If you enjoy games like Dear Esther, you may enjoy Drizzlepath.

You can check out the game here.



Happy Gaming!

Ana

What a beautiful looking game! Nice music too. Thanks Ana.

Looks nice !! Thank you, BrownEyedTigre

Thanks, Ana.

This is one for me. I still play Dear Esther every now and then. This looks gorgeous.

Thanks, Ana!

Played the game through in about 45 minutes this weekend (bought it for only $4 on Steam!).
It IS a beautiful game. Some drawbacks, in my personal opinion (not really any spoilers)
--The more you progress in the game (the "higher up" you travel on the path...that's the biggest spoiler I'll admit to), the less polished the graphics look.Although it's still wonderfully rendered, for the most part.
--There are NO save slots. If you lose your way, you can restore the previous checkpoint (but only WHILE playing). If you need to leave the game, quit or escape out, your progress will NOT be restored upon re-starting the game. You'll need to start over again from the beginning. I found this out when,goodness forbid, I needed to stop playing to go eat dinner :-)
--There is very little sound design in the game. COuld have used more background noise (wind,birds,crickets etc), since the game take places in such a relatively lush environment.
--Not sure who the narrator was, but her accent makes her English extremely hard to understand. Cringe-worthy,at times. THe "poetry" (if that's what it was) I found a bit pretentious. Subtitles would have been a nice option.
--Not sure if this is a game in progress, but I don't think it is. It contains a lot of muted browns (more flowers would have been nice, for example,but there are enough beautiful environmental "look at mes" to keep the "wow" factor going).
The water-lapping-upon-the-shore effects are wonderfully-done, although the few waterfalls (mainly at the game's beginning) were obviously an after-thought. THe dappling sunlight, and even more so the dripping rain (the game is titled Drizzlepath" for a reason)...beautiful. Just tilt up while you're walking and watch the tiny little rain droplets hit your "camera". Very pleasant.
Another nice touch: tilt down and you can view your legs running(pretty realistic,I thought). And your shadow, as well.
Interesting idea, wonderful environments that could have been slightly more polished (less-monotonous snowpaths,moving clouds,more flowers along the paths)...but as it is, a VERY good deal for the money.

I just finished playing, and would agree entirely with the points that you raise, rob. This game is not as linear as Dear Esther, I feel, at least not at the beginning. There is much opportunity for off-path exploration, although it would be necessary to backtrack to return "on-game". The environment was so extremely beautiful that I was all but dribbling.

The narration was the biggest letdown. As rob mentions, the narrator's accent was so strong that I could only clearly catch one word in four at best. I had really very little idea as to what she was talking about. Something about "madness"? Subtitles were desperately required, but lacking.

I am going to replay this many more times, and EXPLORE.

Edit: Rob, which key restores your previous checkpoint? The game doesn't provide a list of key controls. I only found "jump" (space bar) by accident.

I would have liked at least a FEW save game options, so I could "go back" to those save points and re-explore, without having to reach those points again from the beginning. Still, if you played right through, didn't wander from beginning to end, I think it's about 45 minutes or so. SO it wouldn't take too long to get to certain areas to re-explore them.
THe option to actually swim in the water was very nice. IN some areas, if you're underwater, the sunlight dapples towards the surface as you swim back up.Nicely done.
I enjoyed little touches like the frogs, or the roosters (chickens?). Although seeing the chickens run through walls (as they scatter about outside the huts) takes you away from the "realism". It also would have been nice to interact with objects inSIDE the few cabins...if you could even GET inside them.
Still,for $4, it's a steal,really.

See my edit above, Rob.

Reading other players' comments on Steam, apparently the graphics can glitch and deteriorate in quality if you explore too much off the beaten path. Oh well. I'll give it a go, anyhow.

I liked chasing the chickens. That's the 5-year-old still in me.

I'm not at home now, but if I remember correctly: you simply escape out to the main menu, and if you've reached at least the first checkpoint in the game, you have the option to "restore previous checkpoint" or something like that.
Again, this is ONLY if you haven't quit the game, which essentially brings you back to the beginning once you start the game again.
ALso, every time you restart the game you need to re-set your options (graphics). It defaults I think to minimum. Luckily, I could play it in its full,glorious full-screen beauty...I just had to re-set that when I restarted the game each time.
The only "deterioration" I found with the game's graphics was getting too close to the rocks...and (SPOLIER ALERT??) the farther you wandered up the mountain path...the snow and ice you walked upon had a blurry,same-ness to it, with a false relfection spread throughout. I've got a pretty top-notch PC so I know it wasn't my computer's grfx card playing "tricks" on me.
One thing I've read is you need a good rig to play this at full capacity,but that kind of goes for every new-ish looking game,nowadays.
I also found the "jump" via spacebar by accident. MAny,many games have spacebar as jump cues so that did feel a bit natural.


One more thing...I've seen this compared to Dear Esther...very much so in terms of style and progression. Esther was more polished in my opinion, especially graphically.
Dear Esther...and,even moreso, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter...those are the two most beautiful computer games ever designed for the PC. The environments and environmental effects are completely polished and uber-realistic in those two masterpieces.
Also,Ethan Carter takes much longer to complete as it has a wonderful,complicated story to it.
Drizzlepath, as beautiful as it is, has a long way to go to match the polish of both THOSE games.

Thanks, Rob. That's good to know if I explore too far and get lost/glitched.

I'd add Miasmata to that list of exploratory games with gorgeous graphics.
I haven't (yet) played Ethan Carter.

Never finished Miasmata.
Nice environments,I agree. The "monster" thing just got too much of a bore,though it did send my heart pounding more than a few times. I don't remember how many "medecines" I finished crafting from the plants I gathered. I played a good deal of the way through (I think I was up to day 80- or something like that),and yhad a good portion of the map completed, but I just gave up.Maybe I'll get back to it! Thanks for reminding me.
Regarding Ethan Carter: if you've got even a halfway decent computer...you MUST play Ethan Carter. For the environments alone. Stunning game,visually. Only one teensy=weensy complaint I had with that game, and it's truly a nitpick: I would have loved to have seen the Ethan Carter environments at night,cast under a moon with stars in the sky.
Adding to the game's visual beauty is a fantastic story,with great voice-acting; both of these qualities are missing in too many games, presently.