評論

• gamedeal user

  Jun 21, 2016

  For a small studio, this game has excellent graphic and sound design, and a decent, if somewhat stale, sci-fi plot. However, the game falls completely flat in the realm of puzzle design. All of the puzzles fall somewhere on a spectrum between trivial and simple. Some puzzles require a bit of thought only because it's often not clear what you're supposed to do. In many cases, the puzzles are arbitrary non-sequitors having nothing to do with the narrative. The game contains the worst kind of timing puzzles -- frustrating and lots of waiting for things to reset, coupled with clunky controls. This game wants to be challenging and fun in the same way as Portal or Talos but misses the mark widely. Also, you cannot save in the middle of levels, which just seems barbaric in the year 2016. I'm so bored with the puzzles that I'm quitting at around the halfway point and won't finish. In spite of the excellent production effort, I can't recommend this game.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 4, 2016

  Plays like a bad dream.

  Gameplay: - Nearly everything is extremely dark. (Clever cost-cutting technique?) - Cheap jump scares. For some reason, I expected no more jump scares after Master Reboot. - Repetitive. Too many airducts. Dull, obvious puzzles. (At least in the beginning.) Long stretches of nothing. - Not-so-fun action bits, such as: avoiding spotlights, running around a dark room full of randomly-moving killer robots with spotlights. - Unlikable characters. Overall I found it to be a dull and unpleasant experience. Won't be finishing this game. Technical issues: - The game was unplayable for many Linux users with NVIDIA GPUs due to a bug in the game's use of the bloom effect. The bug has been reported during early access. It was "patched" (by adding a bloom toggle) one month after leaving early access. - Even at lowest setting, still has abysmal performance on Linux (uplayable in 4K, stutters randomly at 1080p). The VSync option has no effect, thus screen tearing is unavoidable.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 14, 2018

  It is with heavy heart that I have to give Soul Axiom a thumbs down. I really like what Wales Interactive did here. The concept is excellent: you are the soul of a dead (?) person, navigating the strange memories of several intertwined characters via glitchy soul and memory preservation technology. You are given powers such as the ability to make memory fragments appear and disappear (e.g. make a bridge appear to cross a river), or "play" object history sequences to make things move (e.g. rebuild a broken artifact or slide ramps and walls from place to place). In general it is fun to manipulate the environment like this and the ideas here are novel and intriguing. Once you've successfully navigated an area, you are rewarded with cutscene fragments to clue you in on the story. The art direction is also cool. Since the tech keeping your consciousness alive is imperfect, the minimal graphics make sense. Note that the engine runs smoothly and beautifully and is itself not glitchy at all. Environments are diverse and enjoyable. The game looks great. Where it all falls apart is in gameplay execution. There are hundreds of puzzles, many of which are rather easy (which is fine), except when it comes to those that aren't clearly framed. Frequently the very pieces of a puzzle will be inobvious, leading you to walk around clicking on everything in sight in the hopes of activating something. Also, this is not a game that lets you get 9/10 puzzles correct and proceed ... you have to solve them all, so if you are stuck on something, tough luck - and level progress is not saved until you complete it. So if you solve 90% of a level and want to take a break to come back with fresh eyes, you can't. More than once, I felt coerced to continue playing for another half hour to solve one last stupid puzzle even though I was sick of it, because of this awful checkpoint system. Most damningly, the controls for interaction are horrifically clunky and frustrating even when you know exactly what you want to do. There is a lot of waiting, holding down mouse buttons, watching things move past where you tried to target them, it's all hideously slow and unresponsive. Imagine the frustration of not seeing the puzzle pieces, having to click on everything in sight to try to make something - anything - happen, and the very act of clicking on things is maddeningly cumbersome. You just imagined Soul Axiom. It gets worse! Some of the puzzles are time sensitive, and there are even action scenes and straight up battles, where split second timing is required to avoid "dying" and resetting a challenge. These sequences could be fun and exciting if not for the atrocious, blundering controls and the game's general lack of communication. Then in the mid-late game, there's an absolutely insane design decision: having navigated a dozen or so "memory levels" over the course of 8-10 hours, the game asks you to go back through the same levels - ALL OF THEM - often re-solving the same exact puzzles you've already done all over again (and don't forget, the awful controls make it painful even if you remember exactly what to do) - to extract a final uncorrupted memory from each level, completing the fragmentary cutscenes you found the first time through. I have to do that half hour time travel apartment sequence all over again? Are you ****ing kidding me? Who would find this fun? One nice thing: you are given a choice at the end of the game which character to fully explore, depending on which "final memories" you managed to find. I didn't bother to find them all which meant that I only had one character to pick from, the one I liked the least. Rather than go back to search for more memories I went ahead and picked him just to get it over with. It's a shame. I want to see the endings for all the characters and I'd like to search for more clues and hidden memory fragments, I really would. The story is compelling and the setting is beautifully made; but this game is just too exhausting to play. There is good stuff here. If you're willing to deal with a bad UI, crappy action scenes, and an exasperating amount of backtracking, for the sake of fresh mechanics, a gorgeous game world, and fun puzzles, I won't stop you. Despite its problems, I'm glad I played the game just to see what was here. I think $20 is too much to pay here. The list price should be $15 and I wouldn't recommend paying more than $8-12.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 18, 2014

  So I don't know how long is the Early Access version for Soul Axiom, but going to talk about the one and a half hours of play time that I've spent in it. First off the graphics, art direction, and atmosphere is nice, with the little bit of story i understood is presented nicely with good voice acting, and with text i actually had an interest to read so that's good, not many games make me do that. The puzzles from the start to the end of my play session are nicely made, with mechanics of changing the state of objects and move them using different 'hand' types, the first one being able to solidify objects to make a platform for example, or make them hollow for you to walk through, the second one is 'rewind' or 'play' an object like making a wall disappear, or making stairs appear. Those to mechanics are fun to use honestly, and hopefully there's more to play around with too. My problem with it now is some of it's levels feel too empty, maybe add more effects or..a crack? i don't, just anything to make it feel not like a grey box level. Second problem is I hope that some of the objects in the world have a better outline for you to use your ability on while 'not looking at it' , which makes it more convenient and saving time. Lastly there's sometimes no way of telling if I'm done with a level or not, making me confused as to where should i go next. Overall I like the game and the direction it's heading in, just a few tweaks with the visuals and pointers to make the player experience through the game more smooth and less confusing, and in it's current state there isn't much bugs and the game runs like a charm for me, so get it if you want, if you like these types of puzzle adventure games. Shameless link to original post
• gamedeal user

  Jan 16, 2017

  Not fun. Ditto to all the things the other negative reviews say, especially having a slow and uninteresting start that doesnt compell one to want to play more. Shame, since i kinda really enjoyed master reboot
• gamedeal user

  Sep 27, 2022

  Master reboot was an amazing game. Amazing art style. Great story. wonderful gameplay. Soul Axiom is nothing of it and it hurts to realize that. The game is beautifully crafted. But it is aiming to be too high class. It is painfully clear after some hours how much of the graphics got reused over and over again. The Level design is horrible. Actually horrible! The maps are confusing - and not deriberately difficult but just badly crafted. Mazes that make no sense, are repetitive and confusind. On top of that, it lacks play testing direly. There are quite some corners where you just get stuck and have to restart that level - with none of your progress saved! Some puzzles are very very good. But most levels rely on backtracking through empty, boring levels that look as if thesy had to be created on the basis of stock assets. The whole gameplay is based on backtracking and repetition after repetition and wuite a lot of trial and error until you find by accident what to do. It is realls too bad that this is what came out as a successor of Master Reboot. That game was onle 25% as long but sooooo much better!
• gamedeal user

  Jul 20, 2017

  To put it simply, this game is unfinished. There are a lot of examples of bad game design, as some levels you must restart in order to reset triggers, and then make your way up a long flight of stairs again. On top of that, there are not any explanations for any puzzles, and I found myself scratching my head trying to figure out how to proceed pretty much every step of the way. As a $5 game, especially with the amount of content it provides, this game would be tremendous. But for the asking price, there's no way I can justify it.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 9, 2023

  Despite being an older game, it still has its charm. Puzzle game with pleasant and colorful graphics, the soundtrack is also good. I would like to point out that it is not a game suitable for everyone, the difficulty increases as the levels go by. Currently its full price is not in line with the market, so I recommend taking it on a discount. My rating 7/10
• gamedeal user

  May 25, 2016

  This is a great game. The story is cryptic and interesting, and gameplay is fun if slightly repetitive. Puzzle difficulty varies from absurdly easy to reasonably difficult, but is almost always entertaining. The gameplay can be a bit buggy, but it is usually not a problem. The graphics, while not stellar, don't really detract from immersion or enjoyment. Great ambience and music to create a spooky feel. 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Aug 27, 2015

  EDIT: I am updating my review having played more of the game, but I keep a similar stance This game does have a very nice aesthetic to it, with the art style and the story. It feels very much in the spirit of its predecessor, Master Reboot, which I cannot recommend enough. This game, however falls very fllat in its gameplay however, which frustrated me enough to not finish it. GOOD: Story and Visual Though I have yet to complete the story, I was very compelled by what I was able to find, and the tron-like visuals and technology were beautiful while the overtones of darkness and horror kept a very consistent tone for the game. All these aspects are what made me love Master Reboot, and you will find plenty of that in this game. BAD: Gameplay. The powers you obtain are very much akin to quick-time events; arbitrary actions you must take to progress the game with no real freedom about how you go about doing them. What's worse is that these powers are the basis for many if not most of the puzzles in this game. Probably the most frustrating thing were all the other puzzles that didn't require powers, because after being trained to look for (often faint) blue, green and orange glows (basically use X power here), the game will throw in a puzzle that doesn't require them, stumping you until you realize it wants you to do something completely new. These puzzles might have actually been fun, but too often it's like playing Portal then being given a puzzle that doesn't require a portal. Part of what I liked about Master Reboot was it's simplicity. There may not have been any flashy powers, but it was consistent in the gameplay and allowed you to focus on the story and the visuals. VERDICT: While I loved the story and aesthetics to this game, I could not get past the gameplay. If bad gameplay doesn't bother you, then sure, get this game. But if you require good gameplay to stay invested, I would recommend not. Either way though, I highly recommend Master Reboot.