henke on 27/11/2022 at 17:54
Yeah so this thing came out in April to (
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/winter-ember) luke-warm reviews, got (
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1417880/view/5974602444930109243) a big patch in June, but no further development since. It's currently 12 euros in (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1417880/Winter_Ember/) the current Steam sale so I picked it up and ended up playing 5 hours of it the last couple days.
[video=youtube;fUPp3kVvVtc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUPp3kVvVtc[/video]
StoryYou play as rich-boy Arthur Artorias (played by some Stephen Russell-soundalike) whose father got into some shady dealings which ended up getting him killed. Arthur disappears then reappears a year later, having studied ninja skills in the mountains or some shit, goes on revenge-rampage. Yada yada, standard revenge plot, not very well told and not particularly engaging. A lot of the story is told through anime-style cutscenes, which are decently animated.
VisualsIt looks great, but kinda suffers from the same issue as Weird West in that it's a bit too detailed so everything becomes a busy mess and it's easy to miss important details. A more minimalist look might've suited this kinda perspective and gameplay better.
GameplayPretty good, for the most part! Reminds me a lot of Weird West, but also plays a lot like an isometric Thief 2014. You can mantle on to waist-high boxes, and certain barrels. There's a wonky cover-system which I barely use. You can craft various arrows, like rope-arrows, but these can only be used in certain spots. There's sword fighting, which is appropriately challenging and if you're up against more than 1 baddie you're likely to get wrecked. The crafting and inventory system is kinda cumbersome. There's a certain degree of jank to... pretty much everything. You can stealth-kill or knock out guards BUT if you just knock em out they wake up after a few minutes. This quickly led to me adopting a policy of "fuck it, everyone's getting stabbed". The levels are surprisingly big and intricate.
This is obviously no new Thief, and there's a lot wrong with it, but still... I'm kinda hooked on it. If you're a stealth-fan there's fun to be had here. I'd say it's about on par with the first Styx game in overall quality and fun.
Sulphur on 28/11/2022 at 14:42
Nice, thanks for that write-up henke. I gotta say I was kinda wary of this one considering it wasn't as warmly received as Gloomwood, but it does look interesting nonetheless. Thief 2014 is not a flattering comparison, but it looks like it's got slightly more going on in comparison.
Also, is that a boss fight in the trailer?
henke on 28/11/2022 at 15:44
Possibly a bossfight, haven't gotten that far.
I'm mainly comparing it to Thief 2014 in how restrictive it is with things like mantling and rope-arrows, also there's an action-roll that functions much like the swoop. It does have bigger and more open levels than Thief 2014 tho.
henke on 3/12/2022 at 15:52
Ok I finished it. 13 hours, only did 3-4 of the sidequests and didn't explore much beyond the main story path. This was my Steam review:
Quote:
Welp, this is a mess. The story is a somewhat straightforward revenge-plot, and not very well told. The game looks good, but is also so busy visually that it's sometimes easy to miss things, or enemies, before they're thwacking you in the face with a sword. There's a needlessly complex crafting and inventory system. There's a certain degree of jank to... pretty much everything.
Despite all this, the stealth-gameplay is decent enough, and the levels are huge. I did finish the game, so I guess I gotta give it a thumbs up. If you're a hardcore stealth fan, there's fun to be had here, but wait for a sale.
Here's a chunk of gameplay from one of the final levels, when the game is at its best:
[video=youtube;LUwUlCRMkZs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUwUlCRMkZs[/video]
^ I do have 2 levels of the "bigger parry window" skill here, which is honestly the best skill in the game, and makes the fights (which there are many of towards the end) significantly easier.
