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"Better Late Than Dead "

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Tue 12/04/16 at 10:50
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
Better Late Than Dead is an interesting title which conjours up images of post apocalyptic fun, yet it isn't really either.

This is yet another survival game that gives you no clues as to the goal, bar a short introduction shown in semi-static comic book style. Rather than some ruined city, the game takes place on a remote island when you're unceremoniously dumped off a boat in a coffin. You begin with just a backpack to hold items and that's pretty much it.

Your first motivation comes from keeping those bars on the bottom left of the screen short by staying safe, finding food and drink and resting. The food and drink isn't too hard to find at first as the game hands it to you, but it does later become an issue. Wondering around you find huts and other signs of life with notes that help further the story and also give you clues to survive.

The world is also full of pitfalls and perils that are ready to sneak up, jump out and chomp on you with huge teeth. In one game I was happily walking through some undergrowth after finding a couple of useful items when I got lynched (or should that be lunched?) by a wolf. Since then I've been mashed, chomped and torn by all manner of creatures and very few of them gave much of an announcement that they were there.

The ultimate aim seems to be to escape the island, though there's no direction the game gives you in that respect. The slow pace and the difficult task of finding objects certainly makes any prospect of progress towards this goal seem very distant, in any case. I admit that I haven't really seen this game through as yet and it's a little too painful to think about waiting it out to get to the end.

Graphically this game won't win any prizes, though the scenery is easy enough on the eye when you're not moving. There are glitches all over the place and the objects you need to find are very well hidden. The developers obviously realise this and have come up with a 'perception mode' to help, but even when you do find things you will need to click in exactly the right place to interact with them. Animation is jerky and basic but not so much that it spoils the game.

There's a lot of potential in this game and, to their credit, the team seem to be updating it as they go. But it feels like something in Early Access that has a lot of the ideas still waiting to be implemented rather than a fully released title. Maybe revisiting it in a few months might provide a more positive outcome, but for now it's as lacking as your backpack when you first set foot on the island.

4/10
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Tue 12/04/16 at 10:50
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
Better Late Than Dead is an interesting title which conjours up images of post apocalyptic fun, yet it isn't really either.

This is yet another survival game that gives you no clues as to the goal, bar a short introduction shown in semi-static comic book style. Rather than some ruined city, the game takes place on a remote island when you're unceremoniously dumped off a boat in a coffin. You begin with just a backpack to hold items and that's pretty much it.

Your first motivation comes from keeping those bars on the bottom left of the screen short by staying safe, finding food and drink and resting. The food and drink isn't too hard to find at first as the game hands it to you, but it does later become an issue. Wondering around you find huts and other signs of life with notes that help further the story and also give you clues to survive.

The world is also full of pitfalls and perils that are ready to sneak up, jump out and chomp on you with huge teeth. In one game I was happily walking through some undergrowth after finding a couple of useful items when I got lynched (or should that be lunched?) by a wolf. Since then I've been mashed, chomped and torn by all manner of creatures and very few of them gave much of an announcement that they were there.

The ultimate aim seems to be to escape the island, though there's no direction the game gives you in that respect. The slow pace and the difficult task of finding objects certainly makes any prospect of progress towards this goal seem very distant, in any case. I admit that I haven't really seen this game through as yet and it's a little too painful to think about waiting it out to get to the end.

Graphically this game won't win any prizes, though the scenery is easy enough on the eye when you're not moving. There are glitches all over the place and the objects you need to find are very well hidden. The developers obviously realise this and have come up with a 'perception mode' to help, but even when you do find things you will need to click in exactly the right place to interact with them. Animation is jerky and basic but not so much that it spoils the game.

There's a lot of potential in this game and, to their credit, the team seem to be updating it as they go. But it feels like something in Early Access that has a lot of the ideas still waiting to be implemented rather than a fully released title. Maybe revisiting it in a few months might provide a more positive outcome, but for now it's as lacking as your backpack when you first set foot on the island.

4/10

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