Eurogamer has nothing that I would call a gross facual misrepresentation, but nor had it come out when I made that statement yesterday. However, the Eurogamer review does act like platforms are the only way to get around, when in reality there are:
- Lightning Rocket and Ride The Lightning spells (the former being very similar to the jetpack he notes the game lacks)
- Double and triple jump enchants
- The ability to turn yourself into a bat.
- Etc.
If you want to get right down to it, the statement "rhino whose sprite is clearly a composite of real-life photography" is an opinion, but a wrong one -- it's a computer-generated rhino, with photoshop post processing. Not that that's really material to the point he was making, which is a point that thankfully others disagree with.
What can I say? We're responding to the feedback that we can do something about. For some of these folks, they're complaining about the very things that other reviews have glowingly fawned over. The stature of one reviewer versus the next is... ultimately a bit meaningless when it all comes down to opinion. Some people like it, some people don't. We're trying to make it better for the people who like it or who are on the fence -- the people who hate it will never be swayed.
And ultimately, the net effect of the negative reviews (and positive ones, aside from Kotaku and Total Biscuit) seems to have been precisely nil on sales. That doesn't mean we're resting on our laurels, but it means that we're listening a lot more to people who actually like the game at least to some extent, but have some things about it that are still bugging them. If there's a persistent feeling that the game wastes your time too much, that's certainly something I'm open to looking at -- but it's not something I've been hearing in particular except from some reviewers who seemed to dislike having to play the game at all. If you're playing something you dislike, of course you're counting every second until you can stop.
Anyhow. It's not my place or intent to call out any reviewers. But the reality of the market versus what some of these guys are saying just don't match up. Neither does it match up with the sort of glowing 5/5 reviews (
http://www.indiegamereviewer.com/review-a-valley-without-wind-a-procedurally-generated-genre-mashing-platformer/) that think the game is for absolutely everyone. Terraria this ain't (and even that wasn't for everyone). But I am thrilled that some folks are connecting to the game so positively, including some major reviewers that simply haven't posted reviews yet because it sounds like they are putting more time into the game.
This game isn't for everyone. Neither is AI War. But our goal with both, as always, is to make each one a better version of what they are -- so far so good, but that's always an ongoing process.
