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There are a lot of issues that are present with this release that really brings it down in terms of an "enjoyable game experience." To name a few:

  • Lack of downloadable executable
  • Forced CRT filter (and by extension, lack of user settings)
  • Usage of textures from existing N64 games, which is a shame considering the time gap of 3 years between the original leak and this release
  • One hit health system, which makes the already minimal gameplay very frustrating (and even more when you see a supposed health meter referenced in the pause screen)
  • Lack of putting up any kind of front / objective for the player, outside of meta ARG content. You could loosely argue collecting the silver coins as a tangible game objective but that's really it.

Otherwise, the additional puzzles and meta content of the game is really interesting and softens some of the criticisms against the actual game. The "Unity N64 Emulator" angle is a lot more sensible than "Unity for N64" as well. However, with this release, I was really hoping for an expansion upon the gameplay seen in the leaked version. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have delivered in this regard, and is rather structured as more of an "attraction" of sorts than an actual game. Ironically, I would say the gameplay has worsened compared to the original leak, with the lack of mouse cam -- or any real camera control for that matter.

This is one of those things where its probably better off that you watch someone else play or discuss it on YouTube, unless you're interested in doing your own digging. The new nuggets of content are pretty cool and there are some great ideas here.

Absolutely agreed with every single point here, besides the "attraction" argument and the closing statement (also I haven't played the leak so idk how this compares to that). I just wish there was other control options (Maybe even an option to have mouse camera controls or use the Arrow Keys/WASD to move the camera, if you want to keep the "N64" theme). I would have also vastly prefered to have an option to turn the CRT effect off. It's cool, but sort of ruins immersion, especially with the emulator angle.

Yeah, I think after further thought I retract my statement of it not being worthwhile to play. There are some really cool bits that are far more interesting to explore than to watch. It's worthwhile to at least check this project out, some of the points I made are from the perspective of a game developer rather than a consumer and really dont actually matter to the actual gameplay experience. 

Regardless, I hope that Adam releases a post release patch to fix some of the gameplay annoyances. There are (assumedly) minor changes that can be made to fix these things. May adding options for the user or adding somewhat modernized camera controls bring the thinly veiled realism and immersion of the project down a notch? Maybe, but Catastrophe Crow already had a bunch of bizarre concepts to begin with that I don't really think it matters. I just want to see this be the best it possibly can, and a post release patch would solve most of the criticism levied against this game. Wishing for the best