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jp's Umurangi Generation (PC)

[November 5, 2023 12:43:28 PM]

This game was an indie darling a few years ago (when it came out) and it's been sort of unavoidable when people make lists of cyberpunk themed games and such.

And, my impressions - having finished it (it's short, yay!) is that - huh - I don't understand how it's gotten that much praise and attention given how wonky and uncomfortable so many parts of the game are! I was REALLY surprised about it.

(a) While the game has a tutorial - it's really ineffective (I was still super confused by a bunch of things) because it teaches you things you can't do, because they're unlocked through play (e.g. switch lenses - but you don't start with all of them). Furthermore, the tutorial is a separate menu item that you can (and do) just miss - you hop into the game and then don't understand anything.

(b) The game requires getting to certain locations (to snap pics), and you have a double jump to help - but the game's layout (and physics) are just incredibly wonky. I'm not sure if that's a "blame the engine" or "blame the level designers and poorly implemented collision boxes" - but there's a lot of missing jumps, not being able to make jumps, and getting slingshot into the air at "random" moments because some collisions got messed up.

(c) My entire first few hours (ok, maybe about one hour) were incredibly frustrating and confusing - mostly because I did not understand the objectives, and thus felt like they were either super fiddly to accomplish or technically failing to register (a feeling strengthened due to the crappy physics/collisions). So, if the objective was 3 Boom boxes - I'd take a pic, nothing would happen, take another one of a different boom box, I'd have a different objective register, and so on. I didn't know what was going on - was it framed incorrectly? Not focused right? No, it turns out the objective was to take a picture with 3 boom boxes in it. Sigh.

So, with the first hour of frustration out of the way, and having now figured out what to do and how...I was ready to actually play (and soon finish) the game.

Was it interesting? Yes?
Was it good? Yes?

How was the music? Amazing. I think I would have bailed completely on it if it weren't for the music.

Does the deadline make sense? No. It actively makes the experience worse - there's so much environmental storytelling in the game that I missed a lot of it simply because I was trying to get everything done in time. The timer doesn't REALLY matter - but you don't know that when you're playing, and so the game shoots itself in the foot in a sense.

The game's about the end of the world, but you don't really understand that - unless you stop to look around a bit, read the graffiti, see what the level designers have placed here and there, and so on.

and the ten minute deadline kills that.
The deadline also kills your desire to experiment with all the different photo and camera filters... which is also part of the experience. The world is ending, and here you are taking artsy pictures.