Vane

"what the ♥♥♥♥ did i just play" the game. A bizarre string of artsy playable scenes that make barely any sense with puzzles in them that rely more on not telling you what are you supposed to do than actually being a hard puzzle. The controls for the playable character and the camera are pretty horrid. The character feels like they're drunk, walking in a gusty hurricane, which kinda makes thematic sense, but it is really annoying for the parts of the game that ask you to walk on thin ledges, as you constantly have to fight both the character controls and the camera that decides that it's a nice idea to behave like it's a Michael Bay movie and wobble all over the place. So why the recommend then? Well, because it's a really weird game, and even with all the game parts working against it, the spectacle parts are still interesting enough to look at, even though I still have no idea what the ♥♥♥♥ happened in the story. ur a bird, ca-caw.

This is a criminally under-played and under-reviewed game. It might have some minor flaws but the art direction and atmosphere seriously make up for it. I was extremely impressed by it in both an artistic and technical capacity, and I could definitely see how much passion the team put into this gem. If you're a fun of beautiful atmospheric narrative experiences where every single frame could be a piece of concept art, this is a game for you.

I have mixed feelings about this game. Foremost, the visuals are stunning, the world-building is excellent, and the story is very meta. But the game just lacks proper guidance. In the first scene, you need to find 5 wind chimes and land on them. Does the game tell you this? Noooooo. Funny thing, in later games it is more obvious what you should do...but only a little. But because it is quite a unique experience, I can somewhat recommend it.

In my opinion, this game—created by former members of the team behind Fumito Ueda’s The Last Guardian—is far too little-known, and unjustly so. The outstanding art design, with its breathtaking megastructures and landscapes, lends a special touch to this fascinating world that requires no explanation. The simple gameplay fits well with the cryptic “plot,” and the sparingly used but beautiful soundtrack and excellent sound effects make the game a short, special experience.

unless you want to deal with a janky camera, don't get this. the game itself is beautiful, the models are well made, the animations are nice, and the landscape can be quite breathtaking. some of the puzzles can also be fun, i guess. the mouse sensitivity is absurdly high by default, and varies greatly between mouse and trackpad despite being on the exact same sensitivity setting. it also took me a bit to get the sensitivity right. such a shame the camera completely throws it off the rails for me. for anyone who's confused on how the camera works: it moves based on where your cursor is on the screen. moving the cursor slightly will gravitate the camera to where the cursor is. but it also completely hides your cursor, making it much harder to turn and look around. if it weren't for the camera, it would be perfect.

Artistically and conceptually [i]Vane[/i] has a lot going for it, and ended up being more or less what I expected. Rough as it is, and understandably so, due to the studio releasing it prematurely due to running out of money. It has the bones of a classic, underrated, silent ICO-style puzzle-exploration adventure. If you are patient and can bear that last missing 10% of polish in the bird landing mechanics, quality-of-life, walking speed, and those subtle hints that could have made it really-really stand out, then I think it's worth your time. The flying and scenery (and that overwhelming feeling of freedom and wonder) can be beautiful at times, and I wish they'd done more with the calming bird parts mechanically, maybe more of a 50/50. But the human puzzles in the middle part are also well done. The rolling parts overstay their welcome a little bit, but surprised me. -- Things I think could be better; the closed loop storyline, which is a common trope and can be seen from a mile away, dark, samey, byzantine levels in the latter part where you need to implicitly fly and scout around until you understand the layout and the right order of sequence without getting lost. This wouldn…