Like the Witness, Order of the Sinking Star descends into tedium.

You just repeat the same type of puzzle over and over. The Witness is a bit more tedious considering the real “puzzle” is rule-discovery rather than the flow-style puzzles that make up the majority of the game’s interactions.

Like the best I can say about Order is “yeah, it’s ok”.

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gorgoiler 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The Witness was repetitive? Every puzzle set had a lesson, and every set of sets had a gag / out of the box puzzle at the end where something was fundamentally different (a crack or flicker, or an interaction with the environment, or a reference back to something else on the island.)

What I suppose was repetitive though — and where you might be coming from — is the formula itself. The entire island was the same episode format, even if the plot was different each time. Like Knight Rider — formulaic, but I loved the formula!

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Kurtz79 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I still haven’t tried the new game, but I did feel like that about The Witness.

I loved the beginning, the art style, the Myst vibes, discovering new areas and a specific “WTF” moment.

But I really didn’t understand the need of piling up similar puzzles with minimal variation.

You could have slashed 2/3 of the puzzles and the game would have been tighter and more satisfying imho.

Brevity is be the soul of wit (not of the Witness).

Reading that is a “500 hours game” instantly drains any interest I might have for Order of the Sinking Star, heck, there are not many pleasant activities I can think of I would like to do for 500 hours.

	▲	fwipsy 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Animal well could be called, perhaps, a 500 hour game in that many people will never find all of the secrets by themselves, it took a community effort. Is OotSS a 500-hour game in that the main storyline takes 500 hours, or 100%ing it takes 500 hours?

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add-sub-mul-div 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I agree. There's variety in all the new elements being added to each of the core puzzle types, but it doesn't remain satisfying or engaging for very long, it just becomes repetitive. I was expecting more in the way of a meta-puzzle experience.

Maybe that was never promised and I made up the expectation myself when I heard "500 hours." But it feels like there's never a reward for finishing a puzzle other than, okay, here's the next one.

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danpalmer 6 hours ago | parent [-]

It seems like because there's just so much of it that people just haven't got to the "meta puzzles" yet.

I'm 20 hours in and starting to see examples of mechanics being generalised in a way I wasn't expecting, i.e. an early games thing turns out works in a way more general way that elevates the mechanic in complexity and feels like a very satisfying moment.

I have a suspicion about another that would completely change my perception of the game if it turns out to be true, so... meta puzzles? Not sure, but certainly there's something more than just the 4 initial rulesets colliding.

	▲	senkora 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Just be careful; if you find the coin then you’ll have to write the next one!