Aefen Fall
- December 4, 2020
- Studio 9.7
Get on Steam"Aefen Fall" is a first-person parkour fantasy game set in a Dieselpunk-inspired early 20th century London. As the alchemist Abadel, you'll use your powers to elude government forces and create the most powerful alchemical stone. Scale the city's rooftops, discover its secrets, and harness alchemy to manipulate your environment in this student-developed adventure. With parkour as your primary means of exploration, can you reach the highest tower in the city?
Reviews
- The game features a unique steampunk aesthetic and impressive visuals for a student project.
- Gameplay mechanics are fun and offer potential for speedrunning, with various routes to explore.
- The soundtrack and atmosphere contribute positively to the overall experience.
- The game is very short, typically lasting only 30-60 minutes, which leaves players wanting more.
- It suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, including glitches and poor optimization.
- The story is underdeveloped and hard to follow, making it feel incomplete.
- graphics12 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 8 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the beautiful visuals and impressive art design, particularly for a student project. However, issues such as graphic glitches, strange animations, and occasional gameplay hindrances detract from the overall experience. While the aesthetic is appealing, some players noted that the technical execution falls short, leading to frustration during gameplay.
“Very impressive visuals and game design for a student game!”
“The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is decent, and there are robots that say 'please, surrender'.”
“I loved the original gameplay and the graphic universe which is magnificent.”
“There's nothing wrong with any of the graphics, but there is something that just feels off.”
“Graphic glitches and strange animations seem to creep in and take this down a notch.”
“The game is really cheap for what it is, even considering its current state; it would really be fun if it would run okay, even with potato graphics from 2001 on a decent GPU.”
- optimization10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues, inconsistent framerates, and numerous bugs that hinder gameplay. Many express hope for future patches to improve these aspects, but current experiences reveal a lack of polish, including collision problems and texture loading failures. Overall, the game's technical shortcomings detract from its potential enjoyment.
“Patches have already been made before, so there's a chance that they'll patch it more, which will make the game much more worth the purchase, especially if they can fix the performance.”
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack, but the performance problems and general jank do get in the way of fun.”
“Tl;dr I don't mind the length, but parkour games need to be smoother than this, both in terms of gameplay and performance.”
“The game is poorly optimized and can barely manage 40 frames consistently on an RTX 3070. Sometimes textures won't load in, and you'll have to reload checkpoints. Most of the animations can glitch out depending on when and where you activate them... again, it's very rough.”
“But the game is over in 30 minutes and it is not optimized well, and there are a bunch of collision issues.”
“Heavy performance issues result in inconsistent framerates.”
- gameplay9 mentions
- 78 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 22 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with a score of 6.5/10 highlighting both its fun mechanics and creative movement options that offer replayability. However, players noted issues such as clunky controls, low-quality graphics, and bugs that detract from the overall experience, particularly in a parkour-focused game. While the design allows for varied routes, the execution falls short of expectations for smoothness and performance.
“The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is decent, and there are robots that say 'please, surrender'.”
“Fun gameplay design that allows opportunities to mix things up if you want to.”
“It's got a lot of variable routes and creative movement mechanics, giving it a good deal of replayability despite the becoming-tired parkour gameplay model.”
“The textures are low definition and blurry even on high settings, the models lack detail, and the gameplay feels clunky too often for a freerun game.”
“Gameplay: 6.5/10”
- stability8 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent graphic glitches, erratic animations, and problematic hit detection that can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences. Players report encountering numerous bugs that detract from the overall experience, although some still find value in supporting the developers despite these flaws.
“Graphic glitches and strange animations seem to creep in to take this down a notch.”
“The hit detection on edges or poles is buggy, leading to randomly failing jumps or getting stuck in the geometry quite regularly.”
“It's thirty minutes long (on your first playthrough, no less) and is extremely buggy and rough around the edges.”
- story8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The story has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it hard to follow and lacking depth, despite its beautiful graphics. While some appreciate the visual storytelling, they criticize the main character as flat and the narrative as short and underdeveloped, leading to an overall unsatisfactory experience. Players express a desire for a more elaborate and polished story in future iterations.
“The first is that this game is absolutely gorgeous--from a visual and a storytelling standpoint.”
“It has not a bad story, quite beautiful graphics, and a pleasant run on walls... and it is something about 1-2 hours long.”
“I'll be glad if I'm wrong though, I'd like to see more, something that would have less bugs, better optimization, and a much longer and elaborated story.”
“There was a story there, but it felt off and was hard to follow.”
“It looks good, it plays relatively well, but the story is garbage, not gonna lie.”
“But I say almost because I find the main character very flat and unbelievable; in his mission (which we aren't really given much insight into), his voice acting (which wasn't horrid, but wasn't that great) and his writing (which is just short of good and nuanced).”
- replayability5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The game features multiple alternative paths and creative movement mechanics that enhance its replayability, allowing players to challenge themselves and explore different routes. While some players express concerns about potential grind for achievements, the overall consensus is that the game maintains a fresh experience and offers significant replay value, especially if certain issues are addressed.
“The game offers enough alternative paths and some tricky sections to give you replayability and keep it fresh.”
“It's got a lot of variable routes and creative movement mechanics, giving it a good deal of replayability despite the becoming-tired parkour gameplay model.”
“Many routes provide high replay value and challenge you to find the fastest shortcuts.”
“Personally, I hate it when developers set these kinds of unrealistic goals or totally lack awareness of how much replayability their game really offers, turning it into a mindless grind for achievement hunters.”
“But even at full price, it's cheap and has replay value, especially when the cons get addressed.”
- music4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its atmosphere and quality, with many players highlighting the incredible soundtrack as a standout feature. However, some users feel that performance issues and gameplay mechanics detract from the overall experience.
“I love the music <3, the possibility of speedrun.”
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack.”
“Special mention to the absolutely incredible soundtrack.”
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack, but the performance problems and general jank do get in the way of fun.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for its engaging soundtrack and impressive mesh and texture quality, creating a smooth and immersive experience, especially while navigating the steampunk environment. However, performance issues and general jank detract from the overall enjoyment.
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack; however, the performance problems and general jank do get in the way of fun.”
“Mesh and texture quality is great, sound design is on point, and running across the steampunk rooftops feels very smooth and has a nice atmosphere to it.”
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack, but the performance problems and general jank do get in the way of fun.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players find the achievement system to be overly grindy, requiring significant time and effort to complete.
“A word about the achievements: they are grindy.”
“The grinding in this game feels endless and tedious.”
“I spent hours grinding for resources, and it just wasn't rewarding.”
