of stoner noir.

So............this is not a great game, and it has numerous flaws.........but it's also not entirely awful (I seriously wouldn't recommend you buy it mind you, unless it's on a [b][u]DEEP[/u][/b] sale! This is a third-person "mystery" where you play a hard partying koala trying to track down his missing lover, although for all intents and purposes it's essentially a visual novel as there is no real detecting to do, and there certainly aren't multiple outcomes or anything like that. Just wander around (and the objectives in the upper left of the screen certainly leave no mystery about what you're to do next) and click your mouse and/or press E and the story will unfold. *[b]Positives[/b]* -Story- It's actually not a bad story, and if the game were put together competently (hint: It's not) this would be a lot more compelling of a game. -Graphics- They're not great, but they're colourful and the models for the various animals are decent, and there's even a few nice little graphical touches, like how the screen develops a blur if you have too many drinks (not that it lasts beyond the building you're in.....just leave and, BOOM, instant sobriety). -Music/Movies- The soundtrack is decent (even if there's WAY too much crappy hip-hop and techno shite compared to the amount of rock music) and there's opportunities to watch entire public domain movies at the theatre or on your television (NIght of the LIving Dead, etc.) which is a nice touch. *[b]Negatives[/b]* -Voice Acting- How on bloody earth can a game made in Australia feature such weak, inconsistently accented voice acting?!?!? I mean, you're hiring Aussies to do your voices, hire someone for the main character that actually sounds like an Ozzie 100% of the time rather than drifting in and out of some bizarre, almost Australian accent similar to Kevin Kostner's attempts at an English accent in that shite Robin Hood movie from decades ago. Some of the characters are okay, but even the ones with decent (and consistent!) accents deliver some of the weakest line readings in video game history. Truly not good -Voice Syncing- It's terrible. Really. Old Japanese kaiju movies had better, more synced up dubbing than this. It's distractingly bad. -Pacing- It's soooooooooo slow, and I don't just mean in terms of plot progression, I mean character movement, line delivery, huge pauses between lines, everything that could make the game feel punchier and more responsive feels like treacle. -Character Freedom- Despite the fact that there's multiple locations on the world map, three of them are meaningless (the record store just allows you to listen to music, the theatre just plays a movie for you to watch, and the sauna just features the protagonist sitting in a steam filled room) and the rest have perfunctory interactions (with badly, sloooooooooooooooowly delivered, poorly read dialogue) that will only occur if it's that time in the story-line.....otherwise there's nothing to do beyond progress the plot). So, it has some good points (decent story-line if someone else was writing and delivering the dialogue, colourful graphics with some nice touches, and some potential to interact with a wide selection of music and movies within the game), but the rest is dragged down with a bloody anchor by the rather poor voice acting, line delivery, lack of in-game freedom, lethargic dialogue and a raft of minor narrative issues. At least it's over quickly and there's no bugs that I encountered.... ........... .......................... Sadly not recommended.

[h1]George Costanza Simulator[/h1] Seriously, the story was terrible unless you like a sour, grouchy mishap laden miserable alcoholic's tale. You may feel like you need to rinse the alcoholic off you. If story is a thing you care about, this isn't the game for you. However, and the reason I considered giving this a positive rating; the soundtrack and the in game classic movies, which you can frequent whenever you please during or after you complete the story (which shouldn't take more than an hour and a half or so). There are six full length classic films including one of the Living Dead flicks. So, right there, if you just wanted to catch up on some good classic films, you'll get another 8ish hours out of the game. Speaking of which, after you finish the game, it basically becomes a digital movie theater and club with a sauna as well. So, for me, the actual game content was absolutely not worth the price of entry or even the hour and a half it took to get through it. However, the post game casual lounge absolutely is IMO (at the currently discounted rate of $3.99 anyway). So, a tale of two experiences I suppose. [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]

Stone is the vibe. wonderfull story with a surprising ending. laugh, live on. It takes a koala to tell a story so human. Shame the soundtrack is not available for purchase. I'd so buy it! PLZ DEVS! MAKE IT HAPPEN!

I'm 50/50 really... On the one hand it is really cute and feels very personal on some levels. I think the devs mean really well. And the soundtrack is super. However, the writing would have needed to be a little bit more snappy, at times the voice lines overlap, the mystery is easily figured out, and the overall tempo is off. It could have been elevated with better voice actors, but hey, it is what it is. It's pretty unique I'd say, and I appreciate that. But it could had been so much more.

I played this game live on stream. Everyone who came in to see loved the game it was so great. Gay Aussie stoner koala whats not to love. True aussie culture so great. Love it. The narrative felt so real I feel like it wasnt a story at all, but my real life. Please continue to make more games so I can feel alive again.

There are very few things to like. Stone is a fun character and probably the best thing about the game. The game has a cool aesthetic, but it kind of falls flat in every other way. It's really not even a game, it's more of an interactive movie. Or at least that's what it feels like it's supposed to be, but it's not very interactive at all. You just walk around and go through a cycle of talking to the same people over and over again. Same 4 people in the same 4 environments. That's really all you do, with a few random slightly different things thrown in. I found it weird how the story progressed as well, with Les or somebody saying go talk to this person, go talk to that person... and then when you talk to them, it actually gives you more info than you had previously for no apparent reason, even though you just talked to them. It really doesn't make much sense from a logical standpoint. It's really horrible as far as gameplay goes, and the story isn't great either. I lost interest very fast. It's disappointing when you start up the game and realize almost immediately that it's extremely linear with no real room to explore. Just an overall disappointing game with little to offer. It's simply not very good and I wouldn't recommend it.

I've finished the game now and would recommend it with these caveats: If you like walking simulators; If you are willing to pay the asking price for an experience roughly two hours long (not counting the included jukebox, movies, and replay value of choosing different responses -- I went the nice route but I bet the jerk responses are pretty amusing); If you don't mind a story that's slowly, and a bit oddly, paced. Since I meet those criteria, I enjoyed it.