When I hear about a new game, I usually read the first sentence or two on Wikipedia. I rule out games described as certain genres or types, like soulslike or online-only multiplayer games. Then, I check reviews on a site like Metacritic. If the critic or user reviews (doesn’t need to be both) are good enough, I add it to a list to play.
I also do this with movies and tv. Obviously, with sequels/series I know a little bit more about the games/movies/shows but I still go in as blind as possible.
It’s different than a lot of games because it doesn’t tell you what to do.
You explore and, as you do, read the lore and start to see the threads of a mystery. As you pull on those threads you come across others.
Each time you’re going out exploring something you can potentially get stuck trying to figure out one thing. But in that case there are other clues you can look into and I find doing that helped a lot.
It does go against the grain since there are no power ups, upgrades, keys and abilities. All progression happens because of the knowledge you have. I can start a new game and go straight to the end because I have the knowledge and the knowledge is what you’re gaining when playing the game.
Because of that it goes against years of gameplay mechanic expectations. So many games “pad” content with text that when I first started I just tapped through the text looking for anything that was color coded as being important. Except that in this game it’s all useful. There is no color coding because it’s a narrative and mystery that you’re uncovering.
That being said as fantastic as it is not every game is for everyone. If you decide you want to give it another try let me know and I can give you some slight spoiler hints that may nudge you in a direction. A kind of “what about this” kind of thing that can set you down a path towards what the game is narratively doing.
Thanks I appreciate this. I’m busy with some other games right now but I will remember this comment and if I go back to it in the near future I’ll get ahold of you :)
I look forward to it if you ever do