ReCore: First Impressions (Gaming)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 18:35 (2790 days ago) @ Cody Miller

So I played around 4 hours of ReCore last night, here are my impressions so far.

I understand where some of the bad reviews come from, but in my opinion they are reviewing the game rather than enjoying what is a clearly enjoyable game. The story is straightforward, but the game provides ways to go into more depth via audio logs, journal entries, and translating the robot language. Here are some of the things I did and didn't like so far.

I think audio logs, and to a lesser extent journal entries, are a pretty lazy way of giving depth to your world. It's a trope that I think needs to be replaced.

The Last of Us excelled in this regard, where most of these things were believable and immersive. The only times that you found "Audio Logs" was when it made sense (recorded medical research, and a recorder found in a hospital, where they are often used), every other time, it was notes, lists, stuff like that. And heck, you could hand one of the notes that you found to a character, and have a unique interaction that way... Makes me wonder why Naughty Dog went back to mostly-trinket collectables for Uncharted 4, but considering everything else that the game has going for it (plus Nate's always-awesome Journal), I'm not gonna use that as a knock against them...

Other than that, it does really seem to be a crutch these days when devs are too busy/lazy to craft some solid environmental storytelling or worldbuilding dialogue...