But there are two major differences from the norm: here “defeat” is (usually) not the goal, and the heroine isn’t just confronting monsters, she IS a monster herself. Like many other works that came before it, Sea of Solitude stars a young naïf – small, frail and alone, unable to defeat the giant creatures that stalk her by might alone. It’s not nearly as successful at providing enough substantial gameplay to support it, and certain narrative elements veer between blindingly obvious and disappointingly vague, but as an overall experience it is worth motoring through the weaker elements of this artfully evocative tale of loss and letting go. The latest to represent hideous, deformed creatures as visual representations of inner turmoil is Sea of Solitude, an EA Original by Jo-Mei Games that does a wonderful job of establishing a haunting, heartfelt atmosphere within a gorgeous 3D environment. More and more in popular entertainment, monsters have been used as metaphorical manifestations of real-world trauma like child abuse, grief, anger, pain, addiction and other… well, monstrous afflictions. This is one you won’t want to miss if you’re a fan of games that touch on the subject of mental health.Monsters may not be real in the literal sense, but they certainly are in the figurative sense. Sea of Solitude is a fabulous game that tells a meaningful story in a short and interesting game and it was designed in a very Deaf/hoh accessible manner. The other very Deaf-friendly feature is that while you do have to keep track of monsters so as to not be eaten by them, you don’t do so by listening, you simply hold X and the camera will track the monster, leaving it for you to decide what is a safe distance for you to carry on. Even the creepy water hands in the image above, while not loud, were paired with a subtle controller vibration. One of the brilliant features of this game is that nearly every important sound is replicated in controller vibration. Throughout the game, you’ll come upon messages in a bottle to collect and unlike the subtitles, this text, though not spoken, can at times be difficult to read. more than 2 lines) appearing on screen at once. The only issue (and it’s a very rare issue throughout the game) are instances of too much text (i.e. Shown above is the large subtitle setting and you can see that there’s a nice background so contrast is never a problem, and the speaker name is always included. Players can adjust various volume settings and there are three subtitle text sizes to choose from, each showing a sample of the text right in the menu. On the mobility side of things, it’s a fairly simple game to play with your standard movement controls (on console) but unfortunately the controls aren’t remappable and you’ll be required to press and hold X to keep track of monsters and press and hold RT at several points throughout the game.įortunately the Deaf/hoh accessibility is much better! The story it tells is one I can relate to more than I’d really care to admit and if you were a fan of the emotional story of Gris, Sea of Solitude may well be right up your alley. It’s such a good game that I don’t want to spoil any part of this gem. I’m not going to tell you a thing about Sea of Solitude.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |