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Puzzles built on the use of the unique abilities of different characters, between which you need to correctly switch, have long been popular. The trendsetter in this direction can be called The Lost Vikings , the first major game from Blizzard Entertainment (then the company was called Silicon & Synapse )? released back in 1992. This game was presented on many sites. Since then, in such projects, as a rule, the usual formula is used: one character is strong, but slow, the other is fast, but weak, and that's it. The authors of Weakless , it would seem, decided to diversify this scheme, making one hero blind and the other deaf. But they still got variations on the theme of "Strong / fast."
Disabled heroes in Weakless are “veterinarians,” made-up tree creatures who set out on a journey to save their native forest from environmental disaster. “An unusual story and an exciting exploration of the world” - the promises from the press release lie. There is practically no history as such, it is presented only indirectly, including through cave paintings, although the message is already banal to yawning. The forest is bad, there are some pipes and mechanisms around, muck is flowing from the pipes, Rot is beginning, and we need to restore the source of life-giving resin.
It is on this mission that the Blind and the Deaf go. There are no dialogs, clips, cut scenes, humor or, conversely, drama - we just go from point A to point B, overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles along the way. Yes, there are already the cave paintings and other sketches that, in theory, also reveal the world and history, but in this case, clearly could do more and better. Sometimes it’s allowed to distract and turn off somewhere, so that Deaf made a new sketch in his journal, and the Blind one found a new unusual musical instrument and played on it. But, you must admit, it is difficult to call this an "exciting exploration of the world."
These sketches in the magazine and performances on musical instruments - the only thing that gives out in our heroes living characters. And here I am again forced to point out a lie from the official description. “The cheerful clever girl Deaf warms the closed introvert of the Blind with her cheerful disposition. A calm and balanced Blind takes care of the restless Deaf "- where it is all in the game itself, it is completely incomprehensible. Hints of real concern, from which he gives away with the promised “history of strange and silent friendship”, appear for a while only in the finale itself.
All the rest of the time, our heroes act as tools for solving puzzles. And the latter are repeated many times over the course of a very small game and have little to do with the declared physical defects of the characters. Yes, switching to the Blind one, you will see only black and white outlines of objects in a small radius, but it’s great to hear what is noisy, playing or rumbling around. But the Deaf is ideally seeing in full color, but the sounds in this case either turn off altogether or become muffled.
But these are only external manifestations, which are very few and rarely reflected on the gameplay itself. And the gameplay of Weaklessmore often comes down to standard exercises. Blind, like a classic “strong” character in this duet, pushes heavy stones and boxes to clear the way, create a platform for moving the Deaf, or, for example, move him, standing on such a box, to the right place where the comrade can continue to move.
And the Deaf, as faster and more agile, sometimes does acrobatics to get to where a friend cannot. But most often it uses a fruit tied to the head, and with it activates elevators and elevators, makes water lilies to bloom to cross them through the swamp, or spreads thickets of plants that prevent the Blind from passing. Also, he often gets up on the push platform, which releases the bridge from the branches - on it, of course, the second character moves. Sometimes heroes need to simultaneously stand on such platforms.
All this, I repeat, the standard puzzles for such games on the interaction of two characters with unique abilities. About the movement of heavy objects, I generally keep quiet - this is not even a standard and a stamp, but vulgarity, if you want. At the same time, we control the lion's share of time precisely to those who see it - it moves faster, and in general most situations are connected with his skills.
But the Blind man knocks his staff on the special points decorated with strange runes all the way in the necessary sequence, which allows you to climb higher or lower on a huge platform and move on the plot - this puzzle does not change throughout the game.
And only in the finale really interesting things begin - here are more unusual situations, and a sense of real interaction and help. For example, in the pitch darkness, the Blind takes the Deaf by the hand and leads, focusing on hearing, when the next trap works. In another situation, when a slow veterinarian does not hear anything, which means that he cannot really navigate, they change places. But, unfortunately, these are only isolated cases that quickly end, since the game itself soon ends.
The only thing that weakless succeeded in was music using unusual instruments like oudu, cute art, and also really beautiful, sometimes even impressive landscapes. But here, not without a fly in the ointment. Given the clumsy animation, the slow pace of movement and periodic stuck in the textures, moving around these beauties is still a pleasure.
The result is a cool concept, but a useless implementation. This is all the more offensive because the idea is truly original, and the authors themselves at the end showed how it can be really interesting to reveal. What prevented them from making such an entire game? They probably did not hear their testers and did not see where all this would lead.
Pros: original gameplay concept with the interaction between the blind and the deaf; beautiful landscapes; atmospheric ambient.
Cons: there is really no plot; characters are poorly designed; puzzles are constantly repeated and almost do not use the original concept; failed animation; characters can get stuck in textures.
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