Recent reviews by ColonialDagger

Here's what you're going to do: buy it and play less than 120 minutes. You'll have time to get into the Prologue and a bit into Act 1 and actually understand how combat works, because this feels nothing like turn-based in the best way possible. If you don't like it, refund it. Alternatively, get Xbox Gamepass for 12 USD and play it there. Even if you think you will like nothing about this game, try it. I am so far from the expected consumer, and I loved it. I don't like turn-based, I don't like Souls-like, I don't like RPGs, I don't like exploration, but this is absolutely generational and is close to being an absolute masterpiece by every definition. It has the highest user Metacritic score of all within a month of release for a reason, and that's when people are the absolute harshest.

This is quite easily the best game I've ever played, toppling Outer Wilds in my #1 spot. I'm not an RPG fan, I don't like turn-based games, I like exploration to a point. Essentially, I am NOT the target audience for this game, but it still blew me away.

The story is absolutely incredible. It's the best story I've ever seen in a game, and one of the best I've ever seen in any visual media. I laughed, I was shocked, I cried (many times). Every cutscene and every dialogue is so unbelievably human that I would think to myself. "Yeah, I would say that in that situation". Every word that is said is there for a reason. I think the 'Marvelization' of media would often leave me waiting for a quip or joke after uncomfortable moments, but this game doesn't. It lets you sit in those uncomfortable moments because that sort of stuff doesn't actually happen in normal conversations. Every character is an extremely deep and complex individual to the point where I fully understand everyone, even those I disagree with. The hook is easily one of the best hooks I've ever seen, and I'd put it up there with the opening to Inglorious Bastards. Both are meant to invoke very different feelings, but both are just as good.

The music is absolutely spectacular, and one of the best soundtracks ever created. From pieces that are absolutely moving to pieces that come out of nowhere and make you start dancing in your room in the middle of a battle, from soft, slow pieces to pieces that go through many transitional phases, it is absolutely stunning what Lorien and Alice managed to create.

The mo-cap and voice acting is real and authentic in every way it should be. Just like the writing is real, so is the acting in every way. There's no over-the-top acting, no super eccentric stuff, it's all grounded in reality. The eyes in the animation are absolutely captivating, and all the characters convey so much just through facial expressions. Even the behind-the-scenes footage of the mocap is just as emotional as the actual cutscene, because you can tell that the actors are actually feeling the emotions. There's a specific scene early in Act 1 where one character says something to another that makes her stop, and her eyes are just shifting back and forth between his eyes and she slightly pulls back, and you can tell she's having that "oh ♥♥♥♥" moment as she's processing what he said, a level of animation I've never seen in a game. There's other scenes where you can tell that both the mocap and voice actors are actually feeling the emotions to the point where I cry with them because the entire scene is just so emotional.

The game-play for turn-based combat is great. As a person who doesn't enjoy turn-based, this didn't feel like turn-based game-play in a good way. It still felt like there was a back and forth with the enemy where I still had the strategic element of turn-based combat but the constant feeling of being on edge that real-time combat gives, and it's the only game that has satisfied both elements. You can absolutely break the game if you want by combining different strategic abilities into your kit, to the point where you one-shot endgame bosses.

Okay, enough glazing. What's bad?

The lip sync does unfortunately suck at times. It gets better and worse at different points, but it's particularly noticeable in the beginning of the game. This is due to them already having the cutscenes fully animated when the VA work took place. The upside was the actors could better immerse themselves since they could actually see the scene, the downside is the mismatch for lip sync. Normally they would face track the VA actors to re-incorporate that into the scene, but that likely wasn't done here do to an already tight budget. The official language is English, and the French audio is an official dub from the developers themselves, so it still holds the same emotional weight as the English audio.

The menus could improve a bit. Getting to the Lumina menu, which is arguably the single most important mechanic to understand for the mid to late game, in the game, is like 3 menus deep and took me until a bit into Act 2 to actually understand how it works.

Towards the end of the game, the balance gets a bit out of wack and you can tell the developers kinda meant for players to just finish the main story and not do much else. If you do want to do side content before the very end, I recommend finishing all the relationship quests as they help give context without over-leveling you too much.

That's pretty much it for complaints. All of those things are also EXTREMELY minor, which speaks volumes about the rest of the game and just how good it is. This is a straight generational game. Even if you don't like turn-based games, try it. Even if you don't like RPGs, try it. Even if you don't like exploration, try it. I bought the Deluxe Edition after finishing the game just to throw money at the devs, I don't even know what's in it. I've seen so many interviews of the people who worked on the game to the point I can name a couple dozen people who worked on the game, from VA to mocap to game designers to concept artists to composers. It's gotten me a level of invested in this game and its story and its development to a level that nothing else has.

If you do only want to try it and aren't fully sold, buy it on Steam and refund it if you don't like it within the 2 hour window. Within that time window, you'll get through the Prologue and enough into Act 1 to understand how the combat works to make a better determination if you want to keep it or not. Alternatively, you can get it on Xbox Gamepass for 12 USD, and a very casual gamer can finish it in a few weeks, as the main story is between 30-40 hours, much shorter than other RPGs as this one doesn't drag things out needlessly. It's not short by any means, but it's well timed.

Play it. For the love of god, just play it. You won't regret it.

Edit Saturday, November 3, 2018:
As a Monomyth developer posted below this review, this game has changed a lot since it's release and since I wrote this review. While I do not currently have time to give the game another shot due to classes, keep in mind that the review below is not an accurate reflection of the current version of Need to Know.

So I tried to like this game, I really did, and I was one of the ones who followed the hype from the first trailer release in the Kickstarter campaign. I really looked forward to the Papers, Please -eqsue surveillance game that the trailers advertised. Holding out to release (remember, no pre-orders!), however, revealed some key flaws that the game has.

The lack of a tutorial is my primary issue with Need to Know. With almost zero instruction given, the player has no clue on how to progress, how to use the different tools provided in-game, and what distinguishes a subject between a "safe" individual and a threat. Players are expected to know beforehand what all the tools do and how to use them effectively, and with the game not arming the players with that knowledge, I and many others were left confused as to what to do almost constantly.

The current user interface is extremely similar to the user interface that was advertised throughout the developer cycle. While it seems to be extremely sleek and inviting, don't let its looks fool you. The UI was another primary issue with Need to Know. In practice, the UI was sluggish and huge on-screen, with every single element in each window being blown up unnecessarily. Everything except any back or close indicators, which took minutes to find on several occasions. In the beginning of the game, it even took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to begin the first mission!

At the beginning of each mission, you are given specific key evidence to look out for while analyzing individuals. Several times, the evidence the game wanted me to find were inconsistent with the requirements it gave me. This meant I often “missed” evidence which was never actually listed as a requirement.

As part of the story, you need to build up your agency's trust in you by successfully analyzing, identifying key elements a suspect might exhibit, and eventually classifying the subject as safe or a threat. These trust points given, however, were often inconsistent. Successfully classify and identify all pieces of evidence in a mission? Have 15 trust points! Missed one piece of evidence? There goes 30 points!

Have a bad day and lose a lot of trust points? Doesn't matter, your boss will let you know what a great job you did today!

While many people (such as myself) disregard the bug warnings in games and play them anyway only to still have a positive experience, let me tell you that it is not the case with this game. Throughout playing, I experienced numerous bugs, some of which were game breaking or needed a restart. For example, after losing in the prologue (why is that even possible?) and making a new profile the game glitched out and showed two different points in the story, progressing through them simultaneously, requiring a full restart of the game and clearing out the old profile and creating a new profile. Notifications on your in-game phone often appear and disappear in under a second, not giving you enough time to read what it says. You can’t even change the wallpaper.

In its current state, I cannot recommend Need to Know. The game has vital problems that it needs to solve, problems so important that it makes you wonder if Monomyth Games even play-tested all the features in-game before the final release, in despite of several beta versions being released to Kickstarter backers in the previous months. The game feels like a rushed beta version, even though the game was delayed by a month. Should Monomyth Games fix these key issues, I would gladly re-purchase the game for another shot at Need to Know.

SUPERHOT IS THE MOST INNOVATIVE SHOOTER I'VE PLAYED IN YEARS!