Close To The Sun

I purchased the game and was sucked in. I loved the idea of an alternate universe where Tesla was more than able to pursue his dreams, no matter where or what they led to. The game also has some very nice graphics. However, game-play falls way short ... to the point that I ended up uninstalling the game despite not completing it. As an example of where I felt game-play fell short - there is a room you need to get to by crawling, on your belly, though a vent you can barely fit into. No worries. Except it takes forever. I wanted to pull my hair out. When would this end?!? Finally, you get into the connecting room, find what you're there for, and, guess what? You are forced to CRAWL BACK THROUGH AGAIN! I wanted to put a weight on the W button and go make a coffee or something while my character kept crawling. Ugh! The second thing that got to me was encountering an area you could not go into because there were sparking electrical wires. Seemed like an obvious puzzle. I followed the wires to their origin, saw they went into a room with a generator, and so I tried to open the door. Guess what? The door does not open. Do you know why? Not because you needed to find a key or key card or some such, but because the game simply wasn't ready for you to open that door. Once you've experienced some other stuff in the game (clues you find), when you come back, the door is now, not only unlocked, but mysteriously opened for you. None of these things are really terrible, but they are examples of things that could have been handled in a much better way that would have made sense. There were other, little things, too, that made the game more "blah" than "ah!". And that's too bad because this actually could have been a great game, in my opinion.

(I own this game on Epic) This isn't a bad story, although it takes some time to get going, unfortunately the game ends just as things are really taking off. Unfortunately there's no indication if there is going to be another installment or not. Gameplay itself is decent, it's not a combat game, it's a walk around and occasionally run for your life game.

I also received this game when it was free through the Epic Games Store. I played it for about 2.5 hours and have now decided to uninstall it at the end of the 2nd chapter to spare me further frustration. I addition to the flaws that were pointed out in some of the other reviews here, my main points of criticism are: - No game saving. The game auto-saves at checkpoints that are so far apart, I repeatedly had to replay long segments the next time I launched with the "continue game" option. And by "replay" I mean sitting through long unskippable cutscenes again, clicking on clues again, sitting through long dialog again. Very annoying. - Too much linearity and handholding. There are puzzles in the vicinity of the player that clearly stand out as puzzles. Yet they are not interactive until some clue (eg. a paper note) had been clicked on somewhere. Very annoying. - I like the environment design, I like the atmosphere. I think the interface design is good. I hate the character design and animation. It is bad. All the cutscenes I experienced were really bad. And you cannot skip them. - Movement is annoying. It's slow, it is clunky. So in conclusion, this is a game I enjoyed to look at for a bit. But it is too frustrating to keep playing - even for free. I would not recommend to purchase it for money.

Got this on EGS for free The only thing it does somewhat on par with Bioshock is the visuals. Art design is nice, even though graphics are fairly typical. But considering Bioshock age, it would be kinda pathetic if it didnt. Gameplay is very boring. Walking simulator and some puzzles, which are mostly tedious. Some running segments from enemies. You movements are clunky and slow, which almost seems theyre made to prolong the game. While the setting is intriguing. The story is underwhelming, underdeveloped and makes no sense. Im not going to spoil anything, but a lot of the stuff goes nowhere, isnt explained or makes no sense. The strong female characters dont save it either, surprise surprise. The way the characters talk doesnt suit the time period either. Im not saying they need to have the same words and accents, but I hear modern people when they talk, not ones from a bygone era. Unless you want to see some Bioshock type art and visuals, dont bother. There isnt anything here worth the trouble.