Some puzzles are really frustrating because of how they are designed.
Dry, uninspired final level and ending. Another Sight is a fairly classical 2.5D platformer that tries to innovate by introducing a new, original mechanic: making the protagonist blind and only capable of orientating herself with sounds the environment produces. Always followed by her faithful companion, the cat Hodge, and our young heroine will have to combine their abilities to overcome puzzles and obstacles. The ability to swap control between the two characters is the central mechanic. Apart from this brand new, indeed original mechanic, good environments, and decent sound design / voice acting, there is little else that can make this game special or worth your attention. Level design is really nothing special, just very basic platforming with buttons to press, levers to pull, and the occasional object to move around or enemy to avoid. The main issue with the level design is it being very slow paced, and filled with backtracking, making it overall quite boring. The fact that collision detection on jumps / grapples is very unreliable, and also control responsiveness being really bad, worsen the situation a lot, creating often frustrating situations. Overall, I would suggest this game only to platforming fans that really like the genre, as it is barely sufficient overall, originality of story and mechanics do not overcome the problems. For everyone else, either get this on a heavy discount, or move along. In-depth Feature Analysis Gameplay The central mechanic of Another Sight's gameplay is the possibility to swap between Kit, the protagonist, and Hodge, her cat companion. While Kit will be able to use devices such as levers and elevators, or move heavier objects like crates or panels, Hodge will have a cat's grace to its side, enabling to move on narrow passageways, railings and pipes, accessing places otherwise impossible to reach. Some sections of the game slightly vary the gameplay, by adding enemies to avoid with stealth, and also using Hodge as a distraction, or also different kinds of puzzles to solve. The issue here is that most of these alternative types of puzzles are not really well thought out, resulting in frustration and annoyance towards their completion, some a lot more than others. There are secret collectibles, in the form of dark energy orbs, to collect around levels in order to unlock additional lore, such as level and character related documents, collected in a dedicated menu. Exploration is however very limited and "on rails" most of the time, leaving very little room for exploring the environments freely. Story This game puts up a fairly decent storyline, quite original and also featuring legendary characters of the past such as Nikola Tesla or the painter Monet, all entangled in a common story. With a narrative where the border between reality and fiction is increasingly thinner, one would expect also a great ending, that you won't get, as it resulted fairly stale and anticlimactic. Combat System There is no combat in this game. Content & Pricing With 20€ as regular price tag, for 6-8 hours of sufficient quality content, i'd suggest everyone but the most fanatic platform enthusiasts, to wait for a good sale before getting this game. Balance & Challenge Challenge rating is quite low overall, with no particular mention to make. Technical Analysis Graphics Quite good environmental design and settings, but apart from this, the effects, textures and models look quite dated and do not hold up to 2018 standards. Do not expect a joy for the eyes, but rather a sufficiently pretty title and nothing more, especially considering this game is using Unreal Engine 4, but nowhere nearly uses the features this engine offers. The hand drawn cut-scenes have quite a good style. Sound Good voice acting and narration, average sound effects. No special mentions to make. Performance & Stability The game running on any resolution higher than 1080p will consume huge amounts of VRAM, this is to be expected with Indie games using Unreal 4, as optimization work is not very advanced. A bug in cut-scenes can cause the game to get locked at 30 FPS, needing a restart to fix. Artificial Intelligence Enemies use pattern based movement as expected in a platformer. Quality of Life Nothing to report. Bugs & Issues Some actions can result in levels breaking, such as dragging a crate into a door while closing will result in Kit being stuck forever. Nothing else than this. Conclusion Another Sight is an average indie platformer with some good features but also some pretty rough edges, and therefore fails to stand up above mediocrity. Suggested to platformers and narration based games fans, with a discount and not at full price. RATING: 6.0 / 10
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Quote from the comment section to the game, over at Steam:
In A Nutshell
Pros
Cons
Another Sight is a fairly classical 2.5D platformer that tries to innovate by introducing a new, original mechanic: making the protagonist blind and only capable of orientating herself with sounds the environment produces. Always followed by her faithful companion, the cat Hodge, and our young heroine will have to combine their abilities to overcome puzzles and obstacles. The ability to swap control between the two characters is the central mechanic.
Apart from this brand new, indeed original mechanic, good environments, and decent sound design / voice acting, there is little else that can make this game special or worth your attention. Level design is really nothing special, just very basic platforming with buttons to press, levers to pull, and the occasional object to move around or enemy to avoid. The main issue with the level design is it being very slow paced, and filled with backtracking, making it overall quite boring. The fact that collision detection on jumps / grapples is very unreliable, and also control responsiveness being really bad, worsen the situation a lot, creating often frustrating situations.
Overall, I would suggest this game only to platforming fans that really like the genre, as it is barely sufficient overall, originality of story and mechanics do not overcome the problems. For everyone else, either get this on a heavy discount, or move along.
In-depth Feature Analysis
Gameplay
The central mechanic of Another Sight's gameplay is the possibility to swap between Kit, the protagonist, and Hodge, her cat companion. While Kit will be able to use devices such as levers and elevators, or move heavier objects like crates or panels, Hodge will have a cat's grace to its side, enabling to move on narrow passageways, railings and pipes, accessing places otherwise impossible to reach.
Some sections of the game slightly vary the gameplay, by adding enemies to avoid with stealth, and also using Hodge as a distraction, or also different kinds of puzzles to solve. The issue here is that most of these alternative types of puzzles are not really well thought out, resulting in frustration and annoyance towards their completion, some a lot more than others.
There are secret collectibles, in the form of dark energy orbs, to collect around levels in order to unlock additional lore, such as level and character related documents, collected in a dedicated menu. Exploration is however very limited and "on rails" most of the time, leaving very little room for exploring the environments freely.
Story
This game puts up a fairly decent storyline, quite original and also featuring legendary characters of the past such as Nikola Tesla or the painter Monet, all entangled in a common story. With a narrative where the border between reality and fiction is increasingly thinner, one would expect also a great ending, that you won't get, as it resulted fairly stale and anticlimactic.
Combat System
There is no combat in this game.
Content & Pricing
With 20€ as regular price tag, for 6-8 hours of sufficient quality content, i'd suggest everyone but the most fanatic platform enthusiasts, to wait for a good sale before getting this game.
Balance & Challenge
Challenge rating is quite low overall, with no particular mention to make.
Technical Analysis
Graphics
Quite good environmental design and settings, but apart from this, the effects, textures and models look quite dated and do not hold up to 2018 standards. Do not expect a joy for the eyes, but rather a sufficiently pretty title and nothing more, especially considering this game is using Unreal Engine 4, but nowhere nearly uses the features this engine offers. The hand drawn cut-scenes have quite a good style.
Sound
Good voice acting and narration, average sound effects. No special mentions to make.
Performance & Stability
The game running on any resolution higher than 1080p will consume huge amounts of VRAM, this is to be expected with Indie games using Unreal 4, as optimization work is not very advanced. A bug in cut-scenes can cause the game to get locked at 30 FPS, needing a restart to fix.
Artificial Intelligence
Enemies use pattern based movement as expected in a platformer.
Quality of Life
Nothing to report.
Bugs & Issues
Some actions can result in levels breaking, such as dragging a crate into a door while closing will result in Kit being stuck forever. Nothing else than this.
Conclusion
Another Sight is an average indie platformer with some good features but also some pretty rough edges, and therefore fails to stand up above mediocrity. Suggested to platformers and narration based games fans, with a discount and not at full price.
RATING: 6.0 / 10