By Adam Smith on June 22nd, 2012 at 5:00 pm.
First-person puzzle game tends to mean something Portal-like these days, though I find genre definitions a lot like clouds – any recognisable shape is often in the eye rather than the form itself, and they’re hard to grasp and occasionally dampen my spirits. Xing is a first-person puzzle game that reminded me of Myst when I first saw the trailer, although in the sense that it has a beautiful make-believe land laden with puzzles and weird technology rather than because I didn’t want to play it ever. Maybe it would like to be called a first-person adventure game? It doesn’t really matter, but perhaps the game will. Let’s take a look.
The download section of the website just says ‘coming soon’ but has all the instructions for use, including a button to teleport to safety if stuck. So now, straight away, I’m thinking that if I travel too far off the path the world might start to become a bit unsettled, causing me to get stuck on a rock or to fall off the floor and out of the sky. They might as well have just drawn a devilish matador on every horizon, his taleguilla clinging tightly to his buttocks as he twirls his cape with a flourish that says, ‘come get me, gentleman voyager’.
In this scenario I am either a furious bull closing in for the kill or…let’s forget these puzzles, saucy matador, and instead run free until we find the place where boundaries break.
22/06/2012 at 17:07 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Aw, I expected news of a new Myst game.
22/06/2012 at 17:13 The First Door says:
I know there is some Myst dislike around these parts, but Uru is still one of my favourite games. It also contains one of the best puzzles I’ve ever seen in a game, too.
Anyway, this really gives me similar vibes, so I’m rather excited to see what becomes of this. Here’s hoping it is released soon!
22/06/2012 at 17:23 Brun says:
Why is there Myst dislike around these parts?
22/06/2012 at 17:27 Unaco says:
Because people round these parts have no taste.
22/06/2012 at 18:50 Faxmachinen says:
I was going to suggest lack of patience, but that works too.
23/06/2012 at 05:48 jrodman says:
I like it with my taste, but don’t with my lack of patience. So I’m in the other lot.
22/06/2012 at 17:59 Hoaxfish says:
not enough modern shooting
23/06/2012 at 08:07 lurkalisk says:
RPS is concerned largely with the always-wonderful modern warfacers and such, as should be obvious.
23/06/2012 at 08:17 LionsPhil says:
Because (from distant memory) it wasn’t a very good game.
It had a sense of place and exploration, sure, but the vast majority of the puzzling was “try things randomly until you succeed because there’s very little logic or indication that the lever all the way over there will do something with the thing all the way over there”. That’s not good gameplay.
At the same time, real, proper adventure games were still in their golden age.
Sorry to undermine the “it’s because stupid people didn’t find it violent enough” smugness.
23/06/2012 at 10:39 The First Door says:
I’d disagree, there was almost always logic behind how things worked. Most of the puzzles involved working out that logic, or finding the clues in the environment around the place. If you were doing something randomly it normally meant you needed to explore more.
I personally loved the Cyan ones because I enjoyed playing with the machines to find out how they worked and Uru had the most of that. I can totally see why some people don’t like it though, puzzle games can be pretty damn subjective.
24/06/2012 at 01:30 Faxmachinen says:
There was an element of figuring things out, but the puzzles were all logical. I will grant you that there were not nearly enough clues though.
My design philosophy would be to stuff the game full of hidden clues and alternate solutions. Sadly, those kind of games are too few and far between.
22/06/2012 at 17:43 squareking says:
I thought the Myst series went bonkers with the story later on, but I appreciate pretty much every aspect of those games.
22/06/2012 at 18:18 Ernesto says:
I too enjoyed Uru. Never played it through, because I had to return the CDs. Or was it a DVD? Yes you could actually borrow a game from a friend and then return it!
Anyway: I’d like a fresh game in the Myst/Uru genre.
22/06/2012 at 21:02 LionsPhil says:
*gasp* Piracy! Piiiiiracy!
Thank the gods that Steam and its kind have protected us from such foul ills.
22/06/2012 at 23:00 The First Door says:
If you can find it you should pick up the Uru Complete bundle from GOG or Steam. Both the To D’ni and Path of the Shell expansions are worth playing if you never did originally for different reasons. One because of the utterly deserted, spooky atmosphere and one because of the two excellent ages it adds.
It’s just a shame that bit never worked because I really enjoyed it (despite the problems) in one of its many incarnations.
22/06/2012 at 18:37 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Uru is the one Myst game I have not completed. Mostly because I spazzed out with the timing and walk in the dark puzzles. All the regular Myst games are among my favourite games though. I even read the books.
22/06/2012 at 17:24 JFS says:
http://www.xing.com/
I don’t think they’re gonna get far with that name. Unfortunate.
22/06/2012 at 17:56 Hoaxfish says:
I’m fairly certain they can get away with it due to being different areas of industry.
22/06/2012 at 18:48 Smion says:
I smell a crossover. A crossing you might call it.
22/06/2012 at 20:35 Skabooga says:
Would you advise caution?
23/06/2012 at 05:16 The Random One says:
Stop trying to derail this thread.
23/06/2012 at 06:52 Grargh says:
It’s a most vexing habit.
23/06/2012 at 02:35 zbeeblebrox says:
Nah, don’t worry about it. Trademarks are given for use in specific regions of the market only. When these guys applied for a trademark for “Xing” – assuming they did – they would find no overlap between their market and those guys’ market.
22/06/2012 at 18:37 Eclipse says:
Seems very cool, and Myst with modern graphics and real 3d environments? Sign me up! (Yes I know of Real Myst existence)
22/06/2012 at 22:58 Dreforian says:
I’m only for 3d in a Myst style game if they use every part of the third dimension. Certainly it’d make navigation and some spacial elements of puzzles easier but it also makes visual cues more challenging to create/digest.
23/06/2012 at 00:55 YogSo says:
You know about Real Myst, but have you heard about Sentinel: Descendants In Time? It’s a Myst-like game developed on the Jupiter Engine (No One Lives Forever 2, Tron 2.0). That video doesn’t really make it justice, but the environments are gorgeous and you can navigate them just like in any normal FPS.
22/06/2012 at 21:36 Dervish says:
Looks decent, visually, and atmospheric. Here’s hoping it actually has good puzzles.
23/06/2012 at 00:17 Frank says:
…which in turn reminds me of The Witness
23/06/2012 at 01:57 Joe W-A says:
100% stock UDK/UT3 assets. Weird thing to make a trailer out of.
23/06/2012 at 10:37 Resonance says:
The UDK license allows for developers to make a commercial game out of the supplied assets bar skeletal meshes.
But I agree, I couldn’t spot a single model that wasn’t included in UDK.
27/06/2012 at 17:14 Phasma Felis says:
Gee, if I only I’d spent more time looking at UDK asset libraries I’d have known that I shouldn’t like this.
Seriously, who cares? It’s pretty.