Thanks for clarifying! Between the two comments, it felt like a personal attack, even though no one really gave any reasons they think the game is so great. I almost didn't even say anything until the PG review was mentioned. If I disagreed with it, I would have defended it and explained why I love the game -- not just say "haha look at who reviewed it."
Neither myself nor SQ0 said it was great. We were merely saying it's not as bad as people seem to think it is. There are already impressions by extremely credible folk in this thread and I personally don't feel the need to say what I like about it since it's already covered and the game is essentially LIMBO, but not LIMBO. Oh, and "haha look at who reviewed it." is absolutely not what I meant by my comment. I was merely saying that Harry Slater's reviews are steaming piles of fecal matter.
Kind of wishing I just avoided this thread altogether and kept my opinion to myself. But too late for that, so... People came here looking to find out whether it's worth buying. We had Touchy say he liked it, despite some things he didn't like. Sanuku said he liked it but didn't really say why, other than that it's similar to Limbo. People were obviously looking for more than that or they wouldn't have bothered bringing up PG's review. I'm not a big fan of Harry Slater's reviews either, but if I don't agree with him on something, I'm not going to laugh it off without giving a reason. Saying he's a joke and "it's not as bad as he (they) says" is not really much of a defense for the game. But you sound like you want people to buy the game. I'm just saying try to give reasons why instead of just "this person likes it and that person doesn't so you should buy it." Give your own opinion that isn't just saying someone else is wrong.
Just so you know, my post wasn't directed at you in any way and was just an indirect response to raravan's snarky comment with the PG review. Ugh, I'm done here.
You took the time to make a video and write down impressions -- in my book, that's always appreciated, even if some people disagree with your opinion. You raise an interesting point: when someone says that they are enjoying a game, are they actually recommending that people spend money on it? Not sure. There are games that I write about because I want other people to play them (Hot Trigger and Dragon Land are recent examples). Sometimes, though, I just want to show my appreciation for a developer's efforts. As someone who makes a living doing creative work, I find it very gratifying when people let me know what they like about it (criticism is useful, too, but not as much fun ). As far as Tobi is concerned, I'm not necessarily saying "buy this." I'm just letting people know that someone is actually the enjoying the game, warts and all.
I agree it's nice to tell a developer what you like/don't like about their game, especially when they're looking for feedback on how to improve it. But that wasn't really the case here. If people are wondering whether to buy (as people clearly were here), they're looking for what people like/don't like about a game. I'm not saying you have to convince others to buy or not buy. But clearly PG's review (and my impressions) was not a recommendation. If you're going to disagree with it, just say why (like you did after I asked ). For instance, if you explained *why* that part I got stuck on wasn't so hard, I might check it out again and see if it was just me being dumb. I still might not enjoy the game enough to play through it, but it would help people who might otherwise be turned off by the game to decide that they actually want to play it. At the end of the day, it's no one's obligation to come here and tell others what they think. But if you're going to take part in the conversation, do so in a manner that isn't just belittling what others say. (And I did get lumped in with PG bc I agreed with aspects of the review.)
You didn't miss anything -- in fact, every puzzle I've encountered so far has been pretty self contained, requiring little or no backtracking. Notice that the platform swings a bit when you walk on it. Just run back and forth until it swings far enough to reach the next platform. It's a fairly common platforming puzzle, though I can see how you would miss it if you don't play this kind of game often. I should warn you: once you get past that section, the game gets even more difficult. Death is a learning tool here; some people get very frustrated with that design philosophy.
I got the game before knowing all of these opinions here. I knew of the game because of its release on the Mac. Toby is not the first and will not be the last one that takes the aesthetics of Limbo and Badland. I don't necessarily count this against the developer. The parallax effect is actually very good, and it is clear that a lot of effort has gone into animating the background and foreground objects to make the world more alive. I did not have as much trouble as I had expected with the game's controls given the feedback posted here. I was able to get past the "swinging" platforms which AppUnwrapper shown in her video demo with relative ease. I do agree, however, that the controls are less tolerant and the jumps are less forgiving than with Limbo. One problem I had experienced repeatedly is that I would get stuck on the "corner" of a platform edge, unable to move at all. I think this is a bug / glitch with the collision detection, leaving the character in a stuck state with nowhere to go. Sometimes, I could force a death to reload from a previous checkpoint. But in at least one case, I could not even do this and was forced to quit the level to restart from the beginning.
Ahh thanks. I thought it might be something like that but I gave up too quickly. I didn't notice any difference from jumping on it, so I gave up.
Yeah, the game's physics are not realistic (though they are consistent). My other issue is that you have no way to control jump height -- similar games usually map height to how long you hold the jump button. I've also run into a few non-game-breaking bugs. All in all, though, still a decent game.
What I love about Toby: - One man project. Say what you will, but this just oozes love (and love for LIMBO) from every single pore. - Brilliant sound design. Just atmospheric, moody, absorbing, with downright scary enemy effects in some cases. - The backdrops and effects (Bloom? I'm not an expert on this shit) are drop dead gorgeous. The sandstorm level is to.die.for. Arguably better than LIMBO, though I do think LIMBO feels much more "together" as a whole. - Lots of variety in terms of the color palettes and settings. - Tiny download size and install size is very, very reasonable (less than 200 MB). - Those earthworm enemies in the sandstorm levels are just delicious. Love everything about them. - As a fan of exploration, I love the whole "hidden" aspect of the game. What I don't love: - The controls. I really, really think they need to be tightened and then tightened again. - How jumpy and jerky everything feels when that loading screen pops up when switching levels (opposed to LIMBO's seamless experience) Look, at the end of the day...it's not the greatest game in the world, but if you think this deserves a 5/10, you're an idiot. I've had more fun with this than anything this week and much like Sanuku, I believe Toby's a "one sitting" experience that is easily worth the $5. Keep in mind this is a tiny indie project and then compare it to the dozens and dozens of bullshit LIMBO clones on the App Store. It's leaps and bounds better than all of them put together.
I share your opinion of this game, metalcasket. I think it is more balanced and agree that the critic's review on Pocket Gamer is far too harsh. I was unaware until I read your post that this game was made by a single individual. To be able to create a game of this magnitude / size singlehandedly is no simple feat. The developer deserves a lot of kudos for this, regardless of the controls issue that is admittedly plaguing the game.
I think in that particular instance, the location of the checkpoint also threw me off. I kept wondering if I missed something since it was sending me back to before the platforms. A checkpoint on the "swing" could have avoided all that. But that seems to be a pattern with a lot of these games -- checkpoints get farther and farther apart, even if it doesn't make sense...like they feel obligated to do it to make the game more challenging. Also, I looked back at my video and I'm actually impressed that you guys got that swing so easily. I was walking on it, jumping on it, and barely noticed anything besides a slight shake. I really don't know that I would have expected it to actually swing without someone telling me...or maaaaaybe a lot more persistence.
Can someone confirm that there is AT LEAST ONE minion to rescue at EVERY SINGLE stage, even in those "chase" stages that have very few or no checkpoints? For some levels, such as Level Spoiler 4 , there are Spoiler TWO minions. So how many levels have more than Spoiler ONE minion to rescue?
Thanks for that info,was just about to post asking about install size.Would be really useful if the appstore gave install sizes in the descriptions. Going to get this later.
The game has at least one game-breaking bug. If you return to a previously played level to try to get any missed minions, some of the puzzles to open passageways are NOT reset so that it is impossible to make progress on the level again. An example of this is the symbol door lock in Level 3. Arghh...
Well, technically that's not game breaking -- you can keep going on the game, you just can't replay levels. Not saying it's not an issue...
Interesting... The inability to complete the game to 100% is, by definition, game breaking. While the most common symptom is a severe crash, that is not the only means by which a bug can break a game. The game is designed to allow the levels to be replayed, presumably to locate any missing minions. Thus, I classify this as an inherent function / core feature of the game. It is this feature this is broken in the current version.
Just replayed the level and yeah...this is definitely an issue. I don't know if you can bypass the entire problem since (I think) the captive dudes are registered as having been saved regardless of progress, but yeah...you can't replay the game as a whole without having to quit and skip the level. I'll try contacting Lukas and Headup Games on Twitter.
