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[More_Badass]

Are people really finding the controls to be bad? I was playing on a X1 controller and had no issues whatsoever. Six felt fluid yet weighy to control, exact movement would make the game feel cheap and unrealistic, maybe even breaking a few encounters because it would be exploiting the design built around the current control scheme. Then again, I grew up playing games with this feel of movement so it's like my second nature.

The only issue I had was falling of edges a few times, but overall I found the controls quite good

 

[GaimeGuy]

Are people really finding the controls to be bad? I was playing on a X1 controller and had no issues whatsoever. Six felt fluid yet weighy to control, exact movement would make the game feel cheap and unrealistic, maybe even breaking a few encounters because it would be exploiting the design built around the current control scheme. Then again, I grew up playing games with this feel of movement so it's like my second nature.

It did look like floe was struggling a bit with the movement on stream to me, but he played first with a stick and then with keyboard. Probably controls better with a pad, but with some jank.

 

[shmoglish]

All I do in inside is walk from left to right. There is nothing more to it. To me this is the definition of a walking simulator. It has no challenge at all. It's boring.

Before you judge a game, play it. Thank you.

 

[Jopie]

Are people really finding the controls to be bad? I was playing on a X1 controller and had no issues whatsoever. Six felt fluid yet weighy to control, exact movement would make the game feel cheap and unrealistic, maybe even breaking a few encounters because it would be exploiting the design built around the current control scheme. Then again, I grew up playing games with this feel of movement so it's like my second nature.

I died probably close to 15 times because I couldn't get the game to let me do the exact thing it was expecting me to. Falling off ledges when trying to do nothing more than walk straight, failing to climb when what I needed to do was climb, failing to grab on to items where the puzzle revolved around grabbing on to things, trying to hide under something and it not working, trying to grab on to something to swing and it not working. I switched controllers at one point to make sure it wasn't my controller going wonky on me.

 

[Shin-Ra]

The only jump I had trouble with was the bar counter left to the trellis/wine rack thing. That's also the part where I thought I was taking the 'wrong' route for a hidden area but it turned out to be the way forward.

 

[Wozman23]

Thats pretty much the Outlast games. No combat whatsoever. Just doom, exposition and running, with some crappy stealth bits for variety.

Yeah, as I was writing that out, I realized it does sound like Outlast. But with Outlast, you are relying on a lot of the traditional tropes of the horror genre, and you kind of go in knowing what you're going to get. I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of an Edith Finch style, where you're not really sure what the game is prior to release, and it just starts with you running (and maybe platforming like Mirror's Edge) and you piece together the story and you're motivation to continue fleeing through the environment, but at a more rapid pace than the traditional walking sim - like playing a walking sim on fast forward, or a walking sim on cocaine.

Edith Finch only proved how ridiculous "walking simulator" is; the fact that you got people calling Inside a walking simulator just shows it's nothing but a dismissive label when people think the gameplay is boring or worthless or whatnot. That it's used as the common name for stuff like Edith Finch is kind of messed up. Like I said in the Edith Finch thread, it would be like still calling first person shooters "Doom clones" in 2017

After the first time of labeling a game as a 'first person narrative-driven exploration game' I usually switch to the term 'walking sim' for simplicity - even though it comes with the negative connotation - because anyone who enjoys the game will dismiss the pejorative title. In the past, I've been closer to the hateful 'walking sim' crowd with many of the releases like Dear Esther, Gone Home, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture failing to impress and often failing to even be interesting enough for me to complete. If you can't find interest in the world or its story, all you have is the walking, and if you're a gameplay lover that's tough to overcome.

I definitely agree that Edith Finch isn't like the other walking sims. It's the first one I've walked away from impressed. Yeah, you still do a lot of slow walking, but it has a lot of other engaging traits thanks to its method of storytelling, varied styles of interaction in vignettes, and changes in art direction - the last of which is something The Unfinished Swan also excelled at. I'd sum Edith Finch up as an evolutionary walking sim that will make you rethink walking sims.

And simply walking left to right in Inside would work well for about 2 minutes you got to a puzzle or platforming section. Labeling Inside as a walking sim simply because the character walks is about as absurd as calling a bird a cloud simply because its in the sky. It's such an ignorant perspective that there's no point in even arguing against it.

Are people really finding the controls to be bad? I was playing on a X1 controller and had no issues whatsoever. Six felt fluid yet weighy to control, exact movement would make the game feel cheap and unrealistic, maybe even breaking a few encounters because it would be exploiting the design built around the current control scheme. Then again, I grew up playing games with this feel of movement so it's like my second nature.

Not bad, but there are a few issues with the 3D space. I too fell off a few narrow walkways, and in one instance couldn't gauge depth accurately

Spoiler

in the Kitchen I chose to climb the plates on the table and died twice because I thought I had to jump into the background when all I had to do was jump straight up. (Upon playing it a second time I found another path where you could climb up some shelves to achieve the same goal)

It also took a bit of time to get used to the buttons. I love that there wasn't a tutorial and only gave hints when you meandered in a room for too long. But on the other hand, not explaining the mechanics can be outputting for some. I read one review on Metacritic that's weighing down the score with a 40/100, and the main complaint was that to climb you had to hold both square and R2. ??? There were similar complaints with another favorite of mine, Snake Pass. It may very well be my GOTY, but it got average reviews because a lot of people just couldn't grasp the controls and didn't give them enough time. Some people even proclaimed they were broken. As a guy who mastered them relatively quickly, and experienced an insane level of satisfaction due to it, that insinuation was infuriating.

 

[Jocund]

Just call them light adventures. You're doing a lot of the same work of classic adventure titles, albeit through a contemporary lens.

 

[dragos495]

Finished. This one had been near the top of my most anticipated list since the Hunger trailer, and it didn't disappoint.

My only complaint is that it wasn't longer. I'd guess it took me somewhere around 4 hours. Not that it was a bad thing, but I just didn't want it to end. Whereas I was fine with the brevity of Inside (mainly because I thought all the build up before the mind-melting ending was too similar to Limbo) I just wanted Little Nightmares to dig a bit deeper down the creepy hole. It really established a unique atmosphere that doesn't compare with anything else.

I was hoping for a macabre LittleBigPlanet, and that is what we got, but I'd have loved to have seen what they could have done with a bigger budget and some more man power.

It's hard to complain though because we got a really lean, quality experience that really didn't have any lulls or filler.

Things I loved most:

Spoiler

The way the Maw lists back and forth.
Those moments when the camera pans out.
Every creepy, grotesque character design and the disturbing audio to go along with them.
Hugging the kind of cute mini-Pyramid Head gnomes.
The Star Wars-like garbage room with whatever that creature was.
Seeing the outside and climbing the Maw.
Running from those crawling tubs of lard.
Meeting and battling the last boss.
Devouring all those guys at the end.

Six kind of reminds me of Yarny from Unravel a bit, who I think was one of the best animated characters in recent memory. She has a certain charm in her animation that make you empathize with her more-so than a lot of games.

Just gotta track down one more gnome in the third level, and figure out a few other trophies.

I agree with every word you said! Especially the spoiler part!

BUT... six got nothing on Yarny. I remember vividly the numerous times me and my gf went "awwww" during unravel, but I realise the game was made specifically that way.

Little nightmares says it all in the title.

If you're like me and like to watch other people play games, here is my complete playthrough, ~3.5h

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hASf939Bziw

 

[HueyFreeman]

Edith Finch only proved how ridiculous "walking simulator" is; the fact that you got people calling Inside a walking simulator just shows it's nothing but a dismissive label when people think the gameplay is boring or worthless or whatnot. That it's used as the common name for stuff like Edith Finch is kind of messed up. Like I said in the Edith Finch thread, it would be like still calling first person shooters "Doom clones" in 2017

It's derisive and offensive to games that are usually hugely heartfelt and labors of love for the teams that make them, and very often for the players that play them. I realize there is a population of players that will never play them or enjoy them, but that doesn't justify it. I kind of hope it becomes a banned term here, it's more than just stupid at this point - it's totally become perjorative.

Just call them light adventures. You're doing a lot of the same work of classic adventure titles, albeit through a contemporary lens.

This so much - these games often have myst like puzzles in them or point and click-esque mechanics, and yet nobody had a reductive, insulting label for them.

 

[MoonGred]

Err, just finished the bar section, game crashed. Load it up again and now my save is corrupted and deleted.

As much as I was enjoying the game I'm not all that keen to play through the first parts again.

This was on a ps4 pro.

 

[AmethystEnd]

Edith Finch only proved how ridiculous "walking simulator" is; the fact that you got people calling Inside a walking simulator just shows it's nothing but a dismissive label when people think the gameplay is boring or worthless or whatnot. That it's used as the common name for stuff like Edith Finch is kind of messed up. Like I said in the Edith Finch thread, it would be like still calling first person shooters "Doom clones" in 2017

Thank you for saying this. The "Walking Simulator" label pissed me off even back at Gone Home where it may have been most apt.

 

[Wozman23]

BUT... six got nothing on Yarny. I remember vividly the numerous times me and my gf went "awwww" during unravel, but I realise the game was made specifically that way.

I won't argue with you there. Six definitely doesn't have the cuteness factor, and it is going to be hard for any character to beat Yarny for me. I don't think Unravel got enough respect for just how well it was animated, whether it be Yarny pulling his yarn back into himself, reacting to the environmental elements, or all the transitional animations.

Six has a lot of similar empathetic animations that give her character. When I think back about Yarny, I remember him often being a bit clumsy, tripping and stumbling. I get that same feeling when Six pulls a piece of wood from a door only to have it hit her and make her fall down, or the way her body buckles to absorb large falls. And the pose she starts off in after a death really conveys the dire situation. Little details like that really take characters to another level.

 

[Granjinha]

Just finished it for the second time and oh man

Spoiler

if you hug the little guys they actually appear at the ending. I didn't do that the first playthrough

 

[N° 2048]

Too much hype here I'm about to explode.

My copy gets here Monday ahhh the wait

 

[MarineMountie]

This game is eerie as all hell. Really enjoying it.

 

[More_Badass]

Regarding Six:

Spoiler

Are we assuming she's normal size and the world outsized, or is she small?

I imagine a twisted Alice In The Wonderland, a normal girl waking up in this place

 

[Wozman23]

Regarding Six:

Spoiler

Are we assuming she's normal size and the world outsized, or is she small?

I imagine a twisted Alice In The Wonderland, a normal girl waking up in this place

Spoiler

If you flip that around it's even more terrifying to think about. If the world is huge, that means that all those twisted characters are also huge. Long Arms McGee and the various degrees of morbidly obese are already creepy enough assuming typical human size. So I'm going to assume she is just small to avoid even worse nightmares.

What other things do we have to gauge a sense of scale?
The Six-sized infants
That 'normal looking' humanoid who gave you your first meal
Rats (which seem to mirror real world rats if Six is small)
Gnomes, in line with rats
Those lanky legs of the person who hanged themselves in the beginning.
The piano was Six-sized.

Also, who wore all those Six-sized shoes?

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Too much hype here I'm about to explode.

My copy gets here Monday ahhh the wait

Mine Friday. But I keep coming in to read the text between the white bars.

 

[Emu-Fred]

I'm surprised by how short it was, but nonetheless it was fantastic game just like edith finch. This is easily becoming best year of gaming for me.

Also question, is there an alternate ending if you hug the nomes and smash all statues?

 

[Lijik]

has anyone gotten their codes for the tengu mask yet? i filled out the form on the last day it was available and forgot how long it was supposed to take for them to send codes

edit- of course the first thing i see after making this post is a news blurb on steam that they're being sent out on the 3rd

 

[More_Badass]

Edit: started a spoiler thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1366309

Time for my second very slow study-every-detail playthrough

Some thoughts on the first chapter:
-

Spoiler

Is the beginning supposed to imply that Six has been trapped/living in the bowels of the Maw for quite some time? For one, she wakes from a nightmare of seeing the woman, so the Lady and the Maw isn't some sudden unexpected thing, and her suitcase bed tucked way seems like a kind of hidey hole (akin to Newt hiding in the vents in Aliens). Plus there are pictures pinned up on the suitcase, like she's been there a while and it's something she wants to remember

-

Spoiler

Curious that the hanging guy seems to be of normal dimensions, at least compared to Six. Both the chair and mattress seems regular human sized. Since we see no one else with a similar lanky frame, I wonder if he was someone else also trapped. There's a letter on the floor next to the chair

-

Spoiler

Are the handprints on the fridge supposed to be Six's? They seem to be around the right height. Had that been her food supply since she had been hiding out? It being empty now would explain the starvation hunger pangs and why she would have to finally leave her hiding place now rather than before

-

Spoiler

The knotted toilet paper rope. Could that have been Six first escaped that area?

-

Spoiler

What kids are playing in that room with the seesaw, swings, and toy train?

-

Spoiler

And then we find them. My first time, I thought those were cribs and the things inside were kids petrified by the eye in the other room. But no, it's a room full of sleeping children, breathing heavily, twisting and turning in their slumber.
The rooms outside have metal doors with narrow window slits, like cells? The hung body seems like the right size for one of those rooms...

Is there some kind of twisted breeding program going on? Considering that the Janitor comes down here, the electrified barred gates, and that there are cages nearby, I wonder if this is some kind of prison/"farm", that's where they breed their "livestock" for the feast

Could Six have been one of these kids? They do seem to be close to her size

-

Spoiler

If this was some kind of prison/nursery, the normal sized cafeteria, where the person throws her the food during the first starving moment, makes more sense then. Also why that person would share food with her and why that room had barred windows

-

Spoiler

That whole area is separate from the main kitchen/guest area, as if to prevent escape, complete with drawbridge

 

[Melchiah]

I'm kind of having a mixed experience with this. I adore the artstyle, presentation, music and atmosphere. And the puzzles themselves are straight forward and communicated fairly well. But the trail and error nature of the enemy encounters are just frustrating. Like I've had enemies hoover me into the hands like magnetism for seemingly no reason.

I feel like the camera and movement is the biggest thing I dislike about this game. The presentation is fantastic and the 2D but-not-really has loads of potential but the amount of times I've fell off a straight walkway because this game fails to communicate depth really grated on me. This in tandem with bad collision detection and shitty checkpoints literally sucks me out of every scene whenever I start getting immersed.

I had exactly the same issues in the first two chapters. Luckily, it got better and less frustrating after that, or I just got used to it.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Went into Steam for the first time in awhile to pick up Edith Finch, after hearing too many good things that made it sound riiiiiight up my alley.

This game got put in my recommended queue, so I clicked on it, and for the first time in a very long time, bought a game off the trailer alone.

I think I'm actually gonna give this a run first before I get to Edith Finch, in fact.

 

[HueyFreeman]

Surprised how much I'm enjoying the platforming. It's rough around the edges but I never knew I wanted this kind of 2.5D platforming until now. I really think these guys should make an LBP game with these mechanics.

 

[Sanpei]

Well....


this was awesome...

 

[Melchiah]

It's derisive and offensive to games that are usually hugely heartfelt and labors of love for the teams that make them, and very often for the players that play them. I realize there is a population of players that will never play them or enjoy them, but that doesn't justify it. I kind of hope it becomes a banned term here, it's more than just stupid at this point - it's totally become perjorative.

This so much - these games often have myst like puzzles in them or point and click-esque mechanics, and yet nobody had a reductive, insulting label for them.

Agreed. I loved how Glixel took a jab at the dismissive folk in their Edith Finch article.

http://www.glixel.com/news/what-remains-of-edith-finch-could-be-something-special-w477847

A canned history of the Walking Simulator: The name was originally pejorative, a tag given to narrative-driven experiences judged not to be "real games" by the people who judge these things and then make tags about them. Brave gamers unafraid of exploring Hebridean islands without the ability to wall-run have since reclaimed the name to an extent, and a new genre of exploratory, meditative games from Dear Esther to Firewatch has gathered under its banner.

 

[More_Badass]

Between Deadcore and Little Nightmares, Bandai Namco has been pretty good with their indie publishing picks

Looking forward to Impact Winter next month

 

[Melchiah]

Between Deadcore and Little Nightmares, Bandai Namco has been pretty good with their indie publishing picks

Looking forward to Impact Winter next month

What kind of game Deadcore is?

 

[More_Badass]

What kind of game Deadcore is?

Weird gun first person platformer. Pretty slick level design, skillful play for shaving off those seconds, and controls well enough

 

[Melchiah]

Weird gun first person platformer. Pretty slick level design, skillful play for shaving off those seconds, and controls well enough

Just watched few trailers, and Impact Winter seems more like my kind of game. I'll have to keep it in mind, when it arrives to PS4 later on this year. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

[Lucent]

Kinda stuck.

Spoiler

lanky arm guy is reaching for me while a cage is getting crushed and holding a door up for him.

. I can't seem to find a way out. I see what I think is the way out, but I can't push/pull anything.

Edit: Nvm. Lol

 

[Melchiah]

Kinda stuck.

Spoiler

lanky arm guy is reaching for me while a cage is getting crushed and holding a door up for him.

. I can't seem to find a way out. I see what I think is the way out, but I can't push/pull anything.

You have to

Spoiler

pull the cage.

 

[Lucent]

You have to

Spoiler

pull the cage.

I figured our what to do but...it's hard to pull off so far. Lol. I managed to start it but keep getting killed.

Lol I did it! Omg that was so creepy.

 

[Melchiah]

I figured our what to do but...it's hard to pull off so far. Lol. I managed to start it but keep getting killed.

I succeeded in it by

Spoiler

running towards the cage and jumping over the arm when it moves away, while the other arm is in the upper right corner.

 

[Lucent]

I finished it. About 4 hours. That last area was awesome. Just wish there was more.

 

[holygeesus]

Err, just finished the bar section, game crashed. Load it up again and now my save is corrupted and deleted.

As much as I was enjoying the game I'm not all that keen to play through the first parts again.

This was on a ps4 pro.

Had this happen to me too, on the second 'level'. Threw me right back to the start of the level. Have to be honest, the game hasn't grabbed me as I expected it too anyway, so I might just dump it - probably because of 'Inside' and it's dominance of the genre (IMO) - not helped by the controls (which are poor and counter-intuitive in my experience) and the amount of frustrating deaths related to perspective. It wouldn't be so bad if the game check-pointed every area, but it doesn't seem to.

 

[The perfect Dark]

Before you judge a game, play it. Thank you.

I've played it and stopped playing it after 2 hours. Thank you

 

[Anung]

I finished it. About 4 hours. That last area was awesome. Just wish there was more.

Yeah, the last area felt like it was supposed to be more of a thing but got cut or something. Which is a shame because it was great.

 

[Chronospherics]

Played about an hour of this last night. Hoping to finish it today or tomorrow.

 

[Corpsepyre]

20 minutes into it, and it's essentially Inside 2. Not like that's a bad thing. Way too many similarities.

 

[More_Badass]

20 minutes into it, and it's essentially Inside 2. Not like that's a bad thing. Way too many similarities.

Like what? Besides the general thing of being cinematic platformer, having a child protagonist who's in danger, and an unsettling world, Inside and Little Nightmars felt very different IMO

 

[Corpsepyre]

Like what? Besides the general thing of being cinematic platformer, having a child protagonist who's in danger, and an unsettling world, Inside and Little Nightmars felt very different IMO

It started out just about the same way as Inside, the EYE tracking, the general eerie feel of the world, instant kills, visual storytelling instead of dialogues. The game design is quite similar.

I'm only 30 minutes into it, so I can't say more than that for now. Maybe it turns different, but I'm getting serious Inside vibes here.

 

[dragos495]

Like what? Besides the general thing of being cinematic platformer, having a child protagonist who's in danger, and an unsettling world, Inside and Little Nightmars felt very different IMO

ditto

its like saying all fps games are doom copies...

 

[DZ_b_EZ]

I JUST GOT BACK HOME AND IT'S HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!

About to unwrap the seal, smell the factory seal smell, then PLLAAAAYYYY!!

I gotta say though, the box is smaller and lighter than I thought it would be...

AHHH GODDAMMIT! THERE WAS A PC VERSION?! I BOUGHT THE PS4 VERSION ONLY BECAUSE OF THE SIX EDITION! Son of a bastard........oh well 😑

 

[Corpsepyre]

Between Deadcore and Little Nightmares, Bandai Namco has been pretty good with their indie publishing picks

Looking forward to Impact Winter next month

Impact Winter's the one with Mitch Murder composing the score, or is that some other game?

 

[xviper]

how is the game and how long is it ?

couple months ago i bought Inside for 10$, it was amazing but very short, even though i bought it at 50% off, i was still very disappointed and felt robbed

is this game as short as Inside ?

 

[O.DOGG]

how is the game and how long is it ?

couple months ago i bought Inside for 10$, it was amazing but very short, even though i bought it at 50% off, i was still very disappointed and felt robbed

is this game as short as Inside ?

Yes, about the same length. Maybe a tad bit longer but about the same.

 

[Corpsepyre]

how is the game and how long is it ?

couple months ago i bought Inside for 10$, it was amazing but very short, even though i bought it at 50% off, i was still very disappointed and felt robbed

is this game as short as Inside ?

I thought Inside gives the buyers everything they can possibly ask for, honestly. It didn't have to be 10 hours long to be effective. Those few hours were well-spent and the pacing was utter perfection.

 

[ced]

Finished it in 2 evenings as planned.

It was really good, but as some reviewers said it's almost like it's even better thinking about it after finishing.

 

[taoofjord]

About 2 hours in and and really enjoying this. The art is great and movement feels close to perfect. It's got plenty of little details that add to the atmosphere. The whole thing is clearly the work of some serious talent.

Nevertheless, I don't yet feel it's a masterpiece like Inside is. Inside was lean and perfectly directed and the world building enthralled me while this seems to have some filler and comes across as a little self aware. I'm hoping the story/lore grabs me more as I get further in, but so far it hasn't quite clicked for me. I don't say this to bring this game down, it's great. It's more just a reminder to myself that a game like inside is a very impressive and rare thing.

Oh, and does anyone else find the chef reminiscent of the chef from Gormenghast? Love the grotesquely exaggerated characters in this.