Even the Ocean

A mediocre game. I appreciate the creative effort that went into making it, and there are several original ideas, but if it was intended as an experiment then we should consider it a failed one. The graphics are quite pretty, which is probably the best thing I can say about this game. The music is not very good and, like many aspects of this game, does not to fit with in anything else in it.

The story is very tedious and clunky. The poorly written bits of dialog (never skippable, often repeated) are overly long and there is no reason for the player to be invested in them. They do not together create a narrative of any importance. I've read some reviews praising the game for "exploring queerness," but there's nothing of that sort here. Several characters seem to be non-heterosexual and/or non-gender-conforming, but nowhere is the topic "explored." I'm glad to see such characters in games, but I prefer to play games that are good. Finally, the game ends with a didactic, heavyhanded message that by no means clearly follows from the story.

As for the gameplay, it's very uneven. The puzzle-platforming levels are easy, even boring. There is an interesting mechanism for the puzzles, but you only need to rely on it in the late game, so it's mostly just a distraction. Actually, with very little thought and one or two retries you can circumvent any challenge with neither risk nor reward. There is a speed play mode, which is surely more challenging, but the game encourages you to play it in the story mode. Most jarring is that this gameplay is in no way related to the forgettable story. It's like somebody wrote a platformer, somebody else wrote a story of sorts, and then they were arbitrarily stapled together. The game doesn't cohere.

Some parts of the game give the impression of an "open world" for you to explore, but that's not the case. If you go as you please the game will tell you that you "can't go here yet". So you are being punished for exploring. And do you think this is a calm game in which you can pleasantly take your time, look around, and talk to people? Well, there's an achievement for finishing it under 5 hours. So, if you want that achievement, try to avoid the game's content. Hooray for not wasting too much time on, like, actually playing?

The weird thing about all this mediocrity is that it is wrapped in unnecessary attention to detail. You have an inventory, but you really don't need it to play the game. And though there are almost no characters in the game, a few are thrown in that serve absolutely no function. There's a whole city, but the only character added is ... a food stand salesperson. Who adds nothing to the story.

I'm baffled by the positive reviews this game gets, especially those that seem to find depth and meaning in a game that offers neither. Are people projecting onto this game what they want it to be?