Metacritic Score: 78 The Chinese Room's follow-up to their previous "walking simulator" Dear Esther boasts plenty of gorgeous visual detail and an interesting premise, but an infuriatingly vague execution makes it a dispiritingly tedious experience. For one, the game severely limits the player's speed, and even when holding down the "sprint" button (which the game doesn't even illustrate to the player), things still move at an agonisingly slow pace, made further infuriating by an ambiguous floating marker which the player is required to follow to progress. Though the characters and their hinted-at scenarios do generate some interest, it's largely for naught as the game ends on a frustrating non-note that more engrossed players might ceaselessly pick apart, but for those who failed to connect with what came before, it just cements how woefully disappointing this game was. It's not the best argument for video games as art or more than mere button-pressing exercises, a stamina-sapping if mercifully rather short little romp that should've been about so much more, and not railroaded the player into proceeding at the pace of an asthmatic slug.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
