Game review: Firmament (2023)

 

I gave money to the kickstarter for this new game from Cyan Worlds, the creators of Myst and more recently Obduction, a few yers back and if finally had it's release a little over a week ago. The game, as with Cyan's other games, has main graphics and features a single person journey (mostly- more on that in a minute) through various environments to uncover the story of why no one else is about. The specialize in a steam punk aesthetic and challenging puzzles that unlock the mysteries of the games and future little to no violence which I find welcome. 

This game like Obduction before it is also available in VR, something I am interesting in trying but can't imagine having the funds  to actually buy. So this is the flat screen Mac version and I am pretty happy with that truth be told. It took me abut 23 hours to play as I am not in a rush to "win" or anything like that.  The game follows Cyan's loner in a mystical place template with the exception of a "ghost" who give you plot points and waxes philosophic throughout. I was constantly looking for the "shut her up" button especially at the conclusion but to no avail. I did experience some bugs, I fell into a reservoir of acid because of some boundary error and the camera suddenly sank below the digital ground at one one point which was surreal. There was slight stuttering that was barely noticeable and during the first week they released 2 bug fixes so they were on the case right away to fix things. 

I recently replayed Obduction in reparation for the release of Firmament since it had been awhile since i played anything else. Obduction I will say is much larger more realized world which gives you a lotto tactile interaction with the environment. You can open draws and pick up objects and evert new area you explore is large and has hidden interesting things to find that are just there to fill out the world building and don't necessarily relate directly to game play. Firmament lacks much of this and is more about staying in the storyline. All interaction is though a device on your hand the shoots an electric cord into sockets that let you control things. The set pieces are amazing and lovely but I would have loved more extra areas to explore and discover. 

I have read some other reviews criticizing this game for being basically a Cyan game, not sure why they played it if that isn't something they like. Obduction did go in different directions in some ways with alien worlds and a more complex story but it was still you being alone in a mysterious place solving puzzles. It is what draws me personally to their games.

Cons:

• Less interaction than I expected.
• an annoying ghost companion you can not shut off
• not much exploration outside the direct needs of the story
• because of the limited interaction, puzzles are very similar in execution
• a never ending monologue at the conclusion

Pros:

• beautiful
• the puzzles are not nearly as frustrating as some were in Obduction which I had to stop playing at first because one section was just impossible and took me out of the game
• for a new release I found the play mostly smooth and Cyan has been quick to squash bugs
• a nice twist at the end and I oddly found there not being a "good" and "bad" choice endings made the game more satisfying. I guess that is spoiler of sorts but its common to for Myst games to have more than one ending so don't look for that this time.
• as a kickstarter person, the 30$ price and included game and exploration guide was really great. I will contribute to a next game if they go that route. 

* A remake of Riven, maybe one of the best exploration puzzle game s ever is in being done and after seeing how well Cyan updated Myst not that long ago I'm all in! 

Obduction - game review

Obduction is a game I have been waiting for years to come out. made by Cyan, the same people who gave us the original Myst games, games I love to this day and replay now and then, I was really looking forward to it and playing a game with no violence and allowed me to explore a place at my own pace.

So the game finally has arrived and it's pretty wonderful. While some people complain about stuttering or bugs I haven't really experienced much of that, or maybe I haven't experienced more of of it than I see with most games I play.

Visually and storewide it doesn't disappoint and was well worth the wait. The renderings and landscapes are breathtaking, artistic and beg to be explored. The interactions with the residents of the world are limited mostly to video clips which is fine, though I know some people wished there would be more character interaction - it's not something I want from a Myst-like game.

Speaking of Myst-like like. this game does not loo like the games from the series or follow the plot or have any thematic connection to them. It is very much it's own thing and I applaud the makers for that. Where it resembles that previous franchise is in the gameplay and feeling of the environments. Like those past  project, Obduction has many puzzles to solves and nooks and crannies to explore but follows it's own rules and aesthetics.

To be 100% honest, I am reviewing this game without finishing playing it. The reason why is the one thing I find wrong with this new adventure. Some of the puzzles involve math, literally they do and that's not my strong point, but you can find solutions online and hints and get past them easy enough and continue to explore. I have reached one area, the "maze" which embodies the worst tendencies that Cyan games puts into some of it's puzzles. It's pretty much impossible to solve even with cheating, especially if you missed a step. If you do manage to figure it out, it involves so much back tracking and repetitive action that's it is just a total gamer killer in terms of enjoyment.

So I am now re-starting the game from the beginning, following a guide to get past the log-jam of the "maze" so I can actually finish the game. Disappointing to be sure but I would still say on balance it's well worth getting and playing. I am not unhappy with my purchase, just this one part of it that really goes too far in terms of difficulty. I am sure there are those that find this sort of thing the reason to play, but I am just as sure that most of Cyan's fans are more like me, liking the puzzles but loving the exploration more.

I know there are two endings and I hope they are better than the tow endings of Quern I recently finished, where both basically took you to the same place. I also hope that, like the original Myst, I can walk around and see some thing is might have missed after the game is over.

UPDATE:
I am finally out of the maze! The guide I used wasn't totally clear but I managed to follow it enough to get it set up so the maze would take me to all the locations and i went beyond that, but not to the end of the game - yet. I also discovered in a comment that ALL the bridges can be activated using the the same code which saved a lot of time trying to match each bridge to a different code.