The game begins by forcing me to take a picture of my own face. Neat. I wonder how many times they'll use that in the course of the game. Let's make a counter out of it.
So the premise is that my 3DS is, in fact, the Camera Obscura. For an ancient and powerful spiritual relic it does a damn good job playing the latest Zelda games. Also, I receive a package containing the Book of Faces. So, I should investigate it and stuff.
I'm immediately bothered by the pronouns this game uses. I, myself, am the main character because this is an ARG. So I feel like the game should refer to me in the second person. Instead the game refers to me in the first person. I know this is nit picky, but it breaks immersion for me.
Now the tedious job of finding a place in the house to play the game. Ultimately I play in my bedroom with top light on and a lamp shining directly onto the book. Then I realize I can't see the game in this light, so I turn the system brightness to maximum.
I see text on the blank page of the book, and the curse pulls me into a spooky haunted house. The spooky haunted house is on rails. I would prefer if it wasn't. Let me use the controls on this here gaming console maybe? If they gave the player the ability to control walking through the evil mansion like in the PS2 games this game would immediately and drastically be improved. It wouldn't even take much. It'd really be the same events, but giving the player the minuscule control of when to walk and when to stop would add so much to the game immersion with virtually zero work from a design standpoint.
So the premise is that my 3DS is, in fact, the Camera Obscura. For an ancient and powerful spiritual relic it does a damn good job playing the latest Zelda games. Also, I receive a package containing the Book of Faces. So, I should investigate it and stuff.
I'm immediately bothered by the pronouns this game uses. I, myself, am the main character because this is an ARG. So I feel like the game should refer to me in the second person. Instead the game refers to me in the first person. I know this is nit picky, but it breaks immersion for me.
Now the tedious job of finding a place in the house to play the game. Ultimately I play in my bedroom with top light on and a lamp shining directly onto the book. Then I realize I can't see the game in this light, so I turn the system brightness to maximum.
I see text on the blank page of the book, and the curse pulls me into a spooky haunted house. The spooky haunted house is on rails. I would prefer if it wasn't. Let me use the controls on this here gaming console maybe? If they gave the player the ability to control walking through the evil mansion like in the PS2 games this game would immediately and drastically be improved. It wouldn't even take much. It'd really be the same events, but giving the player the minuscule control of when to walk and when to stop would add so much to the game immersion with virtually zero work from a design standpoint.
We're attacked by the spirit of a victim of the book. Some guy who investigated the book to save his sister but wound up trapped and had his face stolen. Why isn't Maya's face stolen if she was trapped in the book? Is she gonna be his sister? I don't know...
Then the game wants me to find the page of the book that the camera responds to... must be page 2. No? So I flip through the whole book. Nothing. Maybe the back cover? The front cover? Huh... must've missed it somehow...
I flip through the book again. Nothing.
A third time. Nothing.
I do not recall having this much trouble when I played the game back in 2013.
Eventually I get the damn thing to respond. It was page 2. Brilliant.
I'm attacked by the same spirit. Then I try to open a door to go back to spooky town, but white hands with scarred palms attack me. I have to circle the book to face the hands from very specific angles to proceed. This is a pain cause I need the lamp on my nightstand for the 3DS to recognize the book. Even so, the third hand is angled such that the crease in the book interferes with the camera seeing the book and therefore the game keeps going static and telling me to find the book. Luckily there isn't a fourth hand.
I see a cool cinematic. Then I fight the same dude AGAIN! Seriously, guy? I thought you were trying to save your sister. Stop attacking me. This time I see him a bit clearer than the previous times and he has these neat vines with golden leaves choking him. When I defeat him the game explicitly refers to him as an "evil" spirit. This bothers me cause he was a righteous guy who tried to save his sister only to fall victim to the curse.
Then the game wants me to find the page of the book that the camera responds to... must be page 2. No? So I flip through the whole book. Nothing. Maybe the back cover? The front cover? Huh... must've missed it somehow...
I flip through the book again. Nothing.
A third time. Nothing.
I do not recall having this much trouble when I played the game back in 2013.
Eventually I get the damn thing to respond. It was page 2. Brilliant.
I'm attacked by the same spirit. Then I try to open a door to go back to spooky town, but white hands with scarred palms attack me. I have to circle the book to face the hands from very specific angles to proceed. This is a pain cause I need the lamp on my nightstand for the 3DS to recognize the book. Even so, the third hand is angled such that the crease in the book interferes with the camera seeing the book and therefore the game keeps going static and telling me to find the book. Luckily there isn't a fourth hand.
I see a cool cinematic. Then I fight the same dude AGAIN! Seriously, guy? I thought you were trying to save your sister. Stop attacking me. This time I see him a bit clearer than the previous times and he has these neat vines with golden leaves choking him. When I defeat him the game explicitly refers to him as an "evil" spirit. This bothers me cause he was a righteous guy who tried to save his sister only to fall victim to the curse.
The lady in black (the main antagonist of the story who steals people's faces) calls me back to the book. I turn to the blank first page again. She says she can see me and my face appears on the page. A moment later the image alters so that my eyes and mouth vanish. It's a cool and creepy effect. Luckily, the game saves just in time. My 3DS battery is drained from this small amount of gameplay (maybe a half hour) because of how high I had to set the system brightness. Thus ends my progress for this evening. My 3DS recuperates beside me as I type this. |