Recent reviews by foolish.icarus

I wanted to enjoy this game. There's so much to like about it -- the story, setting, immersion, breadth -- but none of that is accessible because the controls are frustratingly bad. Combat and actions scenes are clumsy and chaotic; it's hard to tell what's happening and harder to get your character to do what you want him to do.

Other games can pull off the chaos and confusion of a frenetic melee in a way that's fun, but that requires controls that are intuitive and responsive, and unfortunately this game consistently fails to deliver in this regard. Basic things like mounting a horse, galloping, equipping a sword make me grit my teeth and repeatedly pause the game to look up what I'm doing wrong.

Playing the action scenes of the early game is a punishing chore that stands in the way of getting far enough to see what else this has to offer.
Maybe there's a point in the learning curve where it clicks into place and it gets fun, but I have doubts whether I'll ever reach that hypothetical part of the game which is a shame because it looks like this story is carefully crafted to be immersive and compelling.

I'll probably give this another try and hopefully find my groove; but currently I can't recommend this as an experience solely due to how frustrating it is to feel punished to repeatedly replay and fail mandatory-to-progress action scenes with such a crummy and inaccessible keyboard/mouse control scheme.

This might be the most beautiful game I've ever played. I'm a half hour in and I confidently recommend it without reservation. I've taken a break because it feels too precious to get through it all in one setting. It's the sort of game you want to play with another person beside you so that you can spend the entire game saying to each other "this is beautiful, I like this so much".

The art and music are gorgeous. I mean they complement each other so well that you could just sit there just paused without progressing the game and it's worth seeing and listening to. The content and pacing are so thoughtfully put together that it's nice to just inhabit every moment.

As an exercise in gameplay so far it's adequate - it lacks any aggravating elements and is pleasant and intuitive enough to glide through. No doubt more sophisticated mechanics will be introduced as the game progresses but even if the whole thing played as it does now it would be fine.

The exemplary part of this is its artistic presentation, sense of life, and emotional resonance. There's an abundance of neat ideas and symbolism in this that's touching in an open-ended and self-interpreted way that is touchingly organic. Some of the keybinds one discovers first are slumping to the ground and taking a deep breath. I think that's not dumb or pointless or pretentious, it's rather moving. I'm going to keep playing this a little bit at a time, as a treat, and you should too.

Beautiful game
lotta feelings

This is one of the best games I've played. It has a great storyline, good art, clean and attractive mechanics, quality voice acting (though it's only for one character), engaging setting, and is all around fun and thought provoking. The linguistic/archaeological gameplay element is right up my alley. The characters and plot are compelling, and the world building is great. Learning about the setting is rewarding and the way the information is organized and presented in the ui is so well thought out and polished. The execution in this game is almost flawless. This is an ambitious project that delivered. I can't express some of the best parts of this game without giving away spoilers, so it will have to suffice that this game is not just fun but thought provoking, introspective, and capable of stirring emotion in a way that is honest, fair, and earned.

This is a good game that unexpectedly hit hard. It didn't give me what I anticipated or wanted but it gave me something valuable. It takes a half hour to get through, has very simple mechanics to the point where it's more experience than game, has very pretty and complementary art and music (the soundtrack is a crucial part of the experience and it's an impressive technical achievement the way it adjusts what's playing to match your pace), and discovering the game's content & arc for yourself may give you some unexpected stuff to feel about. you can pick it up for a dollar right now and it's worth it

Very spoilery thoughts below

When it turned from summer to autumn I was hooked, the art is gorgeous and I was excited to see a full 4 season cycle of gameplay. I like those whole-year-timelapse videos of nature that people put together, but often they start in winter or spring and end in fall or winter. I don't want to end in fall or winter, that's a bummer! So the thought that this would conclude in the beauty and optimism of spring was a welcome thought, enough to make me satisfied and eager to see the rest.

But this game is not so idyllic as it first seemed. There's a lot of open ended symbolism that unfolds, and the effect it makes on you is a reflection of the sort of thoughts you bring with you. It confronts you with some harsh stuff but in an honest and kind way and never loses its beauty or fun.

A hawk divebombs your flock and you feel pretty powerless to dodge or escape and you must just endure, keep up the frantic heat of your own wings as winter turns into deeper winter. There are playful and curious artistic elements to the game that you can interact with as much as you want but ultimately it's about the flock; the flock is everything worth fighting for and in time even that too will be transient. But for now you can keep your flock together if you choose to; you wait for them, you risk for them, caught beyond their walls or islands or sent off by the tones of willowisps and if you seek them out and are patient and your flock stays with you, or you with them.

There is a chapter that is peaceful in action but the landscape below is just a vague blur completely obscured by grey clouds. This is a hell of an effect because of its precision timing and context, and just one more example of how the game presents a series of very simple premises to provoke an emotional introspection but in a fair and generous way, without dictating or sermonizing or playing tricks. I yearned to see the landscape beneath the clouds but we never do in that chapter.

In the next chapter your birds leave little trails in the clouds and you can faintly see the landscape below. There are breaks in the clouds so can just fly through those and see it clearly, but you might choose to look through these little easy to miss glimmers given to you by the beating of your own wings. Again, it leaves the impression of a mentor showing you something hard about the world but lovingly and honestly and without diminishing its potential for beauty and joy.

Before the game enters its final chapter you already know bittersweetly that there will be no spring.

You enter a thunderstorm and the wind that used to bring you together scatters you apart. For a time you can fight even these winds even something as big and uncaring as nature itself you can sneak past hard won still somehow along with those who have flown with you but at last in the darkness between crashes of lightning you are split apart and left alone.

You leave the storm but your world is still and dark and solitary, even though your wings still flap. And then oh man holy wow that moment. When you are rejoined from the edges of night slowly by ones and twos your flock comes gliding back to your wing or you come back to theirs. That's the good stuff.
And the place you finish is not the earth maybe not even the sky, it is strange and pretty and aches. Your flock leaves you but not violently this time, in sweet clear notes and it's not that they're gone. They have all been somewhere on winds of their own. I mean their flight and yours are both real even when they are not together. Now they are there ahead of you on the tree and you will join them there

& you can fly again, to spring

This is a fun little puzzle game. The puzzles are sensible and there's a nice understated quality of gradually discovering the mechanics and solutions. They're short and not challenging, which makes them appropriate for casual enjoyment but don't expect any sophisticated brain teasers. For the me the value of the game lies not in its straightforward execution but in how charming it is in premise and atmosphere. The art, music, and the stylized experience as a whole are pleasant and evocative enough to make this the sort of game that it's fun just to describe it to other people.

Fantastic game, strong recommend.
It's fun, intuitive, visually appealing.
It's involved enough to keep one's attention for a few puzzles at a time, easy enough to pick up for a just a minute if that's all the time you've got, and fair enough to never be frustrating. The design is minimalist but communicated effectively, and the learning curve is perfect (until it plateaus around puzzle thirty or forty) -- everyone who designs a game should play this one to study an archetypally effective learning curve. If you're really intent you can get through this game in an hour, or take your time for three or four.
If you're the sort of person who really likes a challenge, you can push yourself by figuring out how to do the later puzzles in the minimum possible number of steps.
It's clear that a lot of thought was put into designing these puzzles and it shows with a polished and delightful final project.

This is probably the best written game I've ever played.

you're on a team with your foster brother, an orc rent-a-cop
and you accidentally fall in with these runners when things go way south
parts of both your teams get sniped out
and Is says to Gobbet, "we need them. we can't shoot our way out on our own. if nothing else, maybe the'll absorb a few bullets for us." and your brother dunc say "I love making new friends"

The plot is compelling, understandable, and nuanced. The setting is beautifully thought out and engaging. The characters--main and minor--are excellent. the hacking minigame is a little bit tedious and, I think, a step backwards from the hacking in dragonfall. Other than that the gameplay is very fun. This is a contender for best computer game.

Man I have crawled through a lot of convenient air ducts.

this is a game where one can take on desperate mercenary work in the hope of earning barely enough money for bread and a pair of shoes, which is to say, a good kind of game.