12/31/2023 0 Comments Gloomwood developersYou make more noise on some surfaces (metal walkways, rock) than on others (dirt, wood), and that it's better to land on something soft if jumping from a height, be that fish guts or a dead body. You are taught, too, that you can one-hit kill an unsuspecting enemy with a charged stab from behind. But it also lights up if you're being too noisy you might be perfectly cloaked in darkness but if you move, knock something over, or barge through traitorously rustling foliage at the wrong time, then you'll alert a nearby enemy. The ring is your most trusty friend in Gloomwood, as it lights up according to how visible you are, teaching you to hide in shadows or behind crates or bushes. A mysterious stranger sets you free and gives you a ring, and ambles into the night. You start in medias res, caged in a kind of circular offal pit in what turns out to be part of a fish processing facility. Gloomwood believes in show don't tell, which I greatly admire. I did spend a lovely 5 or so hours playing around in the levels leading up to the city which, unless my guess wildly misses the mark, will operate as a very detailed and clever series of tutorials to teach you the game's principles before launching you into that city relatively unguided. But Gloomwood as is ends at the city gates. You can see it, you can go up to the gates, and at least two (2) people tell you to go there. The main problem is that Gloomwood promises "an intricate, hand-crafted city" to explore, and right now you're not allowed in it. Except I wouldn't, because it feels like I'd be doing you a disservice to recommend it now, when the fun will be so quickly snatched away. There's so much more room to be playful and experiment than I expected, and it's so much fun that if you'd never played a stealth sim in your life I'd recommend Gloomwood. But, though the current EA build is but short, it feels like Gloomwood is aiming to punt that ball into outer space. It's a grimy, steampunk-ish stealth immersive sim with a deliberate low-poly vibe, and it picks up the abandoned Thief football to absolutely run with it. If you are one of those people who bases their gaming personality on liking the original Thief series, Gloomwood will have been on your radar for a while. "I really like Thief! I get you! I want to throw more decapitated heads as lures!" "Let me in!!" you scream, as you hammer on the silent portal. There's currently just enough of it to play that it makes you feel both bereft and quite annoyed when it suddenly clangs its great iron doors shut in front of you. Gloomwood is, so far, a very good game, but it is also not much of a game - in the literal sense that it has launched into early access incomplete.
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