Lost Ember (Video Game 2019) Poster

(2019 Video Game)

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7/10
A beautiful game, that sadly I cannot play due to Motion Sickness
hoytyhoytyhoyty11 September 2023
I feel quite dispirited typing this. I wanted to play LOST EMBER for a long time, and, regardless of any problems, I was happy to pay for and support such an indie effort.

The game is gorgeous, and I'd love to know the Wolf better and her back-story. But in 2019 the devs promised to do something about the camera issues, and ... people today in 2023 are still unable to play the game for more than 20 minutes maximum, if like me they suffer motion sickness effects.

There are camera adjust settings that remove some of the extraneous camera movement - but not ALL of it. And that's the problem. Any zoom or sway or anything that is not a direct result of user interaction, is going to produce nausea. In my case the nausea is so severe I have to put the game down and walk away.

Devs. I'm not going to take Quell just to play your creation, it's your job to fix things. But the game is old now, and that won't happen. I see there's a VR version of the game out, which would be fantastic, but the same questions have been raised.

Perhaps there'll be an anniversary issue with the camera motion fixed? That would be truly lovely.

As to the game itself, it's a walking simulator, and a very fun one. You run everywhere as a beautiful wolf with a spirit companion, and you can possess other animals (that are all outrageously cute and have individual abilities) to solve particular tasks along the way.

It's not perfect, and it's good that there are online walkthrough videos. You can get stuck in places due to game logic, and have to start from an earlier point to get past them. Also it's often quite difficult to tell where you're supposed to go next. The 'smoke columns' in the game point the way, but often there is more than one and you have to hit them in the right order with little clue as to which way to go.

Still, it's beautiful. I'm glad they made it, and I'll just hope for a fixed edition of it one day. Like I said, I'm glad I paid for it and dont want my money back. It was a cheap price to support clever indie projects.
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6/10
Fun Game Play, Story Peters Out
greatambitions30 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I'll start with the good. This game is a lot of fun to play. The pure joy of running at full speed as a wolf or flying through canyons as a bird is hard to beat. I loved the concept of switching between different animals with different abilities. The art and animation here is pretty solid, with lots of beautiful vistas.

There are lots of collectables to find, which is an okay part of the game, and keeps you exploring.

And now for the not-so-good. There's an underlying story here that starts off pretty intriguing. The wolf seems to be the spirit of a woman who died a long time ago. You get to learn what she did and what happened to her. Unfortunately, about 3/4s of the way through the game, plot points that are built up aren't resolved (the Manchuku people mean what exactly to this story?), and the ending is a confusing mishmash of exposition. It's pretty unsatisfying, as is the game play for the last 15 minutes (just keep running through the snow... forever). It felt like the writers got a little lost and just wanted to end the story.

I would still recommend this game. It was still mostly fun. Just don't expect the story to blow you away.
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10/10
One of the most beautiful games I've ever seen
lestatis-364-50601919 January 2020
Not only, that the 'world' and characters, as well as the Wombats and other adorable animals make you want to experience more of the story - the story itself is sad, interesting and thrilling too. Not meaning to put any spoilers here, so... Just find out yourself and give it a try. Definitely worth playing. In my opinion this is an outstanding masterpiece. The soundtrack is sending shivers down my spine, too! Well done, hopefully more like that to come.
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