Review of the demo version of the new “Mor. Utopia”. Marble nest

Review of the demo version of the new "Mor. Utopia". Marble nest

Recently Moscow studio Ice-Pick Lodge released the game "At the marble nest", The demo version of the future remake “Mor. Utopia". The updated version of the game about the city’s epidemic of the city went a long way: I visited the Kickstarter service, successfully completed the campaign and survived the transfer of the release. The developers promise to release a remake of their “theatrical” game in the fall, but for now everyone can look at the changes waiting for us in the full version with one eye.

Actually, we did it – looked at. And not with one eye. Before you are our impressions of the demo "at the marble nest"!

Disclaimer: the opinions of individual authors in this article may coincide with the opinion of the editorial. But they may not match.

Moscow studio ICE-Pick Lodge released the game-Tizer "Mor (utopia): at the marble nest".

Return to the city

Igor Kononov, author of "Gambling" After almost twelve years, the contradictory ". Utopia "is returning. Collection of money on Kickstarter It ended successfully, and by the fall we are waiting for the modern version of Mora on three platforms – PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Demo version, first accessible only to backers, and now everyone else, is not a cut of a release version, but spin-offs, a separate story, and its events take place within the framework of the main game. We have to live one day with the bachelor Daniil Dankovsky, wandering around the renewed city, watching the coming of the plague, desperately trying to save its inhabitants … and ourselves. As in life, it is not as important as this day will end – the actions are much more important that you will do in such a short time.

“Wake up, bachelor! A new dream awaits you!"

"At the marble nest" is not an easy game for perception: changeable and confusing. A dense atmosphere masks the flake flaws, the visual series immerses in a strange world, premonition replaces the screen hint. At the same time, the “nest” does not tolerate indecision, the allegorical manner requires to read the dialogs, the timer punishes for slowness.

Hunger, immunity, health, infection are the main factors that encourage the player to move forward. It is necessary to look for food, take medications, use the simplest measures to protect against the disease – and scour in search of the source of infection.“Well, one more surdish,” one of the users snorts at the Steam forum. Poor fellow, he still does not know how devoted and loyal to the "Mora" audience.

I will leave connoisseurs the discussion of the artistic properties of the creation Ice-Pick Lodge: Disputes regarding the value of Mora have been lasting a decade. I will only say that the “author’s beginning” of the studio still prevails over the technical: I had to start passing through a bug with a door three times, which imprisoned me in the cathedral. Preservation in the "Nest" is not provided: it is believed that this episode is too short to interrupt its passage.

The mayor claims that the epidemic is a kind of exam for the city. But is it not too high the price of its delivery?

Graphics in the new "sea" made an astronomical leap. Despite the muffled colors, the situation pleases with details. Cracks in the walls, it seems, can be touched. City life is visible from the windows. Flocks of birds are cut in the sky, I just want to hide from the rain.

Unfortunately, the familiar “cardboard” remained in the characters: they do not speak aloud, do not show emotions, instantly change poses, appear and disappear. The only fight leaves bewilderment: it was a screensaver-or, closing the buttons, I changed something? But the animation of walking citizens is not bad.

Who is buried in this house?

The performance of demo is not pleased. As soon as half -loading the processor and video card, the game hardly gives out torn 40-50 frames per second. Fading in half a second or even a second is not uncommon. Either Unity 4 does not cope with the open world, or the developers have not yet started optimization. In any case, the owners of not the most powerful PC can become uncomfortable. 4 GB of video memory of my GTX 980 “Mor” swallowed without choke on, and he clearly wanted to.

The new "Mor", like the old one, promises to be a game of a connoisseur – but in a more modern, attractive, packaging. It will be interesting to observe the successes of the remake on consoles: how the metaphysical opera Ice-Pick Lodge will perceive the public familiar to blockbusters?

Space horror

Denis Pavlushkin, author of "Gambling" As the phrase on the download screen assures, “at the marble nest” should attract the attention of the public to the full game, showing its mood and structure. It's funny. Not because the debut Ice-Pick Lodge was far from for everyone, it will remain. Rather because the game is actively calling not to play in itself. Do not start what will inevitably end poorly, no matter how much try to do what best. The only way to win in a deliberately losing game is not to play it. Everything is simple.

Living? This is not for long.

This demo can be passed in ten minutes, or you can – in a few hours. In general, Mora has always had a special attitude to the course of time: each quest has strict time frame, and no one will wait.

However, this time Ice-Pick Lodge themselves decided not to waste the player time. They lower all the madness and grotesque of the steppe city from the chain in the first minutes. Surprisively slowly walk from one dialogue to another, only one district of the city is available to the demo – from the house of Eve to the cathedral and a piece of the adjacent steppe. Everything else has already gobbled up a sandy ulcer.

On the one hand, it is a pity that it was not possible to look at the new massacres, the house of the Olgimsky and the dwelling of Peter Stamatin. On the other hand, even that piece of the city that is available for research is already pleasing. Incredible beauties with a bunch of graphic filters cannot be found here, the ability of the Unity engine does not cause applause.

But even at the same time, locations are beautiful in their own way, did not lose their charm, they still feel despair. You can still go to many houses without knocking if there is a master. Citizens are still distantly wandering through the streets, and the clumsy animation of walking makes us think: this is a lack of experience with Unity, or we are again hinted that they are just dolls? Who knows.

Fortunately, this comrade did not repeat the feat of Eve Yang. The cathedral has already seen enough in its lifetime.

Many mechanics almost did not touch, just blew off the dust from them. Terribly uncomfortable equipment was replaced with a “grid”, where it is much easier to navigate. The fact that in this "grid" a bottle of milk and a couple of broken scissors take up the same way is a lot of space is the tenth business. But the diary found the appearance of a certain “tag cloud”: all the events occurred in the form of symbols with brief explanations. Some are related to each other, some are at a standstill, but this helps to understand the intricacies of the plot. Yes, and beautiful, what is it here.

Yes, outwardly the game was updated, but inside it remained the same – with the cosmic horror, leaked and her own philosophy. The atmosphere is even thicker. Ospina stubbornly repeats that Dankovsky does not know how to "die correctly". Judge Cain also plays with eyebrows menacingly. Mortuses arranged a picnic with a bonfire near the crypts. Mystery, black humor and proprietary theatricality did not decrease at all. Rather, on the contrary. I want to move tragic on the face even more than in the original.

The mosaic folds together, the "beaks" rest at the light. And turn around – and the trace was caught.

This time Ice-Pick Lodge is not exchanged for trifles. They know that their style has become recognizable, so they have gone full metaphysical gap. If the studio is able to maintain the density of events even in a full -fledged city and minimize boring walks from one quarter to another, the new "mor" easily eclipses the original. Even despite the fact that players know what you can expect from the scriptwriters, they are still able to surprise them.

Just do not expect to win this game. It won't work.

Philosophical subtext

Ilya Ovsyannikov, author of "Gamery" “Birds gather at the marble nest” – a demo version begins with these words. But what is this nest? Who are these birds? Why are they gathering there? In fact, we must answer these questions, passing "at the marble nest". But, as it always happens in ICE-Pick Lodge works, these rhetorical questions. That is, we will not see the answer. At least directly. Or everyone will have their own answer, which is even more interesting.

Demo version can pass in five minutes, and the death of the hero is only one of the finals. He is fast, light and simple. We do not have to make efforts to achieve it, just by our will to go to the slaughter. Like a bull, that for some reason stands in a room on the second floor. But we are not looking for easy ways.

They warn us.

"At the marble nest" in no case can not be compared with the original "sea". There are many reasons. The first is time. Over the past years, much has changed and first of all – the players themselves. In 2005, "Mor" caused a slight bewilderment. Now such a trick will not work. Moscow developers from time to time release games with philosophical subtext ( "Turbor" And "Tuk-tuk-tuk"), and mass culture now gives the consumer a call.“You must be smart to see the symbols!", "Mr. Robot" , "Recognition of images" , "Generation P" – far from a complete list of what made us "symbolic drug addicts".

What is he doing here?!

The second reason why the “nest” is not equal to “utopia” is technology, which stepped forward in the updated version. No, of course, there are those for whom the graphics in the game are not the main thing. However, the modern engine inhales new life into a familiar city. The fact that from the very beginning is exhibited as a theatrical action, with a new picture makes this game extremely alive.

I don't know why I remembered "Walking dead".

The third that does not allow comparing two seemingly identical games is our personal experience. We already have Life is Strange, The Walking Dead and the mass of other games where the choice affects a lot. The team of Nikolai Dybovsky will have to make the impossible: to maintain variability, but to deprive us of the opportunity to replay from time to time the same scenario.

What is good in the game now? Sound. During the load, there are shamanistic tunes setting up in the right way. The doors creak, the fire crackles, the rain knocks on the glass. What else good? Picture! Yes, a lot has already been said about it, but!.. Now people who play the performance look much more realistic. The line between the person and the performer is erased. Contractors with burning eyes seem creepy. In the original, they were just bird -like creatures driving in a stupor with lengthy phrases. Now they are the messengers of trouble, and they are naturally afraid of them.

Now about the bad. Optimization – the main failure.

Intrigue

Gleb is an unclean, author of "Gambling" “At the marble nest” is a separate story designed to show the world and atmosphere “Mora” to people who are not familiar with it. That is, like me. And, I must say, it turns out well with demo version: it sticks out both good and bad sides of the future game. Let's start with the latter, for it is they who meets us and meets us.

I will repeat the words of the previous speaker, but the first thing that catches the eye when starting a demo version is optimization. Rather, her absence. Before starting, the developers warn that playing the “nest” may be painful and painful, and at the same time they will not be cunning. Demo version, in essence, is a sketch of a complete game, with the only patch that will no longer be. For a full set, only "early access" is missing.

Another stumbling block is a combat system. One gets the impression that the game would have done well without it: we only fight on fists once, and at the same time comes down to jamming. As a result, it turns out that the developers spent time on the fighting, although they could let it down to study the script and dialogues, making them even better. But in the inventory there is still a slot for cold weapons and a firearm ..

In this only battle, you can't even lose! Why is he needed at all then?!

In addition, they pursue intra -game time and lack of conservation. Almost every local hour is something important, and if you accidentally missed or not notice it, then everything, go through first. You do not have the opportunity to just walk around the quarter and inspect it: you are constantly crushed by the feeling that you do not have time. I will not argue, this approach works to create a tense atmosphere, but I also want to study the world, the benefit of it is to look at!

Strange structures and ruins, constantly reminding the unreality of what is happening, a cathedral with frozen hours, around which crows fly, detailed rooms, talking about their inhabitants sometimes more than words … All this creates an amazing feeling of mystery and alertness. The game’s visual style is simply amazing, you can’t say anything.

Complements his beautiful sound. A quiet embossed with shamanic tunes on the menu, crackling bonfires and a breakdown of rain drops in the game are tuned in the right way, immersing you in this unrealistic world. I am a little sorry that there is no and the voice acting of the heroes will not appear in the game, they only announce in the voice of the day, evening and other game events.

Someone or something flies in the sky.

But what really makes you go further, breaking through the bugs, is history and dialogs. Designed and thought out, they carry away and become an incentive for passing, each time giving new grains of information about the world and characters. But still I want more the plot. At the same time, if you forgot something or asked the standard question “where is it further?", You can always turn to a convenient graph of events (thoughts of the protagonist), at first almost empty, but as you completed the complementary new nodes, able to suggest what to do next.

From the realization of what you have to speak with a creature similar to the embodiment of death, goosebumps run around the skin.

In a word, the demo version does what was created for: intriguing and interested those who have no idea about the classic “sea”, and forces the remake to wait for the remake.

Wandering on slaughterhouses

Pavel Ilyin, author of "Gambling" If you close your eyes to obvious technical problems (lack of conservation, a fifteen-minute loading of a small location, six frames during running), what kind of idea of ​​the “sea” this passage gives. But why? Original "utopia" – it is like the language of heptapodes from "History of your life" And "Arrival" , Each separate word is pointless, you need to feel the whole sentence.

Without wandering on the slaughterhouses and searches of the impostor sister, without the rest of the plot, the teaser from Ice-Pick Lodge is nothing more than a technical demo. The textures were prettier, but not too much, in the gray courtyards of the city, still 2005. Okay, the dancers at the steppes were painted better, now they are not so similar to night butterflies. But passers -by move again like drunk. The trading interface is painfully inconvenient, you have to drag small items back and forth from each garbage box. Animation in the battle is twitching, it does not seem that this side of the game was generally repaired, and it was it that was most condemned in the reviews of the original.

Cursing, wiping through the terrible optimization to the next house … and forget about all the problems, stumbled upon a new dialogue. Communication is spectacular, important characters have portraits, replicas stand out on the right side of the screen. The philosophy of death, easy insanity and neat tapping on the Fourth Wall-the branded style of Ice-Pick Lodge has preserved a new game.

Old acquaintances also have not gone anywhere and bring down all the quirks of their consciousness in a short day on a taken aback of the bachelor – there were no repetitions, all the dialogues are new and in the spirit of the good old “mora”. Ospina tries to teach Dankovsky to die correctly, Cain will be willed by the judge to remove the cordons to meet the plague as a test. In the steppe – funeral in half with a fun holiday.

Scenes with children are especially remembered. Squirrels with a match did not share nuts, into which, according to belief, the spirits of the dead instill and offer to get into the shell of the bachelor. I really want to ask developers to make a quest on "A house in which …"!

It is worth deviating from the route and look into the stabbed houses, when you immediately come across a similar picture.

Everything interesting happens in a small part of the city, from the house of Eve to the cathedral, then the plague rages. The scale of history is small, but still believe in the best and wait for the release of a big game. Carried away by good texts, you can easily skip changes in mechanics. Inventory is now limited by cells and is divided into several zones. Numerous bachelor pockets are quickly filled with hooks and coins, overall objects are more difficult to carry.

If you want to travel safely? Put on a suit and lose half a place in a backpack. Tough, but fair. The rooms of the houses are not loaded separately, but make up a single location with the district. The master is required not only the input, but almost all the other doors. Given by unlocking each wardrobe, you will not find a lot of prey – but you will admire the local suicids. Dankovsky’s diary now does not just fix important observations, but reduces them to the diagram with ties, to trace the chains of quests is easier.

Everything obvious becomes secret – this is the whole "mor".

All this leaves the hope that we will get the best “mor” than in 2005 Golden Lion sister sites. A game where there is something besides endless walks from one key character to another. For connoisseurs of the twisted intrigue, this would be enough, but the restart should find a new audience, including a foreign language. Indie-player flirting with death, now you will not surprise anyone, let's remember the same The Cat Lady.

If all promises and dreams turn out to be a reality and we will see conscious dreams, expand the multifaceted, like a paper aircraft, or even see the history of the city through the eyes of a new hero – this will be a breakthrough. In the meantime, we can only believe in the steppe legend and pray so that the master has a stone flower.

All authors converge in one: today "Mor. Utopia ", like many years ago, surprises, scares and raises a variety of questions. Probably, the Ice-Pick Lodge studio will have a lot of work, but now it is clear that in the updated version the developers have retained all the advantages of the original: both a viscous atmosphere, and well-written dialogs, and the same city, without a doubt, became one of the heroes “ Mora ".

The benefit of solving technical problems for the authors of a lot of time – the full version will be released only in the fall.