else heart.break() Steam Review 20150924

For so many months did I wait for a game which includes

    An expansive 3D world, begging to be explored.
    Many hours of engaging story, set in a meticulously simulated city, with people that feel truly alive.
    A challenging game where your actions matter and nothing can ever be unsaid or undone.
    Tons of every-day objects and computers that work and can be modified.
    A laid-back experience where you can just go to the café and have a coffee whenever things get too hectic.
    A delicious soundtrack with over 50 songs.

(elseheartbreak.com)

And now they put up a crappy time waster under the name of this wonderful game on paper.

I am so dissapointed, I am not even mad anymore, that I lost more than 16€ on this (I hope I get my money back from Steam), I remain only sad now. Why you ask?
Well, let's compare the actual game to the things, which were promised.

1. "An expansive 3D world, begging to be explored."
If you call Dorisburg open world, then the cities in Path of Exile are open world as well. And I am not talking about lacking content, it is mainly about the quality of the content. I was excited to explore the supposed open world and before I was heading to my next step of the story line, which was checking in to the Devutchka hotel, I walked around the city to experience what is going on there. I talked with people, I looked for some buildings, but when I slowly started to change from randomly experiencing the map to finding my next story line objective, the city just got more and more annoying, because it was pretty hard to find the hotel after I explored other areas (btw. for me personally it was kind of immersion breaking, that you just look at a black void at the borders of the city, but that was not the only thing; the camera started to be really annoying at some point, because the perspective is just bad and you have to really work on seeing what you actually want to see, because your vision is either blocked by buildings or you are looking from the wrong perspective) and on the way I found like 500 floppies, 500 computers and a couple of people, oh and yes, you can kick lamps, for whatever reason. In the meantime a slept a couple of times in foreign beds and stole stuff from people, which...

2. "Many hours of engaging story, set in a meticulously simulated city, with people that feel truly alive."
...brings me to my next point. Truly alive? You are joking, right? I spoke to most people along my way and they either didn't want to talk to me at all, said some boring casual stuff, nothing special or weren't there because in the whole "open world" city there were like 20 people on the streets, and that number is generous. And most of them weren't special at all, or at least the "special" things were pretty boring compared to what imagination could have created. Also the dialogues sometimes were pretty stupid, since the people there are literally like AI and not believable at all (btw. when I looked for my room in the hotel, I found another room, which was open and it was really small and kind of ridiculous, because it had like two rooms, of which one was the main room with two sinks and a shower and the second room was like 2m² and had only a toilet in it. that's right, you obviously can stay over night in a hotel to get a room without a bed. I was really confused, when I saw that, well but finally I found my actual room and look at that, it was basically the same room, but only because it was Sebastians room, he shouted out "WHAT THE" and he was also "confused", when he saw the living conditions. for me this kind of scripted events aren't open world to me at all, since he should've noticed that shit in the previous room already, and when you make an "open world" you should expect, that people are gonna exploit this by reaching areas, that aren't supposed to be visited yet or at all, according to the actual story line), when they for example don't give a shit about you stealing stuff, which...

3. "A challenging game where your actions matter and nothing can ever be unsaid or undone."
brings me to my next point. Really? Really? Where do my actions matter? Please say the place and situation in the game, so I can check it out by myself. I break into houses of foreign people, and they are like "Hey, who are you? What's up?" or "Hey, what are you doing? What's your name?". I steal stuff in the front of the faces of the stupid AI and they do... nothing. Literally. Another example of how actions don't matter and you can undo them is, when you meet the guy, who speaks to an animal, or himself loudly so you don't have to talk to him, to see him talking. He asks you for a beer and you can answer no, no and then you can still give him a beer. Same with other people who ask you something about yourself and you still can change something about that, except the things, that don't matter. Like being called by your nickname for example. Which makes no difference. Many other answers don't seem to make any difference, except the different answer from the AI you are talking to, which has no actual consequence for you and your character, as well as the story. So meanwhile you talk to some boring guys and find loads of coca cola, booze and beer. You drink some of it, and oh, something changes... Wait, no, nothing changes. At all. Which...

4. "Tons of every-day objects and computers that work and can be modified."
...brings me to my next point. You can find many computers, that's right. You also can find many floppies, like the "DigitalCrap64", to have something to do on the computers. You also find tools for a computer, like a screwdriver. Well and that's it. I explored at least 20 houses and 90% of all things were those which I mentioned above. Oh, wait and you find beverages, like booze, coca cola or beer. Which btw. changes literally nothing about your character. I at least hoped him to get drunk after drinking some bottles o' alcohol, but mh-mh, no. What's the point of implementing something, that has no actual in-game effect or consequence? The only reason in this case could be: it is fun, or interesting, or something like that. It is neither of that though.
I know the motto of the game "...where bits have replaced atoms.", though I didn't realize, that most content is just based on the idea of doing something on vintage computers. And talking to people, that are supposed to be interesting, but I only met a couple of people in the city and the ones I was supposed to talk to, like the woman in the hotel. A guy on the street told me about a bar, which is supposed to be interesting. Also I asked the woman in the hotel, if there is something interesting in the city and she also mentioned bars. So, as I expected, the most interesting or action rich part of the "open world" is supposed to be the bars, which...

5. "A laid-back experience where you can just go to the café and have a coffee whenever things get too hectic."
...brings me to my next point. It is indeed a laid-back experience. Though not for us, rather for the developers, as it seems. And when exactly do things get too hectic? I know, I didn't play all of the game, but considering how the story went on and what the main "attractions" were, I don't expect much else. Feel free to correct me, if I am wrong. For me it just seems like the game is about going to the bar, hanging out with a couple of chicks, then go to your home and do some else heart.break() stuff on the vintage computer. The time in-between was just boring or there just was nothing really. This didn't get better, when I was even more driven by the game to get bored due to lack of some SOUND. It was really quiet and unexciting to listen to the game, which...

6. "A delicious soundtrack with over 50 songs."
brings me to my final point. As a music and soundtrack fan, I really value a good soundtrack in a game, because it can turn a whole 50 hour experience in game from bad to good, or the other way around. All good gamers would agree on that. I also listen to tons of bands, DJs and stuff. Okay, let's stay with the actual topic. That point was, even though the importance, the less important thing about the announced features of the game, though "over 50 songs" already sounds really weak from my perspective, but I guess many games don't have much more, you just don't feel it so much. In this game you do, though. The previous annoying things got even more boring and annoying, when the sound was just so demotivatingly tedious, so I got even more immersed in the boringness-factor.

Well and that is about it. Didn't plan to write so much, and I even reached the limits of a casual "steam review", which seemed impossible to me, after reading a couple of books in the review section, previously. I am actually really lazy, but the amount of work I put here is like a symbol for the stone on my heart, that was put by the game there, because it exploited my expectations. I already forgot a couple of things, but I think those mentioned above should be enough.
If you disagree, agree, or have anything to say, I want you to comment! I am not raging about this game, or trying to let others, who recommend this game, seem stupid, I just wanted to let others know my opinion, which is apparently different to the most currently existing (currently are 4 reviews out there, maybe the average rating will change over time.).
I also know that, the game is supposed to be Indie and so on, probably low bugdet, etc... If you comment, then this would be the most boring topic, just to warn you folks. Although it can be indie, low budget and else but that can never be an excuse for, for example, doing something different from what was actually advertised and doing something with much lower effort, than the advertised content would presume. I don't want to say, the developers are shit, I am just really dissapointed and pretty sad. And as all of you, I am just a guy, who wants to enjoy some games, including this, which had suggested high expectations, at least in me.

Hope my review wasn't more boring, that the game after all! :D