Interiors are well designed for the most part. It doesn’t explicitly tell you where to go, in an attempt to encourage some exploration. Level design is decent enough though, with quite a few paths and options. Thankfully enemies are really easy to exploit in combat. In one instance I actually died in combat and the autosave function decided to kick in during that sequence, causing a deathloop until I was finally able to break free. Thankfully, you can prevent bleeding with bandages which you will never likely run short of anyway. Not to mention, if you do get hit this will cause bleeding, which may alert guards and civilians to your presence. Adding multiple enemies to the mix just confuses things. It’s as simple as combat can be and it’s rather dull. You can deflect any incoming attacks which will put the enemy in a stunned state, allowing you to counter. Now there is combat in the game, but I would highly recommend avoiding it whenever possible. This isn’t too big of a deal however, as the effect is still solid and there’s something great in Winter Ember that is hidden away behind frustrating and undercooked mechanics. They follow very strict patterns, have a fairly limited field of vision, and will often forget about you seconds after losing sight. Enemy AI is pretty standard as far as stealth games go. Moving around in the shadows, blowing out candles, and either sneaking your past guards or taking them out through either lethal or non-lethal means. That said, sneaking around is always very satisfying and Winter Ember does a great job of making you feel like a thief. This wouldn’t be a problem normally, and is a neat idea for this type of game, but with the zoomed in camera it just makes it annoying to play. Not only this, but Winter Ember also has a field of vision for Arthur, meaning guards approaching from behind can’t be seen. Even then the extra visibility is barely even noticeable. Only being able to enter cover from a set distance away is a frustrating issue and it doesn’t always work. You can look forward a bit by entering cover as well, but the cover system is awkward.
This is supposed to make you play extremely cautiously, checking corners before going around them, but it can also be a hindrance as well. The first thing you will notice when you boot up the game is just how zoomed in the camera is. Winter Ember is an isometric stealth game that is heavily inspired by the Thief franchise. Characters are just as forgettable as their motives, and you will honestly not remember the name of anyone in the game. There are some interesting story revelations in the later part of the game, but by then I found it hard to care. After a nifty animated opening the game kinda just drops you in and not much really happens for a while. After eight years in exile, he arrives back to a city that has changed, a powerful new order rules the city, and Arthur is looking for revenge. Winter Ember starts with the murder of Arthur’s family.
0 kommentar(er)
