Wanna play an alien game based on 60s sci-fi movies? Yes? Well, what if I
told you the main character's name is John T. Longy and he was a night
watchman for the secret facility of Jupiter? Maybe? How about if his
voice is the equivalent of a whining infantile man? No? Good.
Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is a first person adventure game that heavily relies on puzzles. Puzzles primarily consist of being environmental based where in order to find a solution you must scour your setting and locate objects around you. These tools can be mixed with other objects to form satisfying solutions or headache inducing problems. Though, some of the problems brought upon poor ol' John are unneeded as their origins lie in his own stupidity and ignorance.
These puzzles would ordinarily stand out as a positive, but their
accompaniment with the terrible control interface makes them blend in
with the rest of the negatives. The controls being described
specifically apply to when utilizing an object. Instead of assigning a
certain button to a separate action, some genius had the idea to bundle
all the uses an object can have into a screen that can only be navigated
by rotating the actions. While this can become a relatively simple
interface to become comfortable with, it can constantly lead to
annoyances such as accidentally dropping important objects.
Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is a first person adventure game that heavily relies on puzzles. Puzzles primarily consist of being environmental based where in order to find a solution you must scour your setting and locate objects around you. These tools can be mixed with other objects to form satisfying solutions or headache inducing problems. Though, some of the problems brought upon poor ol' John are unneeded as their origins lie in his own stupidity and ignorance.
From a developer's point of view using specific colors to smoothly outline the environment and characters would seem like it helps highlight the theme of sci-fi. In fact, it does just that, but from a consumer's point of view this aesthetic choice comes at a price. That price is the unbalanced lighting that can make locating important objects more difficult then it has to be. Thats not the only thing we're left in the dark about as Albedo lacks the presence of a soundtrack.
Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space is by no means a bad game. However, its
accumulating issues such as terrible voice acting and uninspired control
interface will alienate some people's interest in abducting this game
for entertainment. There are an equal number of positives to be
extracted amongst Albedo's pile of negatives. Albedo more than excels at
capturing its target tone of 60s Sci-fi movies and excellent puzzles.
Its a shame that these enjoyable aspects are overshadowed by their own
flaws.
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