Winter Ember

in library

3.5/5

( 5 Reviews )

3.5

5 Reviews

English & 8 more

Overall most helpful review

Posted on: May 11, 2022

foo_

Games: 466 Reviews: 12

could really shine - after getting fixed

Ah well. How this game is as of April 2022: Pros + Atmosphere, good visuals + Soundtrack is nice + A fresh stealth game! + Story fits, and adds to, the atmosphere. Cons - The perspective is fixed, which is bad for a stealth game where you need to see and understand the situation. - Good audio can do a lot for this type of game. But beyond the music, the audio doesn't help much with immersion. - The movement is tenacious; and the cover function is too sticky. You can't control much yourself. The movement dynamics of other stealth games allow for more suspense: Was my dash to cover too loud? Is my cover enough? Here, it is very much fixed. Press the right button at the right time. - Interaction with environment is very limited, and annoyingly restricted. Waist-height objects you cannot jump or at least mantle over? No frobbable things that are not quest-related or loot. So, the environment feels artificial. It's an immobile backdrop to the rail you're moving on. Was there any pressure to release this game now? It may be formally complete, but it is not polished yet. There is potential - but right now, except for die-hard fans, I cannot recommend it. Yet!

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Posted on: November 28, 2022

Woodwine22

Verified owner

Games: 964 Reviews: 20

Excellent stealth game

A woman stops me, she tells me her neighbors stole her cat, and there are strange sounds coming from their house. I agree to take a look. But how to enter the house? I could check if there is a place where I can shoot a rope arrow to climb the balcony? I could check if i could pick the lock of their main entrance? Or maybe the house has a backdoor where i could try to sneak in through the basement? Winter Ember is a pure stealth game, as you might have noticed from this description. You can fight if things go south, but if enemies outnumber you, it's over. During the game you unlock several maps that you can roam (mostly) freely, following the main story or take care of plenty of side quests, some of them deep and complex. What i loved: - great revenge story with interesting lore, drawn cinematics and a satisfying ending - plenty of ways to proceed in your quests - great atmosphere - easy accessible quick save/load - many things to explore and discover - main story around 10 hours, i played over 30 with many (but not all) side quests completed - fully voiced It includes upgradeable skills by finding skill coins during quests and exploration that you can spend in a skill tree. The game received average ratings when it was released, i played the fully patched version and can only assume that the initially released version had bugs and/or features missing, but that's only my guess. The current version is stable and feels complete with some minor nuisances, like having to use the gamepad START button to close the menu instead of B. The first tutorial mission was not ideal, it felt a bit clunky. Players should be aware that the game opens up after that mission and becomes an amazing stealth experience. Highly recommended to any stealth fans! The developers did a FANTASTIC job and I'm looking forward to their next project!

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Posted on: September 20, 2022

ZachOfSweden

Verified owner

Games: 29 Reviews: 3

Fair but not even close to excellent.

I would say that this a pretty good experience. The game will fight back at times but overall, really solid. Would love to see more from this studio. The atmosphere is on point for most of the game. It has a steampunk-esque thing going on but not to a huge degree. Like the store page says, it's dark and sometimes pretty messed up, but in good ways. The main story is hit and miss (the misses will come later). Several of the main missions are interesting enough. They offer some good setups and fun scenarios. The side missions are usually similar in nature although not as grand. As for the weaker parts. The stealth mechanics are, sadly, lacking in my opinion. The game resolves around stealth but often you will find yourself getting either annoyed due to the top-down perspective blocking your view or bored due to just how easy the game is. (fyi, I played on hard). Arguably, the reason for it being easy was that I killed any enemy that stood in my way (silently) as this does not affect the story in any way. Which means that, to increase the difficulty, the player needs to limit themselves with no incentive. As a total side-note, I did find it to be very strange that the menu esthetic very closely resembles dishonored. It does not look bad but I would prefer an original look. The issues that I had with the missions were that they were all too linear. Usually, there is one or two ways to enter a building but the end result is always the same, except for the ocational player choice (which don't matter save for the final one and even that is questionable). The combat is strange. It's hard to explain but it's very hard to execute precise button presses when you are so far ways from the action. It's plain hard to see. This became a great annoyance for me but your mileage may vary. Finally, I need to draw attention to the general buggyness of the title. There are quite a few bugs (mostly affecting Arthur's movement), that can cause great annoyance. Be warned.

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Posted on: May 26, 2022

IamTHEfallen

Verified owner

Games: 63 Reviews: 1

Nice

Fun little stealth game

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Winter Ember

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