“Jussant’s creative take on climbing and minimalist approach to storytelling makes this one of Don’t Know’s boldest titles to date.”
Pros
Includes climbing gameplay
cozy vibes
relevant message
Shortcoming
off road buggy
October 2023 was one of the busiest months in my professional career covering the video game industry. I reviewed the new Assassin’s Creed, Forza Motorsport, Hot Wheels, Ghostrunner, and League of Legends games, as well as hidden gems and updates like major AAA releases. marvel’s spider man 2 And super mario bros wonder, While playing all those games one after the other can be stressful and tiring, Jucent Those other titles provided a relaxing, meditative, and welcome break during the extended review process.
Jucent Life is Strange’s latest game tell me why Developer Don’t Nod, but it’s quite subversive and different from the studio’s other games. Instead of being a dialogue- and option-filled choose-your-own-adventure experience, it’s a minimalist game with no dialogue that’s all about climbing a high, abandoned tower in a world where water is scarce.
Despite huge differences from Don’t Know’s previous work, Jucent It is one of the studio’s best games as it overtook the Life Is Strange series. Its trigger-based control scheme makes climbing and traversal fun, and the constant introduction of new ideas and twists throughout its five chapters overshadows any issues that emerge over the course of five hours of play. When you have time to sit back, relax and play a game, Jucent Makes an excellent choice.
a minimalist aesthetic
Jucent It’s not a very story-based game. All I see early on in the dialogue-free scenes is that this world is mostly devoid of water. However, the main character has a small creature made of water called Ballast and he wants to climb to the top of a giant tower rising out of the ocean floor. This intentionally minimalist approach is reflected in the game’s visual design, which is colorful, but full of smooth low-poly-style textures that add to the feeling that this is a tower and a long-gone society that has been reclaimed by nature. Has started to smooth out.
A large part of the story and history of this tower is meant to tie the player together through the emotional and cinematic framing of certain scenes and collectibles. These include scattered notes and letters left on the tower, as well as beautiful murals and shells, listening to which the player can hear vague whispers of what the society of this tower looked like. The end of each chapter rewards players by showing them how the flora and fauna are returning to the part of the tower they just climbed.
While interpretations will vary from person to person, Jucent It has something to say about humanity’s relationship with the Earth, how we treat the environment, and how society needs to give back to nature as much as it takes. With UNESCO saying that a global water crisis is imminent, I feel like people who are tearing apart JucentWhen we come together to piece together the story, we will find that it will become more relevant with time.
Ascent
Although Jucent’s For a game that’s pretty theme heavy, I’m calling it casual, this description still fits because it’s up to the player to connect with the narrative elements on a deeper level. If they don’t, their focus may be on the climb. Jucent Players ease into its climbing mechanics, starting with simple third-person exploration and a jump button like you see in most 3D games. Only with this will one be able to reach so far on this huge tower; Players and ballast require more involved climbing to get where they need to go.
in bulk Jucent It takes time to climb over rocks, rocks and sometimes even on the backs of insects and animals. The Climb is controlled very differently, as each trigger corresponds to a hand grip. This meant that to climb a wall, I had to point the control stick in the direction of the hold I wanted to grab and then press down on the trigger to do so.
It’s a slower experience, but that works in the adventure’s favor.
While most games forgo the control stick or latching onto a specific button, using the triggers feels surprisingly natural. vr games like synapse Use this control scheme for climbing, and Jucent Shows how this could work well for console games as well. I also had to keep an eye on my character’s stamina, sometimes taking a breather to let the meter refill. It’s a slow experience, but that works in favor of making the adventure comfortable.
Pressing the trigger to climb provides real-life tactile feedback, making climbing up satisfying and helping me get into a relaxing trance while playing Jucent, It’s a great game to play while listening to podcasts or other music. However, there are specific points where one occasionally hears Jucent’s Enhances the audio experience. I always feel like I can take my time and climb this tower at my own pace. Just right, Jucent Served as a respite to help me replenish my stamina in between playing and reviewing several other games this month.
Don’t Know spices up that core climbing gameplay loop with a number of other systems and tools. Rope plays an important role in the game, as does resources such as stamina. There are pitons on the walls and sides of this tower. As I climb, I’m always attached to one of these via my carabiner, and I can also place secondary pitons while climbing. If I stray too far, I run out of rope, so exploring and finding pits to connect essentially acts as the game’s checkpoint system. Rope has many other uses, such as it can be used for swinging across large spans or running on a wall.
Jucent There are frequent new twists on the fundamentals of climbing, like sunburnt terrain that drains stamina faster or wind that massively increases my jump distance. Even though the game is only five hours long, the main climb is referenced in some way almost every half hour. Jucent Never too difficult – there are no fail states other than falling where your last piton is – but finding these systems makes the climb faster.
Unfortunately, there were occasional moments where a missed jump, poorly placed piton, or overshot wall run sent me into an area the game didn’t expect me to be in. These moments would sometimes lock up parts of the controls, shake the camera, or leave me with no natural way to escape. While there are usually multiple paths the player can take through the level, these moments demonstrate how Don’t Nod still wants the player to follow some very specific paths. This works against the free-climbing feel of the gameplay, but thankfully it was offset by a few climbing mistakes during my adventure.
while playing JucentI enjoyed the meditative aspects and simple satisfaction of climbing a huge, colorful tower with minimal narrative interruptions. Jucent This is a game that is different from anything its developer has made before, and it gives me hope that Don’t Know will continue to experiment with new styles of narrative and gameplay in the future. However, for other players, this game won’t be the respite between October’s big game releases that it was for me, it’s still a great little experience with which to unwind and be pleasantly surprised again and again.
Jucent Review was done on Xbox Series