Exsurgent: Looks very interesting at first glance, but I think I'm gonna have to look up some gameplay videos to get an understanding of what exactly you do in this game moment-to-moment.
If anyone has tried this game, I'd be happy to hear what exactly the gameplay entails - like, are there puzzles/exploratory segments or is it more of a choose-your-own-adventure style game?
I tested it out a bit and so far I like the atmoshpere and the concept of the game – you make divinations out of star constellations. But it's not so much a puzzle game where you try to uncover some hidden meaning in the stars. You mostly just make stuff up, trying out different constellations each time.
The important thing is – you give no context or interpretation, just the name of a constellation you "saw" (like Hurricane, Frog, Sword, Moose etc.), so it all falls down on the person asking you to interpret the meaning. And that proves a problem...
Some "divinations" seem obvious – you can tell whether they will give good or bad outcomes for the villagers. Others are complete guesswork. So you can make up random fortune or try to steer the tribe to a certain outcome – either way it's gonna be hard to anticipate how will the villagers interpret your "wisdom".
Im gonna give a short example. The village chiefs right hand approached me asking should he trust the chief with making the right decisions. I just gave him a "Frog". He interpreted it as a sign that he should take matters in his own hand and seize his destiny... whatever that means.
The only thing I'm worried about is that the constellations have a finite number (there is only so much you can see up there) and after half an hour of playing my cave wall (where all constellations you uncovered are recorded) was half full. Wheter something changes and you will later get some new mechanics remains to be seen (the sceenshots show some kind of bone throwing, which may spice things up in the later game?).
Still the game is highly original and has a great atmosphere, ideal for long, quiet night sessions, and that in itself is enough to get me invested.