Mare

I don't think anyone alive could predict the ending to this game. Mare is an interesting puzzle game. Do I love it? Yes. Would I recommend it as a must play for others? Probably not. It is more of a slow, art exhibit kind of experience, than a barn burning, mountain dew chugging, interactive gaming endeavor. But, if you watch a trailer, and it has a glimmer of appeal, maybe check it out? There is about 2.5-3 hours of gameplay here. The "real ending" is hidden behind collecting all the cat statues, with a few that are easy to miss on first playthrough, and may require going back through level select to pick them up. A port from an initial 2021 Oculus Quest 2 release, the game eschews the trappings of modern graphics in favor of a sharp picture with artistically driven design for the textures and environments. Developed by Rui Guerreiro, who worked on The Last Guardian with Team ICO, and Vane with Friends & Foes, you can definitely tell this was the work of an Auteur with singular vision. Generally, the atmosphere, environmental design, and lighting/color palette is reminiscent of themes and style from Fumito Ueda's work on Ico and Shadow of Colossus. But I really think that is…

Ok, this is a hard one to review. First of all, I really like the art style and the ambient of this game. The world building is very similar to ICO, and I'm sure that's where the creators took the main inspiration from. The puzzles are weak and the focus is mainly on the adventure itself, which I personally do enjoy. The biggest and only issue I have is Child Endangerment! The first time I read that in the review, I was like: pff, it's a video game, of course the girl will go through some environmental hazards. But no, there is no environmental hazards, I AM the hazard. Unfortunately, the creators only took artistic inspirations from ICO, and completely forgot what team ICO said about how the handholding mechanism creates a bond between the player and the character. Because this game forced me to do all sorts of horrible things to the little girl, ranging from [spoiler]intentionally lighting the tree on fire right next to her with the intent of scaring her way, to intentionally letting the girl be surrounded by monsters and watching her scream until fainted, and ultimately leading her to a dangerous ritualistic ground where you blow up everything into the air (including the gir…

6/10 Visit a art gallery, you'd say it was good, to be polite. but really... you don't get it. Starts out bewildering, intriguing then a girl pops out, Delighted!, reminds you of ICO from PS2, but then, it is not... even with the hidden? true? ending? still, I don't get the story. Total, about 3 hours to finish, collecting all the bunnies. a short puzzle, for weekend play, Only, get it at sale.

Love the atmosphere and the "electro-punk" (is that even a term?) design of the world while the mechanics are fairly unique and interesting although very simple and non-challenging. Even though it is a slow game and experience by design (which is fine) the slowness of the girl got slightly annoying to me (why does she have to stop and wave every five steps or so?). The same with the repetetive "Puerto-gibberish" from the girl. And while I like the overall visual style I was not so enamoured with the rough, unsmoothed look of the surfaces. Looking forward to see bigger and more complex games from the studio with equally unique ideas, if that's a direction they want to take. 7/10

9/10 Very enjoyable. Quite an anticlimactic ending though.

The Team Ico-esque ambience is nice, but in the end, I don't think it was worth slogging through the tedious gaze-based "gameplay" of waiting around for the girl to slowly jog to where you're looking at. I also don't feel like this game really benefited much from being in VR at all.