It's not perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as you might think reading the threads. It's not GOTY material (its fucking April), it's not absolute trash. I think its good. My unsolicited advice to those having trouble is to treat it like a proper roguelite: dont force builds, dont go in thinking this time i will get snecko eye and apotheosis like its slay the spire. And take down more notes than you think you need because you will need more than you think.
I'll address the common complaints from most to least relevant as I see it:
>RNG is bad in puzzle games!
Sure, but in this one it's the only way it could work. Without it the game would be another mediocre rotate-3D-objects walking sim. In structured, level-based puzzle games with a clear goal and well defined tools I would agree, but this is not that.
>The RNG implementation is bad!
I think this could apply but I only really felt it in the postgame, after room 46. Even then I only did so tens of hours in after that. But I don't blame people for having this impression, because it's a very understandable feeling to get especially for task/goal-oriented people.
They see a suspicious wall, they know they can upgrade the sledge to destroy it. So they make it their overriding objective to put together a run where they can bring the new sledge to the wall, and they do it in the most logical way which is to sacrifice the rest of the run/s to that goal. Like taking bad boons to fulfill prophecies in Hades. Then they get frustrated. I think the intended or at least more fruitful way to play it is to schizo out over everything and take notes on everything, not even playing for 46 but more to understand everything a room could give you. For example, a goal oriented, non-schizo person would see the security room and write down in their little notebook:
keycard (number, off status)
red notes good, blue notes bad
while a real schizo might write down:
keycard (number, off status)
big ass steam ducts
red notes good, blue notes bad
why is this note handwritten but the other isnt
these monitors seem suspicious
these paintings were different yesterday..
handwriting seems off from other notes
smash tape machine?
and from this schizobabble he'd only really be wrong one time out of six. But the only way you'd know is if you apply this schizo mentality to every room in every run. The game is designed to reward this schizoid behavior with metaprogression, lore (which serve as puzzle hints/solutions later), RNG manipulation tools, etc. more than it rewards 'I gotta smash this wall/I gotta open this diary/I gotta open 46". Eventually, you get so much free shit per run you can't not get into 46 unless you try not to. This also applies to the subgoals people might have. In the early threads, there were a lot of posts complaining about how hard it is to connect boiler room with lab. Allegedly they have tried and failed for tens of runs. If I wanted to do that now, with all my schizo notes and not even using tangible in-game metaprogression I'm sure I can do it in less than five days. It's only really reliant on one bit of RNG which is drafting boiler room in a good spot. Unlike what people think, you don't actually have to luck into pulling lab right next to boiler room.
>midgame slog
Yeah it does get annoying really quick. the trip to the outhouse every day gets annoying. The little ui/ux stuff really add up. I hope they change this eventually.
>This game is for midwits and thats why journos love it! It's watered down void stranger!
Well, yes. I understand and agree. Doesn't really have to be said multiple times per thread every thread, I feel.
>gates/gaits, EN locale study safe
Yeah, this is pretty bad. For what its worth, I picked up on it despite being ESL, and there are (allegedly, I guess) ESL people in the official discord chewing through the language barrier. It definitely limits the game for sure.
>Schreier loves it and he's a Jew and the dev has a marketing background and I'm saving the world from ugly women in video games by shitting on this game every thread and I'm restoring the game's public perception to its rightful place from its current hyperinflated position by writing hyperbolic steam reviews am i cool do i fit in yet
I really don't know anything about Jews. I have never and probably will never meet one in real life. I think there are rich Jews and poor Jews, and that while a rich Jew might have a conscious/subconscious preference for other rich Jews, like every other social group in existence, I think a rich Jew won't piss on a burning poor Jew to save his life. I think Schreier is a poor Jew.
If you take the opposite angle in this matter, then I'll say I don't see anything in the game that might be objectionable in that way. It's set in bongland in the 80s. No gay people, at least ~100hrs in. Alzara isn't even that brown.
I can agree with you that there is a possibility of the usual bullshit regarding review score manipulation. Even discounting the midwit reasoning, the scores do seem quite high. I understand, I just wish people who want to discuss the game here can do so without having to wade through unfunny, unoriginal, unearned complaints. I understand that a certain level of acidity is business as usual around these parts, but I think there genuinely is a real life schizo amogus who doesnt even play the game and just repackages complaints from steam reviews, earlier threads, and even the same thread to make things seem worse than they are. He's not playing blue prince, he's playing the game called vee.