A wonderfully simple idea that had boat loads of potential that was wasted away.

As per usual, I put in some hours playing and streaming this title before coming to a conclusion about its overall performance as a story driven game. Not through lack of trying to like the game, to which I do on some levels, its just other parts of the game felt as though it was lacking and the hype surrounding this game before its release was unjustified. Let me explain in this review.

Narrative.

• There are three characters which you can play in this game, I took on the role of Arthur Hastings for my live streams, with plans to complete the game with the other playable characters, Sally Boyle and Ollie Starkey, but with my experience, that plan was thrown out of the window.

• The premiss of the game is set in an alternate timeline after England lost WWII to the Germans, and is located on an island called, Wellington Wells. Because the population had such regret towards there actions that led to the German forces willingly leaving there town alone, a hallucinogenic drug called, Joy was invented to make the population happy and to forget the past. The Joy, apart from having many side effects, also helps the population forget that they are living in a dystopian world.

• At the start of Arthur's story, he refuses to take a Joy pill after seeing an article sent for redaction involving his brother, Percy who he wants to remember, and its effects where off at the worst possible time. While on the joy he takes part in a celebration involving a pinata, at the moment of hitting it, thinking that sweets will burst out, his joy wears off and realises that it was blood from a small animal, he stands and watches his co-workers eat it, almost throwing up, they then realize he is not on his Joy and shout, Downer, and Arthur flees.

• After seeing the article with his brother and realizes the effect the Joy pill is having, he sets out to escape Wellington Wells in order to find Percy. During this effort, he is helped by various other characters along the way, including the other playable characters, Sally and Ollie, as well as learning some truths along the way like the Joy is loosing its effectiveness, the 'Very bad thing' that the population of the island town did to get their freedom from the Germans was to give them every child under the age of 13, and Arthur swapped his ID with that of his brother, Percy, sending him to Germany instead of him.

• There are a lot of twists and turns that expose more of this ever evolving story, but too much of the plot is given away too soon and smaller, less significant details about the story is given too you the further you play the game. I feel this takes away from the game as a whole as you already know the possible outcome of the story, instead of it revealing itself towards the end of the gameplay. It is not as engaging as I hoped and one of the reasons that puts me off playing it further.

• There are of course side stories that intermingle with the main narrative in the form of the side quests and missions you undertake on your journey. This gives you a more intermit knowledge of the life of people on the island who take the Joy pill and those that are unable or refuse to take the Joy. Almost like describing classes in today's society with the upper class not on Joy but with all the power, the working class who are compliant, and the lower class who are left out of the main society/town and frowned upon by everyone else. Complete with law enforcement to control entrance and exits to the town.

• While I don't appreciate the 'order' in which the narrative plays out, I can appreciate the attention to detail in creating a structured society that feels full, with each character having there own story to tell. Its just a shame that it is not enough to keep myself engaged enough to see what else the game has in store.

Visuals.

• This is where this game shines more than anything else. The stylized world that the Devs created is remarkable, it is different enough to let you know that it is not based on reality, but at the same time, it looks close enough that if there was an alternative timeline, you could envision yourself as being a part of it.

• The visual comparison between the Utopian, drug induced reality, the dystopian actual reality and the wasteland reality when coming down off Joy is comparable to that of the Soul Reaver games from the late 90's where the environment can go from one reality to an alternative seamlessly with no breaks in the transitions. As you would expect with someone taking an hallucinogenic drug like Joy, the world seems Utopian, vibrant and enjoyable to be a part of, with the bright colour pallet used in the environment reflecting that, regardless of where you are on the map or which part of society you are in. at the opposite end of the scale you have the 'comedown', which is when the Joy wears off and there is a period of time where the world is decayed and looks more like a wasteland, again reflected in the colour pallet, using more earthy colours like browns, yellows, olives and blacks, but that is also enhanced further by the assets in the game being changed, full green trees are changed to dead ones with no leaves, grass is brown and yellowing, building look like they are in severe disrepair and even the NPC's have different textures, making them look more tattered. And then we have the middle ground which is reality, not on Joy and not on a comedown, it is the world as it is, in the towns, it looks similar but less vibrant and less energetic, outside the towns, you can see the true dystopian world as it stands. What is more impressive, is that the transitions between each of these reality's is seamless, with the mechanics playing a part into how this is reflected across to the players.

• However, there is very heavy use of copy and paste mentality that is very evident regardless of where you are on the map. There is at most 10, maybe more NPC's that are copied and pasted all over the map, the police officers all look identical regardless of the different voices used, yes there are variants in the uniform but the build, look and face of them are all the same, the same can be said for every other character you encounter except those that are there to help tell the narrative. It is the same situation with map assets like the building in particular are copied and pasted just to enlarge the map size, when the story can be told more effectively on a smaller map, this will also help with gameplay.

• When you first start playing the game, it seems as though a lot of attention to detail has gone into every aspect of the game, but once you progress a couple of hours into the game, you start to see a lot of repetitiveness regardless as to where you go, and for me, that is a sign of lazy development, regardless to who the development studio is. With Microsoft bolstering the development of this game, I would of expected to see more diversity in the assets and NPC's used, instead we get a lot of copy and pasting going on which is very off putting. Don't get me wrong, the game at first glance is stunning, but when it comes to combining the visuals with the gameplay, it is very off putting.

Gameplay.

• The first thing I would like to mention is the user interface and menus. The menus by themselves are fairly simple and straight forward with clear indications on how to navigate that particular menu, but when navigating between them, it is very clumsy and takes some time to get used to. Yes it is clearly marked how to navigate, but because it is an unusual way of doing so it is confusing at first. You have to use the triggers to navigate between the menus, and in those menus, you have to use the wing buttons. This leads to some initial confusion as you try to navigate through which I found irritating. Most other games have a more simplified menu system and use the D-pad for navigation. But after about 4 hours of game play, it became easier, with the odd fumbling in between.

• The game itself has its merits and its down sides. Walking, running, interacting with the environment is all fairly straight forward and lends itself very well to how the game is presented, but when interacting with NPC's, it feels more awkward. When in combat, it is very clumsy with limited control, yes you can fight effectively, but during the fight, because the animations, and user commands are so slow, it makes it feel very disconnected, like watching someone else play the game. To that end the NPC's AI is among the worst I have seen in modern gaming. When fighting NPC's, there delayed reactions is far worse than yours, they will sometimes, more so when there is 2 or more of them fighting you, just stand there and let you hit them and wont react back to you. The only sense of anything that looks natural is during the cut scenes, anything past that, it is, well, disconnected.

• There are stealth abilities to use and this is by far the best way in which to play the game, as it feels much more natural and a hell off a lot smoother, but this is not always possible, so when you are in combat, you have two options... run and hide or stay and stumble your way to success.

• The map size is also an issue. I know that there are doors you can use that act as a fast travel system, but in order to use this system, you have to find them. I don't have an issue with this as it does help in the right circumstance, like Assassins Creed Origins. But that game is based on reality, this one isn't, and a smaller map design would have helped much more. Not only would you save time exploring, but would be much quicker getting from A to B, and you would not notice the blatant cut and paste mentality of the game. I think I spent 20 minutes during one stream just running to another location on the map. I don't want to do that, I'm playing the game to explore a story. It is a prime example of padding to extend play time. If you take a look at games like Resident Evil 1, Metal Gear Solid, hell even the first Silent Hill game, the maps used when compared to today's are tiny, yet they each have hours upon hours of content to explore and be a part off, easy to navigate round and tell the story in a simplistic, but effective manor. Some games like this title missed the mark on how to tell the story through the gameplay and game design.

Conclusion.

• It is a shame really, I was sucked onto the hype train and had high expectations for this game, and even placed it into a top 5 new games to buy list. Instead we are left with a game that struggles to tell its story effectively, is let down by poor combat mechanics, clumsy user interface and far too much padding. However the visuals are stunning and to those that are more used to playing RPG style games will appreciate this game more due to how much wasted time there is and the amount of padding used to extend the gameplay.

6.5 / 10

• It is a clear cut example of corporate meddling as you can see where the indie game began and where the corporate game got involved. I feel the game would have played much better had Microsoft left well alone.

What did you think about this game?
Let us know in the comments below.

If there is a game you want us to Stream and/or review, let us know.

Thanks for reading.

Stu @TechMojo

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