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The "Indie" Circlejerk's Botched Attempts at Game Design

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Unread postby icycalm » 01 Dec 2014 06:50

There are four recent games that I am planning to review personally, because I am not sure if they are "indie" or not, and none of the reviews I have read of them on Steam are convincing enough one way or another. These games are:

The Forest [ > ]
http://store.steampowered.com/app/242760/

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter [ > ]
http://store.steampowered.com/app/258520/

The Long Dark
http://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/

This War of Mine
http://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/

However, I do not plan on buying these games myself. I'll only review them if there are any people interested in reading my opinion enough to buy them for me. So here is my Steam profile:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/icycalm/

Buy me whichever of these games you want me to review, and post in this thread straight after so no one buys any game twice. And if you have a blog or Facebook or Twitter page, or anything of the kind, and you'd like me to link it from the review page in the form of a "thanks for providing the game, etc." note, then link that here too. It will be no trouble for me, and I am even thinking of making this a regular feature to support my (and possibly other good reviewers') gaming habit.

Note that I am not on a PC right now, and won't be for at least a week or so, so the reviews won't come immediately. But the games are all on sale now, so I thought it'd be a good idea to make this post a bit earlier than I had originally planned. In any case, I guarantee in-depth reviews or your money back.

It will be interesting to see if any of these games measure up to their hype. The first three, at least, look pretty good. The fourth looks like it's hobbling itself by staying 2D, but we'll see.
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Unread postby ChevRage » 01 Dec 2014 16:25

I bought icy The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

Pretty sure that the scenery and some nice looking effects are all this game has to offer. But maybe some stuff went completely over my head.
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Unread postby icycalm » 01 Dec 2014 17:43

That's pretty much all Rez had to offer too, and it's a 4/5 for me. When all a game has to offer is aesthetics, the aesthetics become superimportant, and you need someone who is sensitive enough to evaluate them. Are they sufficiently powerful to make the experience worthwhile? There is no one I can trust to make this judgement, which is why I have to tackle these myself. It's not about anything "going over your head" (i.e. a "message"), it's about whether you are sensitive enough to not make the mistake to trash the game for lack of interactivity, if the aesthetics are strong enough to make up for it. Or, conversely, if the aesthetics are shitty (as in Journey, Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, etc.), it's about not praising them through the roof and using them as an excuse to justify the lacking interactivity. With Gone Home and The Stanley Parable I could see from a mere screenshot and a brief description of the game that the aesthetics were shitty, so I could trust others to point this out and trash the mechanics too, but the above-listed games look pretty damn good in screens, videos and even in their description, so again, I have to tackle them myself to find out what's up with them. So thanks for the game, and look forward to the review!
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Unread postby Dolt » 01 Dec 2014 20:35

I just got you The Forest.
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Unread postby radoverum » 02 Dec 2014 00:17

I'm planning to get you This War of Mine. I sent you a friend invite.
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Unread postby icycalm » 02 Dec 2014 07:22

I didn't get your friend invite, but I sent you one.

Thanks for the games, guys. Looking forward to trying them out.
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Unread postby ChevRage » 06 Dec 2014 23:06

Got icy The Long Dark. So I guess that's it for now.
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Unread postby icycalm » 06 Dec 2014 23:12

Thanks! With my laptop arriving next week, you might get the first review next weekend, and then the others will follow soon after, since I could probably finish all games in a day if I put in 10 or 12 hours into them.
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Unread postby icycalm » 24 Dec 2014 19:58

Haven't forgotten about these games, but I want to knock out the PA review before I get to them.
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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Jul 2018 13:56

I added my Cuphead review to the list (I mean the one linked off the frontpage, not this thread's OP, which I've stopped updating).

It is the only three-star game in the list, so it's borderline dependie, but since its failings are essentially the same as every other "indie" game's (i.e. a complete and total lack of knowledge of the genre they are bungling, and complete and total lack of desire to play these games and understand them), I decided it belongs in the list nevertheless.

It's easily the best "indie" game ever.
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