The Origin Theory - Episode One

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The tale follows Ethan. When he and his team decide to investigate a distress signal from a seemingly desolate island, they discover that someone is there. A sentry drone then shoots down the helicopter, leaving Ethan as the only survivor. Something happens when he is lying on a table, and the unknown man standing next to him is killed. Ethan now has to flee and figure out what's happening. Everything points to a billionaire and genius who mysteriously vanished from the face of the Earth a while ago. The gameplay is standard for the walking sim genre. You move forward by locating items or other means that will allow you to open anything or achieve your goal. Item use is similar to adventure games because you need to pick the right item when interacting with something. Sometimes you need to use jump to reach a higher spot, but the engine doesn’t support this very well because you get caught into environment. Puzzles are quite interesting. After the initial section, you get to explore several rooms with several puzzles. They’re fun because you’re required to find clues in the environment or notes. Despite the terrible predicament you find yourself in, the game deviates into comedy…

Was really excited when I saw this coming out as I'm running out of new survival horror games to play. It runs very poorly on my Steamdeck on lowest graphical settings for a minute or two then crashes every single time I try. Frustrating, in this state I can't recommend. If this gets fixed I will edit this review. Going to wait a couple days to see if an update or patch comes out - if not unfortunately will have to refund.

I wasn't really drawn into this game. There's some weird judders and spikes in the frame rate, often enough to make the movement unpleasant and clunky. The graphics are nice but everything else feels a bit goofy and the AI voices kind of kills it for me too. I get that voice acting is costly but I'd rather just subtitles than AI voices. Maybe this picks up later but it's a refund for me.

Wow! This game is awesome! This game won’t hold your hand; it challenges you to think and concentrate, so it may not be for everyone. The first level is purely problem-solving. Honestly, the first level was really challenging for me, but after that, it got a lot easier, and the fun began 😊. Actually, every level is a huge upgrade from the previous one. The game looks stunning, and the world is incredibly detailed. Every detail in the environment has its purpose. The story is intriguing and full of fun details and unique humor. I loved the humor! The level design is top-notch, as is the shooting. It is hard to recall any other FPS game where shooting is this fun and well-executed. The game is also very gory and contains a lot of dismembered body parts (nice!). There are some technical issues, though, and the game requires a powerful gaming rig. Playing with low or medium settings improves visibility, but sacrifices beauty. Playing definitely works better with a mouse and keyboard than with a gamepad. I wish the game had better gamepad support. I already started my next playthrough. Hopefully, episode 2 will see the light of day someday. Great experience! Highly recommended! 👍