demagogue on 22/6/2025 at 17:26
Still Walks the Deep.
The game it reminded me the most of was Prey, same vibe and scene to scene action, with the major exception that SWTD is much more railroaded. There are set pieces in contained areas that are kind of open ended (but even then practically there are only a few ways to go). There's some nominal platforming, but even that is pretty railroaded. As as an adventure game it's kind of shallow. But compared to a walking sim, the interactivity adds a lot. What I mean is even railroaded platforming gives you some cool emotional beats that really connect you to the world in a way, e.g., a movie or walking sim couldn't do.
Story is great, beats of Breaking the Waves and Deepwater Horizon. Although one big lol at the end: The lady: you gotta throw this lighter into the thing over there. /*Me looks over there & it's a raging inferno of fire.*/ Me: Okay. (9_9)
The main thing to note for me is that I scripted a game really similar to this. In my version, an anomaly was discovered at the bottom of the North Sea, and a research vessel was sent out to investigate, and the action came from taking the submersible down. But the people running the research vessel that hired you knew more than they were letting on. It was a lot more of a slow burn, there was a conspiracy afoot, more open ended & written like it was a non-linear interactive fiction. This game was of course a lot more frenetic and cinematic. Of course for what and where the story is, I think they got it basically right. Two things I wish it did have though was (1) it would have been cool to have a submersible that went down to the source of the thing. I thought that was gonna be the climax actually, but I liked how they did it anyway. (1) a lot more time spent with some characters to get to know them, and generally to slow the pacing down and more storytelling. But it's an action game, and as an action game, it probably erred on the right side of the balance.
The visuals, sense of scale, emotional beats were all top notch. Some of the scenes and imagery will give you chills. The raging seas, the tight dark industrial spaces, the fire and explosions... all amazing! Even being exposed by over the top imagery in our era of AI and CGI, I was still gobsmacked over & over.
The hide and seek gameplay... It was tough. As I said it was maybe a bit too railroaded. But more or less it got it right. I'm bringing my expectations from Thief FMs maybe. It was a special kind of opponent, and I think they did the right thing to feature what's special about this kind of opponent.
Altogether, fantastic game. Definitely recommended.
EvaUnit02 on 22/6/2025 at 23:49
Crackdown 3 is awesome! I haven't had this much fun playing a game in recent memory. I start a session and just want to keep going, it's just that enjoyable for me. If you have a Game Pass sub, give it a go.
[video=youtube;OPq3CNsdbuc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPq3CNsdbuc[/video]
demagogue on 23/6/2025 at 02:43
I'm not even gonna argue against you. I see your point all through your post. It was ridiculously railroaded.
I think I explained why it didn't annoy me too much, since I got in the mindset of comparing it to a movie, walking sim, or visual novel. Compared to something like Prey it doesn't hold a cigarette lighter, but compared to, you know speaking of The Chinese Room, Dear Esther, it's at least got gameplay. It's a mindset I guess, but no question, if you don't like getting railroaded in a game, to the point you can hardly even get around the hallway (or equivalent) you're in for most scenes, this one's gonna drive you crazy.
I played it specifically because there was a little hype around the DLC. That should be coming up soon for me.
Aja on 23/6/2025 at 02:56
I enjoyed Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, so I figure I might like this. Thanks for the recommendation.
Thirith on 23/6/2025 at 07:23
I have to say that I didn't like Still Wakes the Deep nearly as much as Everybody's Gone , and in part it's exactly because there was more gameplay - but for me, the result didn't work, because I found the gameplay uninteresting and frustrating in part. It's not that it's difficult, but sometimes it's not make very clear which button needs to be pressed in a certain situation. At other times, the gameplay is extremely basic, so much so that I'd almost prefer there to be no gameplay at all, because it boils down to a somewhat more involved 'Play next chapter' button. As a result, SWtD fell between the two camps for me, doing neither the walking sim part nor the more gamey style justice.
I still ended up enjoying it because the environment itself is fantastic. It's worth it just for the atmosphere. But for me, the Chinese Room games work better when they're about witnessing a story rather than participating in it, at least so far.
Edit: Thinking about it, I wonder whether some of this would already have been addressed for me if the game wasn't as railroaded throughout, because this resulted in the oil rig feeling less like an actual place and more like a ride with an original theme. Had the rig been designed just a bit more openly, hiding the underlying linearity better, I might have felt less like I was playing a spiritual successor of Dragon's Lair at times.
Aja on 23/6/2025 at 18:59
Sounds like it needs to be ported to VR.
Subjective Effect on 24/6/2025 at 09:00
Zelda Windwaker on Switch 2. Good fun so far. Breath of the Wild next I think.
henke on 24/6/2025 at 09:45
Yeah Still Wakes The Deep was alright, but like everyone says it could've been less railroady. I couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like as more of a traditional survival horror where you gotta keep finding weird keys to unlock more and more parts of the rig. Wonderful Scottish accents tho.
After finishing GTA 3 I started replaying Watch Dogs Legion. Guess I'm missing a the new GTA more than I thought.
PEAK was a fun surprise, have played a couple co-op sessions of it and I really like it. It's the best kinda co-op gameplay, encouraging slow, thoughtful exploration, experimentation and teamwork.
Yakoob on 30/6/2025 at 07:56
Was craving a good old school JRPG so picked up Sea of Stars and after about 8 hours in, I think I'm calling it quits. It's obviously inspired by Chrono Trigger which I did love, so it made me questions if I'm just Too Old To Enjoy Games™ but thinking on it, I think it just misses a lot of the things that made CT great.
Let's start with the story, it's... hero journey. But in the most literal sense - you are two kids, chosen to train at young age to save the world, so you go on a journey to save the world. Who were you before this? Why were you selected to train? What's your village's story? Who knows!
Then, the characters themselves are... uuuh, not great? The two protagonists are basically blank canvases without any personality. Sure, Chrono in CT was also a blank canvas, but very quickly you had multiple party members joining with unique stories and personalities. I'm not really getting the vibe here, so far we got the "always-optimistic kid" and "mysterious ninja girl." They seem very one-dimensional, the WYSIWYG of characters.
I'm just not invested in the world or character's backstory because, as far as I can tell, there isn't any. In CT or like FF6, each characters was a story in and of itself for you to discover, some tragic past that led them on this quest. Here? "Well you're a kid born to train to save the world so you go do that". or "the mysterious ninja girl is mysterious". Idk maybe there's some major twists later but 8hrs in, I haven't learned a single new thing about any of them
(aside from ninja girl being also pirate captain which is... ok I guess? I feel CT would spend a whole side-plot explaining why/how she became a pirate but here it's just "LOOK I WAS THE OTHER CHARACTER ALL ALONG, DID YOU ENJOY THIS PLOT TWIST?")
Onto the combat. It feels like stripping all the JRPG mechanics to its bare essential and polishing them to such a degree there is little complexity left, each battle more "puzzle" than "RPG". You rarely level up and it seems to happen at fairly even points, the stat increases are marginal, the special attacks are often weak, half the combos are weaker than the special attacks, there are NO status changes like poisoned or sleep, no buffs or debuffs, NO elemental damage (except moon/sun), and every character basically feels the same (why does Garl, a fat kid from the village, deal more melee damage than the two "Solstice Warriors" who LITERALLY TRAINED FOR A DECADE????).
I'm 8hrs in, and my best attack is STILL the level 1 starter special (sun ball). I'm completely unexcited about leveling up or uncovering new skills because the difference between 34 damage and 36 damage is just not enticing in the least. It just soo... "engineered", like "you will be exactly X level at this battle and have XYZ skills and ABC characters" and there is no wiggle room. You can't even really go back and grind or really manipulate your odds in any meaningful way (aside from relics which are basically built-in cheat codes/accessibility settings)
I could keep going on but I think that kind of sums it up. The main "call to action" isn't exciting, the characters feel flat and lack charm, the combat is repetitive and without sense of growth... idk, it just lacks any sort of "umph" to it. I really should re-play Chrono Trigger and see if I am just a boomer, but I could swear CT did a much better job with its initial hook and overall satisfying myriad of combat options
(Tho I will say the game does absolutely look and sound amazing. Probably some of the best Pixelart-But-With-Full-3D effects ever. )
