Comments on: As Dusk Falls review: difficult decisions

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 14 Aug 2022 08:37:15 +0000

In reply to Fed. Aw Fed... the fact you make the same decisions just shows how genuine you are.

By: Fed

Fed — Sat, 13 Aug 2022 05:59:10 +0000

Heh heh I'm very much a non-perfectionist person with decision tree based games. I'm always curious about the path not travelled, particularly with games like Detroit Become Human and Mass Effect. But I almost always ends up making the same decisions as the first time round as I just do what feels right to me in the moment. Anything else makes me enjoy the game less

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 06:25:19 +0000

In reply to Frostilyte.

Ah, you hit the nail on the head with the ‘interesting outcomes’ comment. I think this is why I found As Dusk Falls easy to play with regard to actually making the choices. You might not get the outcome you intended and things can go disastrously wrong (as in my playthrough where someone died), but you’re never made to feel as though ‘That was a bad choice’ or ‘That was a good choice’. With that pressure removed, the situation being depicted just feels like it ‘is’ so you can get lost in it. It’s kind of hard to explain!

I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to shake off the perfectionist thing completely. But it was nice to let go of it for a few hours.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 06:18:14 +0000

In reply to Dryad. You'll be pleased to hear there are no Mass-Effect-choices here! With As Dusk Falls, it's almost impossible to figure out how a decision is going to go because there are quite a few characters in each scene and they react in different ways. But each outcome feels fair, even if it doesn't turn out how you expected or ends up going disastrously wrong - as in my first playthrough. If you end up playing it at some point, I'd love to hear the opinion of someone who's affected by choice-based games in the same way!

By: Frostilyte

Frostilyte — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:43:39 +0000

Proud of you. Genuinely. It’s great to read that you were able to let go of your (for lack of a better word) nature, and experience both success and failure as equally valid parts of your story in As Dusk Falls.

I’ve noticed an increased push by developers to make choice driven games where player actions, regardless of success or failure, lead to interesting outcomes. This transition results in more fluid narratives, and also helps to keep folks from feeling like they’re missing out. Plus, it also gives you something to chat about in a water-cooler sense when you compare, and contrast what you saw versus what your friends saw.

I’m glad this was a positive experience for you, and have my fingers crossed that it will be the first step in a multi-step journey toward not allowing your perfectionism to ruin games for you. Speaking as a reformed perfectionist 😉

By: Dryad

Dryad — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 13:56:46 +0000

I have such a hard time with choice based gameplay because of this, but I’ve settled into a more: “I’ll do my best with what I can.” The only time I don’t feel satisfied is when I choose an option and it turns out to be something away different than I thought it was. To be clear, not that the receiving character reacted badly, but that the choice I made was different than “advertised”. I’m looking at you Mass Effect.

I think a game like this will still leave me with anxiety thinking, “What should I have done?” With the way you’ve described it, I think I’ll be okay. I also really love watching other people play because they’ll make different choices. Ah, watching the choices without feeling the consequences. XD