Abbiamo finalmente potuto provare Slice of Sea, l’avventura grafica del talentuoso Mateusz Skutnik e l’esperienza è stata davvero magica.

Slice of Sea: alghette coraggiose.

Al comando di una simpatica alghetta momentaneamente fuori dal suo normale habitat, ed in grado di camminare grazie ad un esoscheletro meccanico, verremo immediatamente lanciati nel mondo acquarellato e misterioso di Slice of Sea. Qual è la nostra missione? Chi siamo? Che misteri nasconde lo strano mondo terrestre in cui ci troviamo? Tante domande a cui potremo dare risposta solo esplorando il mondo che ci circonda, e risolvendo gli enigmi che incontreremo durante le nostre peregrinazioni.

Dal punto di vista del gameplay il titolo di Mateusz Skutnik è una classica avventura punta e clicca, in cui vista d’aquila ed ingegno saranno necessari per poter avanzare. Ma, a differenza di altri titoli simili, Slice of Sea non arriva mai a picchi di “frustrazione” estrema tipici del genere. Avremo invece a che fare con enigmi la cui complessità è perfettamente bilanciata, che richiederanno l’utilizzo di un po’ delle nostre celluline grigie, senza però esagerare. Sebbene talvolta sia necessario un pò di backtracking per trovare tutti gli oggetti necessari per procedere o per capire come funzioni un determinato puzzle, difficilmente ci ritroveremo a vagare senza meta tra uno scenario e l’altro.

Meraviglie artistiche.

Quello che veramente rende Slice of Sea unico è, però, lo stile con cui è stato realizzato. Ogni singola parte dell’avventura è stata infatti realizzata dalla “manina santa” di Mateusz Skutnik, capace di realizzare personaggi ed ambientazioni in grado di stupire ed incantare. Slice of Sea non solo dimostra, ancora una volta, l’abilità di questo artista a tutto tondo, ma è l’ennesima prova di come la Polonia sia tra i principali centri di sviluppo videoludico europei (se non addirittura il principale), capace di partorire titoli unici tanto dal punto di vista del gameplay quanto da quello grafico.

Anche nel caso di Slice of Sea, perdersi nelle ambientazioni del mondo di gioco è sempre un piacere e l’art design, così differente dal consueto style del mondo videoludico nippo-americano, è una manna dal cielo soprattutto per coloro che sono alla costante ricerca di qualcosa di differente con cui togliersi di dosso l’impressione del “già visto”.

Un titolo armonioso.

Slice of Sea è una di quelle avventure che ti cattura sin dai primi 30 secondi di gioco, capace di non perdersi in inutili “spiegoni” lasciando che sia il nostro intuito a guidarci. Un’avventura incantata, poetica, ma allo stesso tempo malinconica, tutti aspetti tipici dell’arte dell’Europa Orientale, che donano a Slice of Sea un’atmosfera unica, grazie anche ad una buona colonna sonora che ci accompagnerà durante tutto il gioco.

Se siete tra coloro che sono alla costante ricerca di avventure grafiche capaci di dar filo da torcere al vostro ingegno, deliziando al contempo i vostri occhi, allora Slice of Sea è il titolo che fa per voi.

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How can it be 14 years since I first played a Mateusz Skutnik game? I discovered the former Flash game creator via Daymare, and then went back to his Submachine series, and just adored what he was doing. These were Amanita-esque clicky puzzle games, exploring his wonderful art to find codes, click inventory objects into their holes, and gradually open up doors and paths. This is precisely the format for his latest, Slice Of Sea, except this time it’s feature-length.

You play as… look, I’m not responsible for this. You play as a piece of seaweed in some metal pants. We can’t change that. Why are you a piece of seaweed in some robotic underwear? I have finished the game, and I absolutely couldn’t tell you. What is your purpose in meticulously poring over this intricately labyrinthine world of wonderfully strange creatures and obtusely locked doors? Not a clue. But gosh I had a good time playing it.

It’s so interesting to see one of these mobile-friendly (although mysteriously, this is only on PC so far) writ huge, made hours long through sheer volume. It gives the puzzle format an almost Metroidvania-ish vibe, previously explored areas of the world opening up in new directions the further you go. By the end your inventory is ludicrously large, albeit mostly packed with the various pieces of detritus you gather along with actually useful items.

What’s most important here is how wonderful it looks. It’s a constant joy just to stare at, with the most amazing creature designs throughout. It’s all hand-drawn, then animated, then given even more depth with superb sound effects. (The scritchy-scratchy-squelchy noises made by what I’ll call the sky-nautiluses is my favourite.) Foregrounds are meticulously detailed, while backgrounds have a merrily sketchy look, depicting an alien world covered in remnants of ruined buildings, abandoned trains, shipwrecked boats, and out-of-time surviving houses. So much seems as if it crashed through a portal from Earth, although nothing living is vaguely familiar.

Each scene is packed with tiny details, meaning you have to scour for items, clues, puzzles and optional collectables. The further you get, the more of this crazy layout you have to try to hold together in your brain, since it would probably break space-time to try to map it. Fortunately, there are a very generous number of warping points that allow you to leap great distances, accessed through discovery.

Puzzles are rarely more involved than finding missing levers, entering codes, or gathering scattered items to get a machine working once more. Occasionally there are some neat twists – a nice example is a two-room puzzle where you always have to be in the opposite space to interact with the other. This brings me neatly to the other peculiarity of Slice Of Sea: its controls.

Rather than the more usual mouse-only method for such games, here you control your robo-weed character with WASD, the W (or Space) jumping, the S having you enter doorways, or walk ‘into’ the screen through passages. The mouse cursor is then used for all interaction with the world, to pick up objects, pull levers, place inventory items, etc. The confusing part being that your character never needs to be near anything to use it. It’s as if you’re playing alongside him, an omnipotent hand in his world.

I have some gripes. I mentioned pressing S to walk into passages, but such paths are too often woefully marked, and in the end, I resorted to just hitting S as I walked around, just in case. Which sucked a bit. The other problem that plagues the whole game is a lack of propelling reward when completing some of the larger puzzles. Too often, you can spend absolutely bloody ages getting all five of something-or-other to open a door that’s been nagging you for hours, and when you get in it’s just another object you don’t yet know what to do with. Finally get all the cogs you need to open that door, and all you’ll get is another fuse to add to your pile, for a purpose that won’t be revealed for a long while. You can end up getting more significant finds just walking sideways to a new location, and it’s a shame this isn’t better balanced.

Oh, and it ends. I mean, everything ends, second law of thermodynamics and all that. But wow, this just stops. I felt like I was right in the middle of it when it suddenly switched to a closing cutscene. The plot made not a lick of sense. It would have been a better game if it had, but it’s no disaster that it doesn’t. What matters is the entertainment on the way, and this was packed with it.

And my goodness, the score! I’ve saved this to the end, because it’s spectacular. It’s by Mateusz’s frequent collaborator, The Thumpmonks, and wonderfully they’ve uploaded the entire thing to their YouTube.

It’s definitely not a cheap game, at £20. I wish it weren’t that much, because I see far fewer people buying this as a result. While it’s certainly longer than the sorts of games it’s historically based on, it matches an Amanita title, who rarely charge over £10. I feel sure that at half the price, it’d sell far more than twice as many copies. At £20, I’m hesitant to recommend it. At £10, I’d be demanding you buy it. But then, value is relative to the person purchasing, and you’re a big girl/boy, you can make that decision for yourself. Either way, this is a fab puzzle game, with just adorable art and music.

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C’est un nouveau lundi miteux qui se dessine, et pour ne pas céder à la morosité du début de semaine, l’indé matin met en lumière un jeu indépendant, tout juste ou bientôt sorti, qui nous a tapé dans l’œil. De quoi repartir du bon pied, avec curiosité en bandoulière et foi en l’humanité. Cette semaine, goûtons aux embruns de Slice of Sea.

Slice of Sea ne sort pas de nulle part : c’est le nouveau jeu de Mateusz Skutnik, développeur et dessinateur polonais à l’œuvre depuis une vingtaine d’années. Celles et ceux qui ont pratiqué le jeu flash ont peut-être déjà croisé sa route, en particulier la série des Submachine, suite de salles dont il fallait comprendre les mécanismes pour espérer en sortir. Slice of Sea s’insère lui dans la tradition du point’n’click dessiné venu d’Europe de l’Est, dont Amanita Design se fait le chantre depuis plusieurs années, maintenant.

Engoncée dans une armure de métal dont ne ressort que sa tête aux feuilles noircies, Seaweed parcourt des paysages inhabités, comme un plancher marin qui aurait été mis à sec, permettant la construction (ou le dévoilement ?) de bâtiments, structures de guingois et autres voies ferrées. De drôles de bestioles apparaissent toutefois de-ci de-là, et il se pourrait que certains individus louches continuent à œuvrer dans l’ombre.

Pas de surprise sur la direction générale prise par le gameplay, on est ici dans du très classique du point’n’click : trouver des objets qui permettront d’interagir avec l’environnement afin de tracer son chemin. C’est dans sa direction artistique que se trouve le sel de Slice of Sea, et les détails apportés qui donnent une présence particulière à cet univers très texturé. En espérant que la progression soit fluide, ce qu’invite à penser sa description qui le qualifie de « paisible », au moins assez pour que les débutants du genre (totalement moi, au contraire du vétéran Murray) s’y retrouvent, et on effleurera ses mystères avec intérêt.

Slice of Sea est disponible sur PC depuis le 14 novembre 2021.

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Матеуш Скутник – польский художник и разработчик игр. Про художественную часть его карьеры я не знаю ничего, но игры меня однозначно зацепили. Сперва я не находила в них ничего примечательного, но потом…

Проведя очень много времени за играми серии Submachine, я не могла не увидеть эволюцию игрового процесса и головоломок в них. То, что началось как обычный квест про выход из комнаты очень быстро выросло в громадную вселенную со своей странной историей и множеством загадок. Нельзя было не подписаться на такого человека в твиттере. И подписка эта принесла плоды, ведь иначе я неизвестно когда узнала бы о его новом проекте, Slice of Sea.

Игра непременно стоит внимания! Это point-and-click адвенчура старой школы, в хорошем смысле, но не без проблем, связанных с форматом. SoS целиком состоит из подбирания предметов в одном месте и использования их в другом. Комбинировать вещи друг с другом не требуется, но того что есть вполне достаточно, чтобы перегрузить вашу память необходимыми для прохождения нюансами.

Майндмеп для прохождения игры требуется воистину гигантский. Активных предметов в игре очень много и вам всегда нужно запоминать где и что вы видели. Лучше – записывать. Пустая чаша среди нескольких полных – записываем. Несколько странных фигур на стене – записываем. Все записываем. Если лень – запоминаем. Если не можем – смотрим прохождение. Четвертого не дано. За время прохождения вы соберете под сотню различных предметов, некоторые из которых в нескольких экземплярах. Многие из них вы подберете где-то в начале игры, а понадобятся они только к ее окончанию. Часть предметов не нужны вообще ни для чего… почти.

Может показаться, что игра требует очень много брутфорса, но это не совсем правда. Действительно, некоторые головоломки имеют очень странное решение. Но чаще всего SoS довольно эксплицитно показывает вам, что нужно сделать. Вот какая-то штука на земле. К ней ведут провода. Часть проводов светится, часть — нет. Понятно что делать. Или вот какая-то надпись, и вот в другом месте такая же надпись. Они не могут быть не связаны, надо записать. Большая часть головоломок в игре построены именно таким образом и их невероятно интересно решать. Стоит разгадать одну, как в вознаграждение вы получаете предмет для решения другой. Игра полна микродостижений и остановиться, не пройдя ее целиком, очень трудно. Если бы не одно но. Не все головоломки в игре построены столь изящным и логичным образом.

Иногда случается такое, что вы находите какую-то лутинку и для того чтобы найти место для ее применения вам потребуется обойти весь мир игры целиком. Несколько раз. Потому что ну кто мог подумать, что вон тот сундук – на самом деле интерактивный элемент? На экране порой мельтешит столько деталей, что какую-нибудь дверцу можно и не найти. А за ней ключевой предмет. И я еще не говорю про миниатюрные собиралки, которые специально спрятаны так, чтобы вам трудно было их заметить. Другими словами, SoS страдает от очень специфических проблем, которых не было даже в старых квестах. Ведь в них часть мира часто отсекалась за ненадобностью. Огромный же мир Slice of Sea всегда полон загадок в каждой своей части и никогда не ведет игрока за ручку, подсказывая ему, куда нужно сейчас идти. Более того, она не подсказывает даже что куда-то можно идти. Некоторые тупики лишь кажутся таковыми. Попытка минимизации графического интерфейса сама по себе похвальна, но не играет игре на руку.

Самой главной проблемой в прохождении игры чаще всего будет ваше любопытство. Каждую новую локацию стоит тщательно ее осмотреть, но как тут осмотришь, когда вокруг столько интересных других новых локаций? Хочется пойти в разведку дальше, а игра снова и снова бросает нам развилки так часто, что даже один этот лабиринт становится сложно запомнить.

Стоит вернуться к хорошим новостям. Игра невероятно красива. Каждый игровой экран достоин того, чтобы снять скриншот, распечатать и повесить на стену. Серьезно, каждая локация в игре – это произведение искусства. Некоторые игры просто красивы, но SoS сногсшибательна. И в этом ей помогает уникальность дизайнов локаций и их детализация. Ее визуальный ряд никак не успевает наскучить, а поиск мелких деталей становится настоящим наслаждением. Можно подумать, что игра из-за этого будет очень короткой, но она еще и весьма длинная для такого формата (примерно 5-6 часов).

Музыка также заслуживает упоминания. Ее определенно можно слушать отдельно от игры, но вместе с ней она просто сливается в единое целое, добавляя прекрасным бэкграундам еще немного жизни.

Slice of Sea – довольно уникальная игра. Она мало чем отличается от Submachine, но вместе с тем сильно непохожа на множество других игр pnk жанра. Почти никто такие игры не делает. Это печально, ведь теперь снова придется ждать много лет, прежде чем Матеуш сделает что-то новенькое. Надобрать.

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《片海异乡》评测：手绘艺术风格的冒险解密游戏
《片海异乡》是一款冒险解密游戏，玩家扮演半身机械的海藻，在这片荒凉的世界进行自己的冒险，游戏整体颇有《机械迷城》的感觉，独特的纸上手绘艺术风格也让这款游戏的画面变得十分独特，值得一试。

初见
本作采用了浅系配色，并没有浓重的色彩，整体观感十分不错，游戏的故事十分简单，就是一只海藻回家的背景流程，但充满科幻气息的符文，神秘按钮以及钢铁科技又让这段旅程变得十分不一般。
游戏的音乐偏神秘化，结合场景展示，给人一种奇幻的感觉，而跳跃以及跑动的机械声，各种音效也让这款游戏变得很生动，操作方式也比较简单，能拿的道具很多，不过有些东西其实用不上，比如抹布？

体验
本作的核心是解密，需要很好的观察以及思考能力，通篇并没有文字，在场景中会展示一些图形，线索用来之后的解密，途中能够经过一些传送点，没有攻略的话可能需要来回跑图，并且每一次游戏进程谜题的答案都是随机且不一样的，需要自己认真观察甚至记录。
前后的道具甚至提示都有关联，比如可以在使用后取下继续使用的能量电池，墙壁上的一些图案展示符号等等，
当然本作也有着收集元素，一些可以收集贝壳和金币等等，这里要注意，本作的成就有些需要特意去完成，比如不拿贝壳和金币，还有让所有的鸟飞起来。

结语
本作手绘的美工和配乐相结合，展现了这款作品独特的艺术风格，吸引人且很有沉浸感，以解密为核心的玩法考验着玩家的观察力以及调动思维，巧妙的谜题设计和场景上的一些细节相互关联，颇具益智及趣味性。

Mateusz Skutnik might not be a name that is familiar to many, however, it is one which’s shadow towers over the early days of online flash games. Sole creator of the Submachine series, his games were quick to carve a niche in a time when the algorithm had yet to dominate our taste, and people looking for new adventures and clever puzzles were ever so grateful. After the original installment released for free in 2005 as a simple locked room style puzzle game, the series was quick to grow a cult and a steady supply of expansive but equally free sequels followed, proving the dedication and skill of Mat remained singular in an ever-expanding market.

While the acceleration of trends and fads seemed ever to increase in the age of digital content, the consistent release of Submachine games throughout the ensuing decade was always a pleasant surprise until the series concluded in 2015. Now a relic from a time which seemed never to settle, it seems like the world is already so very different from what it was back then.

That is at least my perspective on Mr. Skutnik, however, recently one new release was to drastically change this vista. Suddenly a new game by the maestro appeared on Steam: “Slice of Sea”, a completely new and independent story and with a price tag that matched any regular indie game, two completely unprecedented features. Immediately I became curious, and the intriguing screenshots and positive reviews bestowed on the Steam page did little to curtail my interest, so naturally I had to explore this newfound creation and learn of the lone Seaweed’s journey to return home, and what an adventure it turned out to be.

In a world where the setting and scene invoke the epic and futurist style of Mobius, meanwhile, its inhabitants remain quirky curmudgeons far more native to the pen of Tove Jansson, you are but a humble alga on mechanical legs. There is no incongruity in this strange plane of existence, where we as spectators are just as alien as the seaweed is on the mountaintop. It is a surreal tale where we find the esoteric wearing the cloak of the mundane.

The architecture of old European towns and ancient Himalayan temples meet and mix across spans of wide open planes and industrial cities. Antiquated contraptions litter the background while futurist technology blocks your path. Trains, steamers, cranes and motors lie rusted and immobile, waiting for you to salvage what remains functioning while haunting sounds and dismal airs fill the landscape. Glass chimes and untuned pianos accompany despondent drones while a throbbing rhythm sets the pace for a gloomy journey. A kaleidoscopic context to recognize, merged with impossible geometry and peculiar beings.

There is never giving any explanation for these circumstances, and as wonderful as one might consider the worldbuilding to be, the game seems to eschew any form of exposition. This can at times seem rather oblique; why can’t you interact with any of the persons you meet? Are we ignored or just hidden? Well, that’s not truly important, we remain in the background throughout and have to use our own imagination to interpret the foreground. Slice of Sea is one of the few games which takes great care not just to build up its world as an aesthetic conglomeration, but also aims to depict the society which appears within. Scary and foreign in many ways, yet as recognizable as a dream.

Now let us return to the Seaweed, our protagonist. A lone plant that finds itself far from home and we have to help it back, that’s it. Its design and simplicity is reminiscent of such classics as Machinarium, while the puzzles of turning machines on-n-off with codes and tricks remain familiar to all fans of Submachine. You are taught early on that the mouse pointer moves independently from the creature itself, and so it is the player themself who is the one to fix all and any problem, while the creature simply moves along on its merry way.

There seems to be an emphasis on openness in the gameplay, which might seem at odds with the standard of point-n-click games. Normally, the layout of an area is designed to be very close, so the tools to the solution are never far away from the problem you need to fix, but in Slice of Sea, some clues can be hidden all over the map and crisscross between new and old areas.

This can at times contribute to a feeling of being “truly lost”, especially when you are near the end and missing two bits to a code, and you don’t know if it is right behind you or at the other end of the world. However, when it works and you’re just rolling along it makes a lot of the puzzles flow in a very organic manner. It adds a certain sense of smoothness and continuity to the areas, giving the breath of the pacing an unusual sense of width.

While that is one ambivalent feature, there are still a few things I do think actually mar this otherwise solid experience. These are not negatives that deride the game but are still substantial enough to point out.

When at first you are nearing the end of the initial area, the clandestine “tutorial” level, I feel suddenly the frames become much too crowded with artifacts and relics, which serve no purpose for progress and distract rather than compliment the game. A good point-n-click game needs to strike the right balance between having a neutrally composed frame, while also making it obvious what the puzzle is and what elements are at the player’s disposal to solve it.

Slice of Sea breaks this balance very early on and completely conflates the key items for progress and the otherwise useless décor, and I fail to see what lesson it should have demonstrated going forward. It is not as much a red herring as a whole blue whale of unnecessary complications and I can only imagine the headache it must cause new players.

Another thing that bothered me was the ending. Now, I would first stress I do not intend to spoil nor do I want to squabble with the author’s intention for the story. It is overall still the world which is the focus of our exploration, and the narrative is really just an appendage. However, I still felt the final scenes broke hard with the misty and ethereal tone the game had worked so hard to establish, and instead concluded with a cutscene which seemed more in line with the old Rayman games.

This is just a minor niggle and likely very subjective, but I thought it could have been wrapped up in a manner more consistent with the general atmosphere of all that preceded it.

Slice of Sea is still a wonderful culmination of so many years of artistic integrity and pioneering work by a man who by herculean efforts made himself a part of gaming history, a wonderfully personal and thoroughly distinct artistic vision. Each frame containing the most carefully composed art and the most fluid animation. Altogether a most astounding gem to discover.

[source: Dasein Con Amore]

Coincidence? Yes. :D