Reviews for Fixation

[RadCarrot]

Yeah, really, really good, the story was excellent (and very sad, the more I realise it - I'd played the sequel some time ago, but didn't make the connection until later). Loved the AI elements, the way you had to wait for others to help you, and the overall feel of the game. Wasn't sold on the early levels as I didn't really get that it was merely representations of the mind, but once I saw the different characters unfold (and Jack's wonderful stutter, which was brilliantly simple to pull off) I really warmed to it. Great job, and it must make front page if it hasn't already (I've been playing it for a while).

Problems? Probably only in the difficulty factor. The Swamp levels were sometime intensely difficult, and while I understand this was the point of the game, it suffered from a checkpoint system - the last level of the swamp, for instance, I must have died a dozen times, and often simply due to a misclick. Having to do the whole level again and again distracted from the story and made me almost quit. Also, the last level of the meadow - the timing for the switch seemed random, and I made it after ten or so attempts, but did very little different each time.

Apart from that, it was good, but I feel a little unfulfilled because I know the end to the story. Still, great job, and certainly makes you think, which many games don't manage.

FreeAsANerd responds:

Glad you enjoyed it! Sorry that the Swamp is such a bitch.

[Daggralf]

Smoke rings are so hard to create, and so is a lovely game!
I guess you succeed where I fail.....
.
What I try to say is that I love the game, but it´s quite frustrating from time to time.

FreeAsANerd responds:

Thanks, man! The smoke ring is all about learning the muscle memory to get the timing down consistently, but I'm not so good at making stuff like that fun quite yet. Need more practice...

[MagicMichael66]

Amazing game. A lot of effort was put into this. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm having a blast.

FreeAsANerd responds:

Thanks!

[sunnyhani]

I really really enjoyed The Company of Myself, and I shit my pants a little when I saw there was a sequel. I guess I kind of missed out on some of the enjoyment because I realized as soon as I saw the subtitle that she was going to die at the end. That kind of put a damper on the enjoyment that should have been felt as I saw her working through her problems. This little voice going "No Kathryn no! Avoid the hunky junkie!!!"

The story aspect of the game was much more prominent in this sequel. It felt a little intrusive, to tell the truth. I don't have any ideas on a better way to present the story during the game, but I felt that the excessive dialogue kind of got in the way of the puzzle solving I was trying to focus on.

The puzzles themselves were excellent. The drop jump in some levels took me a while to figure out, though, and the maneuver felt kind of out-of-place.

I guess all my complaints have to do with the fact that storytelling seemed more important to the design than gameplay in comparison to the prequel. Maybe that's just distorted memory though.

Thanks for an awesome sequel. I may whine a lot, but I really really like it.

FreeAsANerd responds:

Thanks for writing!

The storyline and gameplay held roughly the same weight in both games, but they go about it in different ways. Jack has very simple and straightforward thoughts; Kathryn picks things apart.

[Nondo]

Wow... well before I begin, this is just a warning to all those reading my review who haven't played this game yet.

SPOILER ALERT (Really though, you should play through this game)

Before I continue on about this as well, I would just like to note that I had NOT read the small title underneath the title to this game, but man, I'm sure glad I didn't because that made this game so much more excellent/exciting for me.

Well with that out of the way, I just first want to say I had a very fun time playing this and reading the story. For me, I actually enjoyed this story/plot more than half the movies I've ever watched. It's so good to see indie games like these where people put so much effort and it really ends up showing so nicely throughout the game.

At first, I wasn't too sure what to expect, seeing as how it was a platformer with tons of dialogue, but in the back of my mind, it felt like I had played a game all too similar to this before, but I couldn't really figure it out, or put my finger on it.

Then, when the ending came, where it was all dark and then after you reached the right side of the platform, it would turn bright, the rush of thoughts hit me so hard, my jaw dropped. It was a surprise so shocking, I literally had to sit there for about a minute or two to gather myself to continue the story. To think that this was intertwined with The Company of Myself, just completely threw me for a loop that I had never would have expected, mostly because it had been such a long time since I had played The Company of Myself. I could go on and on, but simply put, this is literally one of the best shockers I've ever experienced in my life. For me, the timing of when this game was released, and the date that I beat The Company of Myself was just enough so that this kind of effect was possible.

For the puzzles themselves, some of them really took me a good amount of time to do. It was one of those puzzle games where I would play through the levels wondering why I wasn't able to beat them, then when I figured out how they worked, I would facepalm myself for how easy they should have been noticed the first time around. Some of the times, I was wondering how stuff would work without me having to do anything, then I realized the background environment played such a huge role on the game too, which I would like to add, was a nice touch of new type of gameplay mechanics.

David Carney, the same as when I played The Company of Myself, really has some very nice music to play with this game, and just complimented the game so well. Whether it was feeling sad about how Henry died, or whether it was the calm/relaxing moments at the meadow, it was definitely something I could get used to listening to all the time. Which reminds me, I need to figure out how I can get some music from this guy. O_O

Overall, I'm so glad that I picked up this game to play cause it was well worth the playthrough to listen to the story. You do a spectacular job at making plots/twists, which makes me wonder if you're more suited for gaming or for storytelling, but hey, I say, combine the two and you can always get great games like these. Honestly though, thanks for the great story, and if there's more to it later on down the road, you can easily count me in to play it through all the way to the end.

P.S. You really should take out the subtitle underneath the title so that people get more of a intense shock when they reach the ending to the game. I don't think it'll affect it too much, but just something that made this game extra special for me. : )

- Nondo

FreeAsANerd responds:

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for taking the time to write this.

The storyline in these games plays out differently depending on which you played first, but it sounds like you played them in the absolutely ideal way (original first, prequel second, without being aware that they were related). What luck you have!

If you're interested in David's music (which we all should be, because it's badass), try clicking his name on the Credits screen. It takes you to his BandCamp page, where you can find the soundtrack for this game and other goodies.