Distant Lands: Earendel

Video: https://youtu.be/myfXaMNhBFk Distant Lands is an almost surreal experience. If you don't experience all of the story bits, it is possible to miss out on some things that explain what's going on. I still feel a bit confused as to what I experienced over nearly 5 hours, but I can say for sure those 5 hours were well spent. It's hard to write a review for the game though, because with every word that escapes my fingers my mind is fighting to retain the secrets that await you. Gameplay is akin to an idler, a clicker, and a walking sim. You explore a location that begins with questions, gives you more questions, and finally answers. It is a game that consistently pushes you towards finding answers to what's going on, yet entices you with its pleasant music, charming gameplay, and a feeling that you don't quite want to leave it. You'll explore, you'll solve some very slight puzzles. You'll learn to look at things from different perspectives. You'll ask yourself questions, and click on stars. You'll click on orbs, gaining experience, which makes clicking stars much more satisfying and gainful. Watch the world come to life with your actions. A great soundtrack awaits, a…

This is a relatively short but quite enjoyable game, filled with a surprising amount of secrets and an unexpected story, told to you bit by bit. The visuals, though simplistic, are very pleasant. The whole game has a generally relaxing vibe (minus one specific thing. If you know, you know). All of this is completed by the BANGER sound track. Though I received it for free, I would say it's 100% worth the purchase.

This game is genuinely great, Excellent story, amazing music, decent mechanics. A word of warning: You cannot play this game with just a track pad and play game is in the bottom right of the title screen. This game is 100% worth your time and money. Can't wait to see what they make next.

hesitant recommendation i like the concept of putting an incremental/clicker type game in a wide open world which you can explore and find parts of the narrative and secrets in, but the execution is very rough the biggest problem for me is that playing the game just isn't very fun. the star clicker minigame is [i]fine[/i], but RSI-inducing and very dull until you unlock some of the later stars, and the world is so huge and the movement so basic that exploration for me would often boil down to holding down shift-w for three minutes while i looked at my phone. it was hard to get invested in exploring the game world when there was so little interactivity and so much dead air walking through huge open areas to get from one point of interest to another the music is good, the controls are a bit janky, the narrative has some interesting ideas but is let down a bit by a rough english translation. all in all a sincere, soulful effort that's hard to dislike, but often disappointingly unengaging