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?
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features impressive visuals and a unique steampunk aesthetic that enhances the overall atmosphere.
- The gameplay mechanics, including parkour elements and spell usage, show great potential and provide a fun experience despite the game's shortcomings.
- As a student project, it demonstrates creativity and ambition, with many routes and replayability that could appeal to fans of the genre.
- The game is very short, typically lasting only 30-60 minutes, which leaves players wanting more and feeling underwhelmed.
- It suffers from numerous bugs and performance issues, including glitches that can disrupt gameplay and hinder enjoyment.
- The story is poorly executed and hard to follow, making it difficult for players to engage with the narrative.
- graphics25 mentions
- 68 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with a score of 6.5/10. While many players appreciate the beautiful art style and impressive visuals, they also report issues such as graphic glitches, strange animations, and occasional gameplay hindrances that detract from the overall experience. Despite these flaws, the game is noted for its appealing design, especially considering its status as a student project.
“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).”
- optimization20 mentions
- 15 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, including heavy performance problems and inconsistent framerates, even on high-end systems like the RTX 3070. Players report numerous bugs, such as collision issues and animation glitches, which detract from the overall experience. While there is hope for future patches to improve performance, the current state is described as rough and unpolished.
“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.”
“So, when getting this game, expect leaderboards crashing, levels not unlocking after beating the game, platforming bugs, and especially inconsistent performance on any setting or system (as the devs mentioned they can never fix that aspect of the game unfortunately).”
“Heavy performance issues, resulting in inconsistent framerates.”
- gameplay18 mentions
- 78 % positive mentions
- 11 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with a score of 6.5/10 highlighting its fun mechanics and creative movement options that offer replayability. However, players noted issues with clunky controls, low-quality graphics, and a lack of engaging combat elements, suggesting that smoother performance and more polish could significantly enhance the experience. Overall, while the game features beautiful visuals and interesting design, it struggles with execution in its parkour mechanics.
“The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is decent, and there are robots that say 'please, surrender'.”
“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.”
“I loved the original gameplay and the graphic universe, which is magnificent.”
“The textures are low definition and blurry even in high settings, the models are not very detailed, and the gameplay feels clunky too often for a freerun game.”
- story17 mentions
- 18 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 18 % negative mentions
The story has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it hard to follow and lacking depth, resulting in a low score of 4/10. While the game features beautiful graphics and a visually appealing world, the narrative is criticized for being short (1-2 hours), poorly developed characters, and insufficient insight into the main character's mission. Overall, players express a desire for a more elaborate and polished story in future updates.
“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.”
“I find the main character very flat and unbelievable; we aren't really given much insight into his mission, and his voice acting wasn't horrid, but it also wasn't great.”
- stability16 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with frequent graphic glitches, strange animations, and problematic hit detection that can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences. Players report getting stuck in the environment and experiencing random failures during jumps, contributing to an overall impression of a buggy and rough product. Despite these flaws, some users still find value in supporting the developers.
“Graphic glitches and strange animations seem to creep in to take this down notches.”
“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/rough around the edges.”
- replayability10 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The game features multiple alternative paths and creative movement mechanics, providing significant replayability as players can challenge themselves with different routes and shortcuts. While some players express concerns about potential grind for achievements, the overall consensus is that the game remains engaging and offers good value, especially if certain issues are resolved.
“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 and turn 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.”
- music8 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 13 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its quality and ability to enhance the atmosphere, with many reviewers highlighting the incredible soundtrack. However, some players feel that performance issues and gameplay mechanics detract from the overall experience, despite their appreciation for the music.
“I love the music <3, the possibility of speedrun.”
“Special mention to the absolutely incredible soundtrack.”
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack.”
“I really love the atmosphere and the soundtrack, but the performance problems and general jank do get in the way of fun.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive sound design and high-quality visuals, particularly in its steampunk setting. However, performance issues and technical glitches detract from the overall experience.
“The atmosphere and the soundtrack are truly captivating, creating an immersive experience.”
“The mesh and texture quality is great, the sound design is on point, and running across the steampunk rooftops feels very smooth, contributing to a wonderful atmosphere.”
“The combination of the atmospheric elements and the soundtrack enhances the overall enjoyment of the game.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players consistently note that the achievements in the game require significant grinding, indicating that completing them can be a tedious and time-consuming process.
“A word about the achievements: they are grindy.”
