Ladies and gentlemen, we are now floating in space. Well, it feels like it. Adr1ft’s greatest asset is its ‘you are there’ immersion, a combination of immaculately calibrated movement, smart sound design and astonishing environmental detail. The extraordinary scenario helps, of course. As Commander Alex Oshima, you’ve got to make your way around a space station that’s very much in kit form. You won’t be able to piece it back together, but you will get to the bottom of how it went boom.
Eventually, at least. Not that you’re concerned about much beyond your own survival during a terrific and terrifying start. After a brief training mission designed to acclimatise you to the unconventional controls and unusual momentum, you’re thrust into a nightmare.
Before you can say “Sandra Bullock,” you hear a desperate gasping, as Alex finds herself staring at the broken mess of the Northstar IV station, her O2 supply running desperately low. For the first half-hour, your only job is to plot a path between floating canisters, gulping down their supply to stay alive. Good job her suit’s scanner is one of the few things that’s still fully functional, highlighting items of importance so it’s easy to pick them out.
Inner Space
If staying alive is your top priority, it becomes less of a focus as Adr1ft progresses. You upgrade your suit via computer terminals to up your oxygen capacity, letting you explore further between top-ups, at which stage you find yourself venturing deeper from the station’s central hub. You discover audio logs and workstations that give you insights into your crew mates and the situation before the incident, and though the story is as fragmented as Alex’s former workplace, even if you miss a few pieces, you get a clear enough picture of what went wrong and why.
Some strong voice acting (Firewatch’s Cissy Jones is a standout as Alex’s increasingly disgruntled best friend) sells dialogue that’s a little too on-the-nose, and helps hold your attention through to a surprisingly reflective ending. But getting there requires patience. Movement is incredibly slow, while your 2D radar isn’t fit for purpose in a 3D space. Intensity drops and irritation spikes as you spin around, trying to find where you’re supposed to go. And it’s often scandalously boring: you repeat the same long-winded objective four times over the six-hour duration.
Manoeuvring away from larger hull fragments and carefully plotting a path between sparking equipment adds tension to the final third, but by that stage Adr1ft has meandered long enough that you’re mostly left wondering what might’ve been. Initially exhilarating, but ultimately deflating, its sensational setup is disappointingly squandered.
The post Adr1ft – ‘Naut A Disaster, But A Wasted Opportunity appeared first on Gamers Unite!.
from
http://www.accessibilityforum.org/adr1ft-naut-disaster-wasted-opportunity/
No comments:
Post a Comment