2025-11-13T17:40:46Z
Funny how I could tell from the start he was going for a “but” review.
Anyway, yeah, confirmation that it’s definitely not for me is good.
The last minute is really damning, in the game’s own words.
6 Likes
I think Tom really likes this kind of weirdo narrative that can be conjured up from mechanics rather than explicit plot.
It’d be neat to see where they sit on Tales of Arabian Nights now.
2 Likes
Yeah, Efka’s review agrees with this in a lot of places.
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It’s a negative review from SU&SD where for once I can completely recognize the game I played. Can’t argue with anything Tom says. I want more pushback, and won’t get it. I would like more substance to the discoveries and deeper mysteries and I think there’s a bit of that but I haven’t run into any of it and have no idea how to make that (or really most things) happen in the game. And I think a tighter, more deeply realized and cohesive planet to explore would improve things a lot.
And yet, I have had a good time. I think there’s a lot of fun things to find and the mechanics while light are kinda neat. It’s always interesting to me to explore a fixed gameworld whose details are hidden to start with and get a sense of layout and useful places as I play, and Vantage definitely does that. And it’s pretty friendly to people who aren’t heavy gamers - my mom was (more or less) able to navigate it. I don’t think it will stand indefinite replay, and I will likely sell it after some further exploration, but that’s not a sin really.
I do think part of where Tom’s ending up dissatisfied with the game is describing it as a narrative game. IMO that is incorrect. It is a game in which you do things and get a bit of narration about what results from that action. But it isn’t telling stories or setting things up for “emergent" narrative particularly (I hate the idea of emergent narrative and disagree that it is any such thing, but that’s a separate topic). It’s an exploration and discovery game. If you want an interesting story from it, you’re going to be disappointed.
3 Likes