Torn Away
So here's the thing with Quern: Undying Thoughts. I decided not to play it. Just by the tutorial I knew it wasn't going to be my kind of game. And since I was already struggling in the tutorial, I knew that wasn't a good sign. So, I decided to play a different game instead, which is called Torn Away.
Torn Away is a World War II game about a young girl from Russia named Asya. She's living peacefully with her family when her home gets bombed by the Germans. Her and her mother were sent to a labor camp and her father goes off to fight. Eventually Asya escapes the camp, but is alone. Much of her time is spent running through the forest, snowy landscapes, a German village, and a battlefield while evading Nazis and sometimes... wolves. She's on a mission to get back to the village where her aunt and grandmother live only accompanied by her imaginary friend, Comrade Mitten.
This was a really depressing story, which was to be expected. There's not much hope to found or I should say when there's hope, it's quickly snatched away. I was OK with that. A World War II story can't be all sunshine and rainbows. The voice acting is all in Russian (and occasionally German) with subtitles in English, which I'm also fine with. The art aesthetic is very good and totally sets the scene to make you feel like you're there. As for the gameplay, it's mostly a lot of running around, but there's also some platforming and stealth. These two things are usually my nemesis in games. It wasn't extremely difficult however, and the game is pretty forgiving with save checkpoints during those sequences. I got through it, although it was getting to be a bit much towards the end. I did fall quite a few times and the controls didn't always do what I wanted them to do. I understand it's good for the tension and it's pretty tense, but I prefer to play games to relax rather than get stressed out.
Beyond that, the gameplay mostly focuses on accomplishing tasks like finding firewood or cooking a meal. The latter literally felt kind of like some domestic cooking sim. I enjoyed that more than stealth or platforming though. I think the story makes up for it. It's beautifully, if melancholically told. It stays true to the devastation and horrors of war. Overall I felt it was worth playing even if the stealth and platforming are not for me. Here's a screenshot. This was during one of the stealth parts. You don't want to get caught by the flashlight.
So, I had downloaded another game called The Castle. It's a homage to Maniac Mansion, but I didn't realize how close of a homage it was going to be. This game is more like a replica. Maniac Mansion is hard, and so I knew this is not something I really wanted to play. I played it a bit, but I knew I wasn't going to really enjoy myself trying to get through it, especially when I was just going to use the walkthrough the whole time. That wouldn't be fun for me. It's too easy to get killed and/or captured, and I just didn't want to deal with that.
So, I'm going to play a different adventure instead, which is called The Will of Arthur Flabbington. High praise on Adventure Gamers and hopefully more up to my speed. Like I said, I don't want to play games that stress me out, which Torn Away and The Castle definitely are in that category. Hopefully with this one I can just chill. If not, I might find myself in an adventure game slump and may have to... god forbid... play a Hidden Object Game lol. But it's what I do when I find myself in these kinds of slumps. Stay tuned.
Torn Away is a World War II game about a young girl from Russia named Asya. She's living peacefully with her family when her home gets bombed by the Germans. Her and her mother were sent to a labor camp and her father goes off to fight. Eventually Asya escapes the camp, but is alone. Much of her time is spent running through the forest, snowy landscapes, a German village, and a battlefield while evading Nazis and sometimes... wolves. She's on a mission to get back to the village where her aunt and grandmother live only accompanied by her imaginary friend, Comrade Mitten.
This was a really depressing story, which was to be expected. There's not much hope to found or I should say when there's hope, it's quickly snatched away. I was OK with that. A World War II story can't be all sunshine and rainbows. The voice acting is all in Russian (and occasionally German) with subtitles in English, which I'm also fine with. The art aesthetic is very good and totally sets the scene to make you feel like you're there. As for the gameplay, it's mostly a lot of running around, but there's also some platforming and stealth. These two things are usually my nemesis in games. It wasn't extremely difficult however, and the game is pretty forgiving with save checkpoints during those sequences. I got through it, although it was getting to be a bit much towards the end. I did fall quite a few times and the controls didn't always do what I wanted them to do. I understand it's good for the tension and it's pretty tense, but I prefer to play games to relax rather than get stressed out.
Beyond that, the gameplay mostly focuses on accomplishing tasks like finding firewood or cooking a meal. The latter literally felt kind of like some domestic cooking sim. I enjoyed that more than stealth or platforming though. I think the story makes up for it. It's beautifully, if melancholically told. It stays true to the devastation and horrors of war. Overall I felt it was worth playing even if the stealth and platforming are not for me. Here's a screenshot. This was during one of the stealth parts. You don't want to get caught by the flashlight.
So, I had downloaded another game called The Castle. It's a homage to Maniac Mansion, but I didn't realize how close of a homage it was going to be. This game is more like a replica. Maniac Mansion is hard, and so I knew this is not something I really wanted to play. I played it a bit, but I knew I wasn't going to really enjoy myself trying to get through it, especially when I was just going to use the walkthrough the whole time. That wouldn't be fun for me. It's too easy to get killed and/or captured, and I just didn't want to deal with that.
So, I'm going to play a different adventure instead, which is called The Will of Arthur Flabbington. High praise on Adventure Gamers and hopefully more up to my speed. Like I said, I don't want to play games that stress me out, which Torn Away and The Castle definitely are in that category. Hopefully with this one I can just chill. If not, I might find myself in an adventure game slump and may have to... god forbid... play a Hidden Object Game lol. But it's what I do when I find myself in these kinds of slumps. Stay tuned.