Great Conversation Starter – Lovely Weather We’re Having Review

<p>I’ve studied game design and reviewed games for the past few years&period; For over three years of my life I programmed&semi; I learned the fine details of theory and design&comma; and all of the important magical stuff that makes a polygon cylinder into Duke Nukem&period; For these three years or so&comma; I learned a game is an interaction between player and media&comma; where players are set to goals and rules &lpar;mechanics&rpar;&comma; and a game world which holds logic and structure&period; Now&comma; many designers have tried to break away from traditional methods of game design in order to create new experiences&period; <em>Lovely Weather We’re Having<&sol;em> is an example of such a game&comma; and an odd creature to say the least&period; Or is it a game at all&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1775px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;404150&sol;ss&lowbar;7fb4e76da4968a4e2f6dd2fa22cf93be46bc8f04&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1447167206" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1775" height&equals;"998" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having&comma; Glanderco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>To be perfectly honest&comma; I don’t feel like I can review this title in the same manner I can review <em>Tomb Raider<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Battlefield&comma;<&sol;em> or even any other major or indie release&period; To my understanding&comma; this is a journey&comma; and one of exploration and learning&period; This isn’t aimed at a certain age group&comma; but I feel it’s strongly aimed at younger audiences&&num;8211&semi;It teaches its players about the importance of exploration&comma; philosophy&comma; and self-worth&period; There is no story so to speak&period; <em>Lovely Weather We’re Having<&sol;em> presents a blue guy with funky hair and a pet dog in a colourful&comma; polygonal world&period; Players will aimlessly explore a small town filled with different&comma; colourful characters for no other reason than for the sake of finding what the world has to show&period; There are no goals&comma; side quests&comma; QTEs&comma; or narrative to follow&period; You only to explore and interact&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The look and feel of the game is very childish and simple&comma; yet beautifully colourful and warm&period; Without any textures or a multitude of tones&comma; the game world is extremely simple in design&period; However&comma; it looks very pretty and refreshing&comma; considering the high end graphics we’re forced to like these days&period; There is little information to digest and&comma; for that matter&comma; there’s little feedback and few hints of any kind&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s all down to using the directional keys to move and the Enter key for interacting&semi; Everything else is non-existent&period; This concept can be neat if you’re a keen explorer&comma; but others might find it difficult to grasp or fear they&&num;8217&semi;re missing out an important mechanic the game hadn&&num;8217&semi;t told them about&period; Navigating is confusing to say the least&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;404150&sol;ss&lowbar;4becc77482f3b05516b3d5615b4fc2faeb8074ad&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1447167206" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having does look very pretty with it&&num;8217&semi;s simplistic design &lpar;Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having&comma; Glanderco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Sadly&comma; there isn&&num;8217&semi;t enough to fulfill much playtime in <em>Lovely Weather We’re Having<&sol;em> due to its limited interactivity&period; It’s a game best played in small doses as it becomes fairly repetitive&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to force yourself to play for more than 20 minutes&period; While it may lack in interactivity&comma; it’s better to leave the game alone for a while and come back later on just to see how the weather changes&comma; altering the perception of the game world&period; The weather decides on the overall mood&comma; colour&comma; and atmosphere of the game world&comma; depending on if it’s warm&comma; cold&comma; raining&comma; or if you’re in the middle of a heatwave&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was nice to see the game world changing every time I entered it&comma; but it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t enough to make me feel invested or immersed&period; This is definitely a mood piece rather than a game changer&period; It’s something that Gus Van Sant would create in order to convey an emotional set piece&period; It’s simple in sound&comma; with no music and only a few sound effects when passing through grass&comma; kicking rocks&comma; and splashing through water&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;404150&sol;ss&lowbar;3584aa8a9d4c5272e6c4efaa3da6e8bed0089a43&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1447167206" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">This guy is a real party animal&comma; even though you don&&num;8217&semi;t see him party&period; &lpar;Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having&comma; Glanderco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The little interactions like knocking down trees or kicking around tiny houses create a sense of surrealism that&&num;8217&semi;s kind of unknown to most players&period; These concepts would be more engaging if the game had a stronger focus on conscience or cause and effect&period; But restarting the game makes sure everything is put back into place and nothing is mentioned again&period; It has no impact whatsoever&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wandering characters give strange performances that only add to oddness of the world&period; Their identities aren’t fascinating&comma; but what they do convey are symbolic representations for emotions such as depression and joy&comma; and ideals such as knowledge&comma; greed&comma; or loneliness&period; You can interact and choose dialogue options while speaking with these characters&comma; often prompting them to display anger&comma; joy&comma; or a random philosophy depending on your choice of words&period; These encounters don’t normally go anywhere apart from some minor information about a monster that lives in the mountains to the west&period; No&comma; it’s not a boss encounter&&num;8211&semi;At least&comma; to me it isn&&num;8217&semi;t&comma; but to others it may be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;akamai&period;steamstatic&period;com&sol;steam&sol;apps&sol;404150&sol;ss&lowbar;4e693b1e561bd56431dea83493cd59bede6dea34&period;jpg&quest;t&equals;1447167206" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">I tried&&num;8211&semi;no cloud jumping&period; That I&&num;8217&semi;m sure of&period; &lpar;Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having&comma; Glanderco&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There’s not much else I can say about this &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;game&comma;” if I can even call it that&period; It is a game in many respects&comma; but it lacks the rules and concepts a traditional game holds&period; <em>Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having<&sol;em> is an interesting&comma; interactive piece that’s best catered for smaller&comma; younger gamers to convey emotions and understanding of exploration&period; Yet it lacks any true values of commitment and immersion&comma; leading to short play times and an overwhelming sense of confusion&period; It would have been nice to see elements of cause and effect or more actions that held meaning in the world&comma; developing character relationships or even a bond with the world&period; It looks pretty even with the very simple design and can hold some emotional value&comma; but this game is about exploration and sadly doesn’t hold enough to dive into the world often or make you care very much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That said&comma; this is not a bad or good &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;game&comma;” but rather an enjoyable look at what games can do for young people or those who don’t know their own path&period; However&comma; it could have developed these concepts a little more to avoid any confusion or lack of commitment to the players&period; That said&comma; my score reflects <em>Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having<&sol;em> as a game&comma; not as tool to understanding exploration&period; I won’t love this game because it’s different&comma; nor would I hate it for that same reason&period; Try it and see for yourself&&num;8211&semi;it does make for a nice change from <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC code for Lovely Weather We&&num;8217&semi;re Having was provided by Glanderco for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version