Hate Xbox Series X review

Here’s a title I’ve been waiting for, given the star cap vacuum in Microsoft’s Xbox releases, it just doesn’t happen to me. Being a fan of HR Giger, I was intrigued and captivated by this game from the start. I didn’t do it right after it came out (I had finished Metal Hellsinger at the time), but a few echoes of the seemingly brutal battles scared me a little. Frankly, I didn’t want to be disappointed, and it started badly there, because several people talked about this point as a cardinal sin. It’s time to start.

+ Incredible universe. So the game is untouched at this level. Adapting the Swiss artist’s universe to this point, almost finding his paintings in decorations, structures … from one end to the other, disturbing, gloomy, dirty, organic, bloody, sexy, . .. everything you can look crooked is in it.

+ General implementation. So yes, we may be reluctant at certain points, but 2 things make me say this remains a masterstroke. The first is that we’re dealing with an indie title (a first from a studio, I believe) and so the guys have done a crazy job. Second, they managed to transfer Giger’s work into the game without ever distorting it. This is the craziest part, because for those who know the artist, his work is still quite a challenge in terms of alignment (both in terms of shapes and colors). And then the studio literally brought the paintings and sculptures to life (the palace towards the end is absolutely incredible in this regard, as I felt like I was walking through one of his paintings). A real tour at this level, very well done.

+ Assumed from beginning to end. Still, those who know Giger know how complicated his work can be to work with, as he brought up many taboo subjects in his time, but now limits them even further. The sex side is very open, and a few sequences towards the end leave you straight like no other game has done to date. The themes of fertility and reproduction are handled in a way that is both visceral in the visual approach and very conceptual in the script writing above all. But either way, you had to dare to stick both feet into it and go all the way. Hats off guys, personally I’d be afraid to eat a crazy censor (well, given how complicated the story is, the guys said the organizations wouldn’t get much out of it anyway).

+ Sound design. In itself, its result is quite simple, but it has been studied a lot to be effective. What he does, he does well. Very little music, very short, but they emphasize certain important points. The background sound effects are successful (and often very obnoxious) and contribute greatly to the game’s oppressive atmosphere (the backgrounds weren’t enough anyway), the same goes for the visceral tons of weapons. .. j adore.

+ General gameplay. So this is where the game falls apart, but I think the guys are doing a great job and I’ll explain why. A good basic game is not a shooter, but more of a puzzle game in FPS view. This part isn’t a problem, although it’s not overly complex or particularly original, it does the job perfectly to keep us occupied for the few hours it takes to finish the game. Nevertheless, the puzzles make sense to me and they really came into their own. I didn’t realize it at first, but looking back, we realize that it’s all about the journey of breeding, a kind of analogy of the journey from A to Z. For example, we can find references to the path taken by the sperm. , the quest to unlock the egg cell, the loss of a part of oneself, its mutation, the incarnation of the soul/soul, … I won’t say for the sake of any spoilers what moments of the game it corresponds to, but I find certain reconciliations so obvious that (especially when we reach the last level when they reach and begin to build relationships) cannot be innocent. Likewise, battles are part of these analogies, so we don’t find either the flexibility or the wealth of ammunition of a classic FPS. It’s a biological fight where every virus can be deadly, and the immune defenses do what they can with the tools at hand despite the fact that their hosts are suffering, but I’ll come back to that later.
In the beginning we won’t lie to each other, we will die 10 times on the same enemy, because we get nothing from the first weapon, its reload, … it creates a hell of frustration. But it still works a bit like a puzzle. You need to understand the mechanics of the enemy, always very simple in itself, but complicated by the weight of the weapon and the movement of the character. In most cases, we make the mistake of wanting to hunt enemies when we can release them naturally (like certain diseases). However, understanding the logic of the zone is enough to know if it’s better to attack or dodge to get out without a problem.
Personally, these fights did not bother me in the slightest (at first, a little, I admit). They reminded me of Enemy 0 on Saturn, which had a bit of the same mechanics, meaning it weighted the collisions to make us look for when to attack and when to fall back.

+ General discovery. Unlike Sea of ​​Thieves, I’ve seen it abused because we’re thrown into the world without learning anything about the game, which is an obvious strength. We’re really in the same situation as the character, we’re really put in his shoes in the first sense, like in the first Myst back then. The difference here is that the puzzles themselves are not very complex, and suddenly balance naturally.

+ Semi-directed freedom of interpretation. Basically the game doesn’t explain anything to you, but then nothing. It only gives you clues to know what it is about. That’s what I said above, everyone will find their own interpretation as they search for different clues and whichever one they find. Some are quite obvious, others less so, but once you reach the final level, there are still a few connections to be made. For example, when I talked about biology above, we can make a connection between the “thing” (sorry I don’t know what to call it) that serves as our ammo and care bag, the way it recharges, the fact. There are about the same number of weapons as enemy types (about one for each) with an immune system (including white blood cell activity), …
We can read several theories, sometimes very advanced internet, some really well found. But it is difficult to know who is 100% right

– Overly indifferent backstory. A game with 2 arrow directions. The first is the interpretation of events, which everyone talks about and which many do not understand. This side is up to the player and that’s fine. On the other hand, there is the background, which is based on the basics (the mentioned civilization, the world we are in, the different levels, …) and which we know nothing about at the end of the game. find it really unfortunate. One would think that with the game’s free interpretation, there was no need to look any further… only those who bought the art book know that this is not the case at all. If you want to understand the history of the people, their enemies, generational problems,… in short, you must have a fiction book. Why? Why, when the universe has a backstory, why do you eliminate it in the game? Developers timed out (possible)? Didn’t they find a way to make the background understandable in the game (there was a way to show some text about the city and its people)? Want to push the fallen side to the extreme without anything like the character we play? Anything is possible, but I find it so unfortunate that we were cut out of a part of the universe considering the quality of work done!!

– While the confrontation part makes sense to me and doesn’t bother me, I understand that some people have been disappointed with Scorn. We are used to very smooth, edgy, fluid FPS… here the mechanics are reversed.

– Too short. Although the principle of the game doesn’t work from 15:00 to 20:00 (players leave until they are clear and pure, it’s too hard), if only 2 or 3 more hours with other clues and more exploration this civilization would be at the top .

What more can we say about this Lonely? Personally, I loved it and feel it will leave a mark on me. Its universe, its respect for the original material, its atmosphere, its free interpretation, the way it goes all the way, and the fact that 99% of studios wouldn’t even attempt it… Insult is definitely a work of its own. .. but like any work of this style, it will be divided: too complex, too oppressive, too twisted, …
While playing this game, I thought of 3 more references: Tsutomu blamed Nihei purely for the graphic universe (there was almost no dialogue in this manga, we walked in a very dark universe where we didn’t understand anything, with very few enemies), Myst for “game open, go through the puzzles” (but less difficult) side, and finally, not to fight the Enemy 0 weapon system on the Saturn, but to make you think about the situation and do more. knowing when to act. And that’s good because I’m a fan of the 3 licenses.
Anyway, I really want a sequel, I don’t know, because they will have to explain more, thereby destroying some of the mysterious aura that grips the player here, but on the other hand, we want to know more.
I can’t wait to see what the studio has in store for us next, because their first effort, while imperfect and marred by some awkwardness, is still a masterful trick.