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Horace - PC/Switch

Dark Soldier

By Dark Soldier,
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  • 2 weeks later...
deKay

deKay

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Posted

Playing this on the Switch (Chapter 19 now!) having done the first couple of hours on the PC because I don't play PC games. Really, really enjoying it but I'm a bit concerned about the content.

 

Not for me, but the PC version was PEGI 16. Imagine my surprise when the Switch version was PEGI 7. So I've been playing it in front of my daughter and then it's all fucks and cunts and gore and drugs and terrorist style executions. PEGI 7! Bloody hell.

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  • 3 weeks later...
MK-1601

MK-1601

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Just finished it on Switch. It's so good. Some of the jokes I'm surprised they got past both the publisher and Nintendo.

 

The way lives/energy and restart points are balanced is a bit aggravatingly shit at times. Some of the bosses really don't feel designed for a VVVVVV-like 'one hit death but infinite lives' system. So glad I persevered with the difficulty spikes though.

 

I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a game. Some of the background gags and one-off cutscenes when you try certain things* are awe-inspiring.

 

 

*

Spoiler

 

Like when you fall off the lighting rig in the TV studio.

And if you buy the TV Remote in the shop and hit the shoulder button.

And the one-off Out Run, sorry 'Day Off', machine in the 'royal arcade' where you drive a FUCKING EGG

 

I think my absolute favourite joke in the game is a poster for a Metal Gear Solid parody with Reg Hollis from The Bill ("Mental Gears Hollis").

 

 

Drying up minigame tip:

Hold the joycon left stick at full extent and rotate it rather than returning it to the centre.

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  • 4 weeks later...
chris on the moon

chris on the moon

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I got this a couple of weeks ago and I think I've pretty much given up on it. This is one of those cases where everyone in a rllmuk thread posts about how great something is, but very few people actually acknowledge what it is. It's a difficult platform game. That's the genre, it's a 2d platformer that is hard. I thought it might be a minigame compilation or something.

It seems to me that a lot of people really enjoy the "references" in this. The game is absolutely saturated with them. You can't go five minutes without a pun or gag about some piece of media, usually from the 80s. Unfortunately for me, I really hate this kind of thing. "reference" humour. I really don't get it, and I think it's a terrible excuse for humour.

 Strongly dislike the post-apocalyptic grim japes tone of it.

the audio is appalling. Having the entire story and all dialogue by all characters read by a speech to text converter is unpleasant to say the least. The music ranges from "good, but overstays its welcome" to dire.

The controls are finicky - sometimes unresponsive, sometimes too sensitive. I'm constantly missing jumps or pausing cutscenes because the analogue stick is slightly off centre.

The level design is sort of jarring. It's clear that they've made a lot of effort to make the environments part of a cohesive world, but then that's spoiled when there's just sections with electric sparks covering absolutely everything.

That said, some of the platforming and puzzles have been satisfying. I like collecting trash, and I have enjoyed a couple of the mini games (despite being forced against my will to play a guitar hero knockoff).

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GokouD

GokouD

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Just going to throw another recommendation in for this, for £1.09 at the moment on the Switch it would be rude not too. (I'm a 39 year old British man, so you don't have to be over 40!) You do have to enjoy tough 2D platformers though, some bits are reminiscent of nightmarish Mario Maker levels with spikes on every surface. It's very generous with checkpoints and extra shields if you keep dying though. 

Was

Spoiler

the room Horace and Heather stay in on the moonbase

a Red Dwarf reference?

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MK-1601

MK-1601

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The weird thing is I (almost) completely agree with all of chris on the moon's criticisms but it's still one of my favourite games I've played this year.

 

It's mechanically a bit janky, it feels like not enough care was put into tuning the dead zones for the joycon analogue stick (crouch walking is basically impossible without using the dpad) and the less said about the swimming controls the better. Some of the level design is absurdly sadistic.

 

I can see how people could bounce off the presentation too.

 

But this was all outweighed for me by how well the story is told, and how the game kept opening up and going in unexpected directions. The chapters involving (trying to avoid spoilers) the studio, the old man's brother, and Alice's house show the creator getting more and more skilled and confident in what they're doing. It's really impressive that it's the work of one person.

 

Horace's character arc is great too. It's all a very simple and on-the-nose story, but it did a pretty good job of making you care about the characters.


Ending spoiler:

Spoiler

So, right at the end of the game you have an epilogue scene with the Siltons' son. It immediately struck me that Edith Finch does almost exactly the same thing at the ending, but Horace does it better! Because it feels earned, and not (as the Finch devs have freely admitted) tacked on at the last minute because they couldn't think of how to end the story. It's subtle enough too that they don't mention the kid's name, although it's obvious what it is.

 

 

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Robo_1

Robo_1

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Posted

Yes I've just started this. I had my eye on it for a while and whilst I was hoping for a somewhat cheaper price, I was knocked back when I saw it on sale for a nose over a quid.

I've had a little over an hour on it now and it's really clicked. I initially thought the narrative was going to be a nuisance to wade through, but it's actually quite charming and it's a compelling reason to carry on with it in of itself. I like the wall sticking gimmick, but as Chris clearly laid out above, this is in essence a hard 2D platformer. Given the outrageously cheap price, if I stopped playing it now I'd feel I'd lost nothing, but as is I'm looking forward to returning to it. A million collected items, they're having a laugh though right.... right?????

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deKay

deKay

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9 hours ago, MK-1601 said:

It's mechanically a bit janky, it feels like not enough care was put into tuning the dead zones for the joycon analogue stick (crouch walking is basically impossible without using the dpad)


Why on earth would you use the analogue stick for a 2D digital platformer?

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MK-1601

MK-1601

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Posted
5 hours ago, deKay said:


Why on earth would you use the analogue stick for a 2D digital platformer?

Because the joycon left dpad is awkwardly placed and kind of shit?

 

(I do have more sensible control options for when the Switch is in TV mode, I ended up playing all of Horace in portable mode though.)

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wretcherd

wretcherd

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Posted
On 19/12/2020 at 23:41, deKay said:

Why on earth would you use the analogue stick for a 2D digital platformer?

 

I'm afraid I do this for everything on Switch, Celeste, Shovel Knight, Sonic, etc.

The joycon stick has such a short throw it's basically digital anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...
KRP

KRP

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, memories said:

How many stages are in this?

 

I'm on 11 at the moment where you are exploring the mansion and it seems to have taken a bit of a step up in difficulty at this point.

The number of chapters are:

Spoiler

21

Some of them are quite short though 

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Monkeyspill

Monkeyspill

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Posted

It wasn’t that hard on PC. I had to restart some sections a few times, but that’s to be expected - it’d be too easy if you could go through the whole thing without dying on your first go. 
 

But I’m finding it much harder on the Switch (handheld). The tea room mini game was difficult on PC, but on the Switch it’s just impossible. I’m also finding some of the platforming more tricky. On the PC I played with the Switch pad so it should be the same - more or less - on the joycons.

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