Title: Ether One
\nDeveloper: White Paper Games
\nPublisher: White Paper Games
\nRelease Date: May 5, 2015 (PS4 Port)
\nGame Engine: Unreal Engine 4
\nNumber of Players: Single
\nGene: First Person puzzle\/adventure game<\/p>\n
Ok. Due to editing this 13 times to get it right, I’m throwing my discussion of the game into a spoiler. You can read it in the spoiler, or you can pass it and go right to my final review. Your choice.<\/p>\n\n
Most people dream big about what they’re going to do with their lives. Sadly, illness such as Dementia or Alzheimer’s gets in the way and robs us of those great memories we had. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a way to retrieve those long-lost memories?
\nThis is where Project Either comes in. You, nameless person, work for them as a “Restorer”, who goes into the sub-conscience of their clients to retrieve those memories.<\/p>\n
After stepping out of an elevator, you first need to check in and grab a keycard to access the lower levels of this facility. You can use your real name if you wish. You can also specify your actual date and time, as if this was real. You’re also greeted by a disembodied voice, named ‘Phillis’.
\nPhillis tells you to meet her in ‘Restoration Chamber 3’, and to get the keycard from a file cabinet. after getting lost quite a lot (at least for me), you eventually find the chambers.<\/p>\n
Once in chamber 3, you see this large room with a chair in the center of the room, with two control panels on your left and right sides of the room respectively. You’re told to go push a button. (I didn’t know where the button was, only that it’s “on a control panel near me”. There was also these green vials, numbered with ‘300a’ or ’75a’. I think these are batteries, and the ‘a’ is for amps.)
\nFinally finding the button and pressing it, you hear a series of clicks, whirrs, and metal grinding. Then the disembodied voice tells you that all seems good, and to “take a seat” in the chair. (A chair that reminded me of the chair from Bioshock Infinite.)<\/p>\n
Especially when said chair suddenly goes down as Phillis tells you who your client is; a 69 year old woman with dementia (who you never meet. At least from the start). Then the chair faced the ceiling and you’re seeing this thing coming down towards you. You’re calm and collective and not freaking out due to the scary, unknown thing coming from the ceiling towards you, and not mashing every button on the controller to try to look for a way out of this mess, thinking you’re about to be brain probed…<\/p>\n
But it’s not<\/span> a good ole fashioned alien-style brain probing. Instead, you’re surrounded by an egg shell-like thing being formed around you. Then Phillis says “are you ready?”, and then everything goes dark as the shell is firmly sealed around you, sealing out all light and air. Once you pass out from drowning, you find yourself is what is known as ‘The Case’. Where there is many like it, but this one is yours. It’s like a household in the space-time continuum (I’m guessing). I think it’s similar to your Pod in Little Big Planet(except in this, you can’t customize it). Here, you’re told you can freely walk around this quite spacious, lighted place. It even has a.. well, a ran down kitchen area. But it has a working shower in the bathroom! That’s awesome.<\/p>\n Hitting Triangle allows you to teleport to and from this place. Where the teleport goes, is inside the mind of the client you’re trying to help, with Phillis still telling you what to do. Yet it’s more like “you just go explore, and if you hit an important marker that’s invisible, I’ll come in and tell you about it”. Following a path down leads to a mine, called the ‘Devlin Mine’. An abandoned mine, to why is a mystery. One you must solve, as the center of the client’s thoughts (and the source of the dementia) are in the mine. . Good: Bad: Neutral: Overall, I would not recommend this game. It has flaws and confusing gameplay, like it doesn’t even know what kind of game it is. Plus seriously… studdering on a PS4? That’s the sign of a bad port.<\/p>\n EDIT: And it just got worse. I was trying to give this game a chance, until I saw I started from the second level again. No autosave system. I can save by hitting my OPTIONS button. Only three save slots kind of bugs me. Because of the repeating crash with no working workaround, I’ve uninstalled the game. Get the PC version. Not this. This is a bad port, and Sony should be ashamed to have such a buggy port. Title: Ether One Developer: White Paper Games Publisher: White Paper Games Release Date: May 5, 2015 (PS4 Port) Game Engine: Unreal Engine 4 Number of Players: Single Gene: First Person puzzle\/adventure game Ok. Due to editing this 13 times to … Continue reading
\nAll is quiet, then lights turn on. Suddenly, the egg fills up with water. Again, you’re as cool as a cucumber, and totally not freaking out madly pressing every button on your controller in hopes to escape from drowning.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s much different than in the Project Ether place. The air is crisp and beautiful. There’s grass, a picnic area, trees, blue skies, and.. wow.<\/p>\n
\nThe game is a puzzle game. Hints are hidden in notes, and even under plates or bottles. If you can pick it up, look at it closely as it might contain something you need to solve a puzzle.
\nIf you find something that you think<\/em> that can help you, you can teleport it and yourself back to The Case, and place it on the several shelves available. Here you can retrieve it if you’ve reached a part where you feel you need it.
\nBut note, that you can only carry one thing at anytime. Which kind of sucks.<\/p>\n
\nAnd now I’m ready for my final review, as I’ve seen enough to give my honest opinion;<\/p>\n
\n-It’s in First Person. I love first person games.
\n-Working shower FTW.
\n-So far, no monsters to run away from.<\/p>\n
\n-Confusing gameplay. Where is this “client” you’re working for? How did you get this job, and who’s the guy on the phone when you start (and why is he saying not to go somewhere)?
\n-Low quality graphics for a PS4. Water is crap. It’s just a moving texture sheet to simulate water movement. Is this why it’s free?
\n-There’s two areas of the mine that are problematic. One is getting stuck behind an invisible wall, and the other is an FPS drop in a specific area.
\n-No option to toggle sprinting.
\n-Subtitles are faster than the actual dialog they’re supposed to cover, especially the phone call scene.
\n-Really, really confused in the chair chamber. The disembodied voice wasn’t really clear when she mentioned hitting a button. Why are there these power capsules? They don’t really serve any purpose except getting an achievement.
\n-Don’t get this stupid mechanic of only being able to carry one thing with you at anytime. Don’t you have two hands, and pockets…?
\n-No autosave feature.<\/p>\n
\n-In a few images of the game, the guy’s holding a lantern. Where is this thing? Is it in the later levels?<\/p>\n
\nAnd then I go to an area, following a walkthrough of the PC version of the game. It tells me to write something on this note, and so I do. Then when placing the stamp, the game crashes after the animation stops. And it happens everytime.<\/p>\n
\nBut.. no wonder it’s free. I hope the next four games next month will be better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"