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Shattered Haven Launch Trailer -- 1.0 is March 18th!

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x4000:
Original: http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2013/03/shattered-haven-launch-trailer-10-is.html



Shattered Haven goes to 1.0 on Monday, March 18th, 2013!  Get the game from the Arcen site, Steam, Gog.com, GamersGate, or Green Man Gaming!

An Environmental Puzzle Game About Family, Grit, and Survival

Grays roam the land, largely in the absence of human interference.  These aren't your typical Zed -- theirs is a very different sort of apocalypse. Animals spontaneously transform into twisted, violent beings.  The earth decays, collapsing into a network of abysses.  The wilderness thickens.

It has been nine years since That Day when it all started.  Pockets of humanity still exist, but are ignorant of one another.  Within these isolated havens people try to live as best they can -- for even in a world so broken and dark, daily life must go on.

Darrell and Mary Williams were able to build such a life inside a five-acre fenced yard out in the country.  They were even secure enough in their isolated compound that they had a daughter five years after the zombie-like grays appeared.

Life carried on as normally as it could, until another refugee on the run is killed during a nearby attack. Her son is saved and taken in by the Williamses -- who do not realize that this kind action will destroy their home and threaten their entire family.  They find themselves caught in the midst of a struggle between two eldritch horrors, and the path to survival is anything but clear.

Winge:
The "like something lifeless" quote seems a bit out of place (not sure what I would replace it with), but I like the rest of it.

x4000:
Note that it's final and can't be changed, but thanks. ;)

Nanashi:
Personally, I thought the trailer started out decently, until the voice started breaking down into incredible ham territory.

Frankly, I'm not too fond of the overarching plot seeming to be a grab-bag of cheap emotional pushes. I could play gratuitous heartstrings bingo with it:

-Postapocalyptic world
-Oppressive Danger
-Mysterious unknown authority with unspecified powers that needs to do stuff via a proxy.
-Bereavement syndrome (Fridge full of children)
-Fighting against the authority because AUTHORITY IS BAD (Bingo!)

Rationally speaking, I shouldn't expect too much from a plot in a game where the gameplay is the core feature and the plot only needs to exist as a framing device (X gets kidnapped/taken from you, go get it back) - and I certainly expect even less of indie games in that regard, but this is exactly why I think the trailer *should* have focused on gameplay and mechanics rather than the framing device.

The trailer didn't tell me *anything* about how the game plays like or how I might find it fun, other than the nebulous promise of killing a lot of zombie-surrogates, which is exactly why I can only criticise it as an unrelatable (in my situation) story, which works against me buying SH precisely because if I wanted that sort of thing, I'd play through "The Walking Dead" already. Is there a separate trailer actually discussing gameplay so that I could make an informed buying decision?

x4000:
Thanks much, that's much appreciated.  Check out our other videos if you prefer, but the story is actually pretty cool and the atmosphere is something people who play it are constantly remarking positively on.  The gameplay is also very fun, and there are videos of some of that.  Others can pop in and explain from a more unbiased standpoint I'm sure.

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