Hello. Today I will tell you about a very unusual project in every sense from Russian developers, which was created with expense from a kickstarter. So, this is an RPG called “Insomnia: The Ark.”Sample of 2018.
Backstory:
There was a planet in the world of the game, which was at charge of 2 factions. As a result of a military conflict, the world, apparently, was destroyed. The remnants of the survivors were able to escape at a huge space station, which will plow space expanses for 400 years.
There are two peoples at the station, namely the elite, for which the station was originally intended, as well as the blessings-blessings, which made it out of it illegally. How difficult it is to guess gutters are considered second -grade people.
A huge number of station personnel are in anabiosis, and they wake up as necessary. One of these sleeping is our main character.
The hero appears before us in the form of a faceless shadow. We go through a strange space among the same shadows. Walking along the trail of the shadow that differs from others, in that it glows, we go into a certain anomaly resembling a portal. And the hero wakes up.
It becomes clear that we are a military man, and we are quickly introduced to the course of business, simultaneously telling fresh news. And the news is as follows. In Limbe (the compartment where people were in Anabiosis) there was an explosion that enveloped huge casualties. We miraculously managed to survive.
And at the station itself, a very troubled environment. After the explosion, the military government decided to stop the supply of food to dysfunctional areas, as a result of which local rebels (which, by the way, hung the guilt for the explosion) began to rebel even more and were about to take up arms. A certain new cult was also formed that fights for power with a local criminal group.
And in the course of the game, our main character will have to figure out who is actually guilty of the explosion, destroy the rebels or lure to his side, decide which of the cultists or bandits to join, and also understand what the mysterious world we saw at the beginning of the game, why the hero sees strange hallucinations and how the explosion and abnormalities that we meet are associated with this.
Setting, visual, soundtrack and atmosphere:
The game setting is a certain mixture. Something similar, I can remember only in “Mars: War Logs” and “Techomacer”. On the one hand, it seems that the action takes place in space. There are armored vehicles and obvious elements of cyberpan. On the other, the degradation of society is very vividly shown here. Everything around is falling apart, most people eat some kind of slop, sleep almost on garbage and wear ragged overalls. And even when we visit elite rooms, we understand that their living conditions are not so different from the conditions.
The rusty corridors of the garbage here will quickly replace the architecture in the art of art deco with monumental statues and rare neon signs, and often locations even combine all this at the same time. The surroundings are clearly visible to the retro futurism style, and some places and things in general, as if, are sketched from the cult SA FI and cyberpunk films. Personally, I noticed very obvious references to a stranger and running along the blade, but most likely there are even more there, since I am still not very pleased in this regard.
Everything related to the design of armor and weapons also corresponds to the general style. Each gun or armor looks very original.
In most cases, music is a viscous and gloomy emboss. And in combination with her, the environment and design make you feel the hopelessness, depressive and degradation of this world. You clearly see that this society and in these conditions simply have no chance for a happy future.
And in the contrast of all this, the mysterious world that we saw at the beginning of the game, and to which we periodically return, looks incredibly fresh. Beautiful sandy sandy -flooded coast, where sea waves beat and strange shadows roam. Getting into it, you really want to know what kind of place it is and how we are connected with him?
And what is important. All these sensations are not so firing at the very end and make you think very seriously on choosing the ending.
General thoughts about the plot:
The story itself turned out to be a good. The plot tie asks a bunch of questions that you really want to know the answers, and this is very addictive. If we find out one answer, then with it we get only more questions with it almost immediately. And such a system continues almost until the final. And the ends themselves turned out to be good, albeit slightly crumpled.
But here the first disadvantages begin Nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/luck-of-spins-casino/ slowly. Although the plot turned out to be good. But after him there is still a lot of questions. And the main essence becomes clear. We will learn everything about the explosion, by the confrontation of two groups, about the intrigues of the government and the rebels. But regarding the doubt (that very mysterious world) there are a lot of questions.
Next will go non -critical spoilers.
They tell us that this is a kind of world into which people fall during sleep (sort of), and also after their death there are reflections of their consciousness in it. And only some can interact with him directly. And thanks to this, they can get unusual abilities. They are called somings, and we are one of them.
But, firstly, they never explain to us, but where did the dubbing come from? This is a parallel world? Some other space? Or just a renunciation of consciousnesses of all mankind? Xs.
Plus, I didn’t understand so much, but who is the bright shadow that we saw at the beginning, and which oversaw us the whole next game? They make it clear to us that this is a kind that was experiments on which they set up. But why did he differ from others and, what is his strength specific? Xs.
I also did not quite fully understand what the local political intrigues were specifically. But here I, most likely, just missed the information from the dialogs.
There are also many small details. According to the fact that we are mentioned several times the outskirts of the station, on which a fierce star is going on, but we will never visit there. Or the fact that the conflict of the gang and the cult is not particularly important for the plot, although it takes a quarter of history, and it is not disclosed that it is not very deep.
But all these are trifles that, although they strain. But they can be forgiven, because all of them are most likely the consequences of a complex development history that has occupied 8 years. In the end, they do not particularly spoil the really interesting storyline, which is also well written. And the ENT and the world of the game turned out to be really original and intriguing.
BUT! Here I am finishing praising the game, as we go to gameplay.
Battleship:
Stupid shit dumb shit! What kind of genius occurred that in the game from, a dog, a third person will be a great idea to remove the opportunity to turn the camera up and down?! Okay, this was done due to technical restrictions, since the game was originally planned, and there is simply no ceiling in the game. But what for you then made shootings then?! You know how the sight behaves here? You know? He moves to the left and right, but he, he swells up and down, just walks on the screen like a cursor! Fucked cursor! You get used to it, but it is more convenient, damn it, does not become! And more than once I had cases when the enemy ran up to me point -blank, and when I was lowering the sight in the Pilia to get along it, I shot half the clip to the floor, because the sight moves too sharply and I did not have time to stop it at the enemy!
Moreover, the game has a close battle, and it is performed normally. Crookedly, but playable. So why not leave him only? And you say “Well, play only for your neighbor.”. Yeah, the idea is great. Here are only the majority of enemies here are armed with flamhery and take out in a couple of shots even at the final levels of the game, so it’s not particularly obtained to cross the scanny with a checker.
Of the advantages of the combat system, one can distinguish only a large multi -speed of the weapon. There are enough any pmostolets, shotgun, rifles and machine guns here, like one -handed and two -handed weapons. But what’s the meaning of the change of weapons and the sample of another build, if the fighting is fundamentally broken in its root?!
In general, the combat is war. But what about pumping there?
Pumping:
Yes, to be honest, there is nothing special to say here. She is standard. There are common skills, combat, pumping stats, pumping hacking and hucking and so on.
In general, the only thing I can show is its leisurely. You will succeed in the whole game, God forbid, pump a quarter of all skills. And on the one hand, this is a great scope for building. But again, as I wrote above, it makes no sense to try different weapons, no particular. And at the same time, many quests will need hacking skills, mechanics, hucking and so on such. And good, you should first pump them all, and only then download weapons and characteristics. Just given that at first there are few such quests, and the enemies are scattered very quickly, it is extremely difficult to guess to that. But you can’t redistribute pumping here. So to thorough a couple of quests, because you did not pump the necessary skills here at all to spit.
And since we mentioned quests, then in theory it is worth it and go, but first we will discuss the local game world.
Moving around the world:
The game consists of several small locations between which you need to move along the general map of the station. And how does it happen?
You walk along a location that can consist of several levels, the transition between which is accompanied by loading. You go out of the location to the station map, press on another location at the station. Your character in the form of a point on the map begins to move towards the selected location. Move very slowly. During this movement, random events may occur that cannot be missed (battle, merchant, just a room with a loot and so on). The event is held, you return to the station map and move on and reach the desired location. And it does not seem to sound so tiring, but this is how it really looks like.
I moved from one location level to another. Loading. I got out of this level of location to the station map. Loading. Headed towards another location. The point moves slowly. Random event (and they cannot be missed here). Loading. The event passed, we go back to the map. Loading! And the events here can also jump out several times in a row, so feel free to multiply this stage by three. The point slowly continues to move to the desired location. Reaches. LOADING!
And this despite the fact that for many quests you need to visit several locations of the podpots, so that the whole paragraph can often repeat three times or five times in one task. And in the end, out of about thirty hours of passage, somewhere one fifth, if not the fourth of the whole game, I spent the station on the map and watched for, go nuts with what a fascinating slow movement of the point.
Extra themselves. The quests are not bad. There is nonlinearity, there are interesting stories and disclosure of Laura. BUT! All this just catastrophically breaks about local game design.
I have already painted about moving around the world during their implementation, but there is something else. There are no marks and designations for quests in the game. Everything that helps you when performing is a magazine. But okay fig with him, that you are not marked where to go. The locations are not so big, so getting lost in them almost does not work. And in the magazine they write what location to go and with whom to talk, what to collect or whom to kill.
BUT! I got excited in the section about the battles. And those expressions that I used there would come here more. So. Stupid shit dumb shit! Of course, I understand everything, we have Oldskuuuul here and all that, but what idiot the idea came up with the idea not to mark quest objects, but also give the opportunity to sell them and throw them out?! Moreover, literally on two items there is a note that they are quest and you can’t do anything with them. As I understand it, they are needed by the plot. But here are objects for add.For some reason, this did not affect the tasks. And in the end I had a couple of “awesome” situations.
For example. Almost at the very beginning, we get a quest from the cook, which gives us his vase and asks to take it to a shaman to bless it. And I dragged this vase with me almost the half of the game and eventually safely forgot that it was a quest item and either sold it, or just threw it. And when I finally met this shaman, I remembered this shitty vase, but I could not find it from any of the merchants, which means I finished it completely and the quest.
There was also a similar situation with the task of collecting a pair of special roots. I needed to collect three, but I found only two. On another quest, such roots were also needed, and I, naively thinking that then I could find them, gave them out. But only later I read that these roots for the whole game are three and having completed one quest, I packed another.
The third example. Throughout the game, I found some glasses for some time. I thought it was alchemimic ingredients, but I was not fond of Alihimia, so I accommodated them safely somewhere. And what do you think? Of course, through the half of the game, I received a quest to search for these very glasses. And when I climbed to read the guides on this quest, I found out that the number of glasses is limited, and if I was licking a couple, then the quest of the instruction.
Well, another quest. At one point, we need to get out of the local archive on stealth. But this can only be done by pumping the mechanics almost to the end, but I did not have it. And even if you still go further, we will get the maximum bastard stealth, in which the enemies notice you before you, and when losing, you look at an indistinct video every time, and then you throw you into the main menu.
How this game broke me:
And then I broke. I cut the cheats. I prescribed missing objects and skills and completed tasks. And by the end of the game I got so furious that I pumped myself with cheats in general. But just playing is especially easier. Yes, I began to take enemies faster, but they still take me out in a couple of shots. Yes, mini-Igyr with a hacking became easier, but what is the meaning if all the best equipment and so already I was me? Well, at least the advantage has now stopped to enrage.
But you know that the funny? Closer to the end of the game, I found a vase, and roots and glasses in sufficient quantities, so that I have enough quests without cheats. That’s just what a fig, then in the fucking guides it was not written that these items can still be found?! And yes, here I myself am to blame. But I’m sorry that I could not assume that if they gave me a quest at the beginning of the game, then I can only fulfill it closer to the end.
Okay, all of the above can be attributed to my impatience, casuality or banal stupidity. I admit. But there is one quest that has no excuses and no cheats with it will help. Namely the search for paintings.
One artist will ask us to find all his paintings. There are about thirty of them. They are scattered for all locations. And in the end, closer to the end of the game, without finding their significant part, I decided to finish off this task. Opening the whereabouts of these paintings on the internet, I began to go to the places from the list. And as you know, about 80 percent of my searches, I shouted a station card with a slowly moving point. And somewhere after an hour and a half of this “fascinating” action, I once again re-read the list of locations of the paintings and realized that many paintings are in the plot locations, which we never returned later. And if I did not collect them, then I can’t finish the quest. And as you can understand, some of these paintings I have shook. And the cheats did not help me here. And yes, I myself did not find them, but I myself did not pay attention to this by reading Hyde. But the very fact that the inconspes were stuffed with a quest item in a location that we visit only once, and did not bother to mention it, does not deserve any excuse!
Fuh. Let’s move on to the conclusions.
Well, what a result? Sad, unfortunately. For developments for sure. The studio broke up. Sorry, but Insomnia: The Ark. did not become a great story about how the outfits of 8 years broke through the thorns to the stars, creating their game of dreams and achieved success. She became the story that some long-term construction does not develop in something beautiful, but become something slurred. This game, although made by definitely not celested people, is still broken. Somewhere due to ambitions and unsuccessful decisions of the developers, somewhere because of technical restrictions, and somewhere just because of a poor combination of circumstances.
Well, what about my personal sensations. I don’t know. The plot, ENT, setting and text really left a good impression and deserve praise. But this game too often enraged me and frankly angry so that I could say that I liked it. Yes, in many ways this is my personal fault, but again, I can’t forget these emotions when making output. I would look at the fact that the breaches would be washed down in the future? Definitely yes. As I said, the guys are not celebrated, and if they took into account all their mistakes in the next project, maybe they could create some kind of masterpiece. But this, we are likely to never know. Well, to this game, although it was entertaining, I will definitely never return.