Miasmato review
Miasmato
Okay to anyone who WATCHED the stream, we all saw that it was not exactly a AAA title WHICH IS FINE.
Story
As you start a new game you are introduced to the main character who is shipwrecked on an island with a deadly disease that will kill you, so naturally that means you must find a way to cure yourself. Sadly that is all you are given and then are thrown into the island. Throughout the game you will come across shacks/huts/yurts that may or may not have left over notes or newspaper articles that, to me, did not seem to play a whole lot into either the lore or help explain why you are there.
Controls
They are typical PC first person game controls; you have WASD to navigate, shift to run for short distances, and left ctr to crouch, use the tab key to pull out your journal (will explain soon) use the mouse to move the characters head around, use the left mouse button to interact with certain objects and the right mouse button to use your compass and what not.
Journal
So this character is dumped on an island with no items and you WILL eventually come across plants and fungus that you can pick up and if this is your first time interacting with the plant/fungus then you will write down basic information about what it looks like and what not, you will also need to go to your laboratory (will talk about that soon) to finish your journal entries. The journal also holds all notes/articles you find along with your map (will talk about that soon). Last, your journal will hold any medicine you acquire (will talk about soon); but your journal will only hold ONE of each kind of medicine and/or tonic so you can't stack your basic medicine or well you CAN but the second basic medicine will overwrite the previous object in that slot in the journal.
Laboratory
Eventually you will no be able to hold any more fungi or plants so you will need to find a place to research each item and the laboratory will be where you want to go. Please not, there are small camps that allow you to store a set amount of plants/fungi but you WILL need to go to a nearby laboratory to research these specimens to make medicine and/or elixers. Laboratories will also be where you will finish your journal entries for each plant/fungi.
Map
*scoff* If you WANT to call it a map then you can but that is all it is, a generic map with SOME drawings of huts to indicate SOME camps, probably the more major camps that have laboratories. Other then that, that is it. The map will not track where you are or where you were because you will find pieces of each section of the island as you explore.
Medicine
So as I mentioned, your character is sick with a deadly disease so you have to help cure him. As you progress through the game you will learn that your character is very prone to drowning in shallow water which will result in him getting a fever which WILL lead to death unless you find medicine to combat the fever. There are also other ways to get hurt like tumbling down small slope or getting mauled by a monster (will talk about soon) so having medicine helps you, not only to keep you from dying, but will also regain your stamina.
Monster
Because there is only one monster and he is an ass. The first time you encounter the monster you will hear a heart beat and that means the monster is near by. There is nothing else to it, there is a monster who hates you, or maybe just hates you picking up plants/fungi, and will start to chase you.
Combat
Yeah...That's pretty much does not exist in Miasmata. You can swing stuff and throw stuff but they really do nothing because the main character seems to have trouble following where you aimed at. So avoid combat if possible because you are only wasting valuable time to run away.
The Main Character
He is a peach, let me tell you what. He can't swim more then 5 seconds before he starts to drown. He can't climb hills very well without tumbling down and getting hurt. He can't go down hills or small slopes without tumbling and getting hurt. He is a short person because the boat you crashed on is taller, or almost as tall, then you are. He has no stomach in which to eat (A theory I have that will be explained at the end) and likes to drink chunky water.
Theories
I have a few theories about our hero and also a theory about the island.
1) The main character is nothing more then eye balls and two arms and hands because that is all you see of him therefore whose to say there are other limbs on him?
2) This is a theory I mentioned a few times during my stream, mainly near the end, that the island is against you. Whenever I encountered the monster, I was holding plants/fungi. I never encountered the monster empty handed, at least I do not recall that, so my theory is that the monster attacks ONLY if you are working on finding a cure but will leave you alone if you are just minding your own business and letting the disease kill you.
Overall
For an indie game, it is not THAT bad. There are some nice survival horror aspects that really did get me excited like first meeting the monster or researching plants/fungi to find new cures or elixers. I had a hoot with certain parts of the game like lighting a candle with an apple or picking up a pan and replacing it with a hatchet and seeing the hatchet gets stuck in a pole.
The Bad
The map is useless and pointless to have. Half the time I looked at the map I was even more lost then I was BEFORE I pulled the map out. I sometimes had trouble seeing where I was going but that was probably just my own problem. The controls were so aggravating; I mentioned COUNTLESS times how my character's movements were so slippery that I kept comparing the main character as a block of cement sliding on ice. Swimming is pointless because he will start to drown after 5 seconds and he will also DROP any items he was holding. Our main character also can't walk down small slopes without taking a tumble which will hurt him. Duplicate items get overwritten whether being a second basic medicine being picked up or forgetting to pick up medicine that you JUST finished researching and you made something new and THAT overwrites what you PREVIOUSLY researched.
So all in all I give the game a 4/10
It tried it's best but in the end the game felt more like an unpolished demo then an actual game.
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