Cradle
- July 23, 2015
- Flying Cafe for Semianimals
- 6h median play time
Uneven pacing and a handful of poor design decisions can't bring down Cradle's unique, sci-fi mystery.
Get on Steam"Cradle" is a single-player Science Fiction Action game that offers an intriguing story and stunning visuals in a robotized Mongolia setting. Players will explore an open world, interact with living characters, and solve mysteries while repairing their companion's mechanical body. Despite having a deep story, the game is marred by optimization issues, bugs, and grinding, but its atmospheric music and setting create a wholesome experience.
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Beautiful graphics and art direction create an immersive atmosphere.
- Intriguing story that explores themes of transhumanism and identity.
- Engaging world with a lot of detail and lore to discover.
- Gameplay is repetitive, with tedious fetch quests and mini-games that feel out of place.
- The ending is abrupt and leaves many questions unanswered.
- Controls can be clunky and frustrating, impacting the overall experience.
- story2,032 mentions
- 34 % positive mentions
- 62 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The story of "Cradle" is a complex and intriguing blend of sci-fi and philosophical themes, set in a unique Mongolian cyberpunk world. While many players find the narrative captivating and rich in lore, it often requires extensive exploration and reading of scattered notes to fully grasp, leading to a sense of confusion and an abrupt, unsatisfying conclusion. The gameplay, which includes frustrating mini-games, detracts from the storytelling experience, leaving some players wishing for a more cohesive and polished narrative.
“I love the story and vibe!”
“Unique combination of Mongolian and cyberpunk settings + great story, definitely recommend!”
“The story is both deep and full of mystery while also being nonsensical and decently hard to follow.”
“The storyline makes not much sense and lacks any kind of excitement.”
“The story ends up being such a letdown, a mishmash of different sci-fi cliches slapped together to form a jumbled mess of disappointment.”
- graphics548 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beauty and detail, showcasing a unique aesthetic that blends Mongolian cultural elements with futuristic designs. However, many players report performance issues, including lag and graphical glitches, which detract from the overall experience. While the visuals create an immersive atmosphere, the lack of optimization and limited graphical settings have left some players frustrated.
“The game offers rich, glorious graphics with the ability to explore a vast deserted boundless steppe with a distant amusement park-like building in the background clouded with mystery.”
“The exquisite graphics, novel art design, and truly soulful soundtrack all contribute to a masterclass assembly of art house video gaming.”
“The graphics are great, and really contribute to the immersive feel of the game.”
“This is my second attempt at trying to enjoy this game but I don't think I'll give it a third as the graphics made me motion sick.”
“Graphics bugs with GTX and RTX graphics cards.”
“At about mid-way through the game, I started seeing graphical glitches and the game-pausing lag spikes seemed to get worse.”
- gameplay530 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 74 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Cradle" has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its repetitive and clunky mechanics, particularly criticizing the inclusion of frustrating mini-games that disrupt the narrative flow. While the atmospheric setting and intriguing story are praised, the overall gameplay experience is often described as lacking depth and polish, leading to a sense of frustration rather than engagement. Many players recommend the game primarily for its story rather than its gameplay, suggesting that it feels more like an art piece than a fully realized game.
“Good story, nice atmosphere, and gameplay that doesn't get in the way of the story.”
“I enjoyed the unique style and gameplay elements.”
“The gameplay consists of walking back and forth between a yurt and a destroyed 'amusement park'.”
“The gameplay is kinda boring, the block puzzles are really dumb and feel totally out of place in this type of game, and the story... well the story is actually pretty interesting, but it cuts off at the end with no resolution and no answers to all the questions that had been building throughout the narrative.”
“Overall, there are good ideas here, but nothing is explored very well, and the core gameplay loop is aggravating.”
“The real problem in terms of gameplay is that Cradle keeps throwing you into an irritating minigame that feels wholly out of place -- both in relation to the setting and story, and in relation to the other type of puzzle gameplay I mentioned.”
- music336 mentions
- 62 % positive mentions
- 37 % neutral mentions
- 1 % negative mentions
The music in the game has been widely praised, with many reviewers calling the soundtrack "superb" and "gorgeous," effectively enhancing the game's atmosphere and emotional depth. It combines folk melodies with futuristic synths, creating a unique auditory experience that resonates with players. Despite some minor criticisms regarding volume settings and abrupt transitions, the overall consensus is that the soundtrack is a standout feature, making it worth purchasing separately.
“The soundtrack is one of the greatest in video games, by the way.”
“The music is very fitting for this game, combining the folk melodies with futuristic synths.”
“The exquisite graphics, novel art design, and truly soulful soundtrack all contribute to a masterclass assembly of art house video gaming.”
“Nothing is satisfactorily explained, and the 1999-esque music video during the end credits (complete with radio rock!) elucidates nothing.”
“They try to set the mood, build up tension with music and then the sound just abruptly cuts out, interrupted by a generic loading screen.”
“Unfortunately, although the beginning of the game does a great job of building the story and the world, the back half is more or less a mindless slog of tasks that inexplicably ends in a music video of sorts.”
- atmosphere226 mentions
- 63 % positive mentions
- 34 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and beautifully crafted world, featuring stunning visuals, a haunting soundtrack, and a unique story that evokes a sense of mystery and exploration. However, many players feel that the inclusion of clunky mini-games disrupts this atmosphere, detracting from the overall experience. Despite these criticisms, the game's rich ambiance and emotional depth resonate strongly with players, making it a standout in atmospheric design.
“The atmosphere is unsettling and comforting at the same time.”
“Beautiful music, mysterious story, gorgeous visuals and atmosphere... it's a wonderful experience that just sucks you into it all.”
“The world design is visually breathtaking along with the background ambience really takes the player into the game's atmosphere.”
“Don't fall for the spunky robot trap, the game is just bizarre, trying too hard to be different; mini-games are unnecessary and ruin the adventure/atmosphere.”
“This game could have been a nice interactive story, but I spent 90% of my playtime in excruciatingly painful mini-games that are repetitive and destroy the game atmosphere by completely taking the player out of the context.”
“The four cube-puzzle mini-games also seem out of place and yanked me out of the atmosphere of the rest of the game somewhat.”
- optimization142 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 45 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players experiencing frequent stuttering, inconsistent frame rates, and performance issues even on high-end systems. Users noted that the game engine (Unigine) appears poorly optimized, leading to significant drops in performance and a lack of advanced graphical settings. While some players managed to improve performance through manual configuration, the overall consensus is that the game requires substantial optimization to fully enjoy its graphics and gameplay.
“With optimization, polish, and a bit more thought, this could have been a gem.”
“The overall performance of this game, whilst at times it chugs, is very good, and the graphics are beautiful.”
“You also might experience some performance issues here and there; this game engine is a bit peculiar.”
“The optimization is quite bad, and there are randomly fps drops often.”
“Beautiful story and gorgeous art killed by an indecent optimization and horrendous keyboard mapping.”
“This game could have been so much more if the devs had spent time optimizing it so you could actually enjoy the graphics and not be stuttering all over the place.”
- grinding68 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game is heavily criticized for its tedious mini-games and slow-paced mechanics, which detract from the overall experience. Players find the repetitive tasks and awkward controls frustrating, leading to a sense of stagnation and a desire to rush through the game to access the story. While some mini-games can be skipped, the overall sentiment is that they feel out of place and serve only to pad the gameplay, making it feel unnecessarily cumbersome.
“It's quite tedious and slow, and there's little to no game to be had.”
“The whole thing becomes tedious after a while and you find yourself trying to rush through it so you can unlock more storytelling and not play stupid minigames involving cubes.”
“Ultimately, cradle has many components in common with so-called, 'walking simulators,' but rather than excelling at that, it bogs the player down with tedious tasks with sometimes frustrating controls.”
- emotional48 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is a mixed bag, with many players finding the world-building, story, and music deeply touching and nostalgic, evoking strong feelings of beauty and longing. However, the monotone voice acting detracts from the emotional impact, leaving some players feeling disconnected from the characters and plot. Despite its flaws, the game is praised for its thought-provoking narrative and ability to elicit genuine emotional responses, making it a memorable experience for those who engage with its themes.
“Then there is a beautifully crafted world with good worldbuilding, deep lore, emotionally intriguing and evoking nostalgia and sadness as well as beauty and longing.”
“If you want to scratch that cyberpunk itch with something heartfelt that touches on what it means to be human, this is the game for you!”
“Because in spite of its flaws, it's still a memorable experience: thought-provoking and shocking, touching and scary, telling a tale about good intentions turning into fatal mistakes, a tale about a future that was supposed to be grand, but ended up being worse than hell itself.”
- replayability24 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
Overall, the game has been criticized for its extremely low replayability, with many reviewers noting that it offers only a brief experience of around 4-12 hours and lacks any significant incentives to replay. While some players appreciate the initial immersion and gameplay, they agree that the absence of additional content or secrets severely limits its long-term appeal.
“Needs more replay value/secrets”
“Yes because of the replayability.”
“Highly recommended, would spend up to $10 as it has decent playtime, great immersion and gameplay, but low replayability.”
“This game is ridiculously short and there's zero replay value.”
“The game is short, and it has zero replayability.”
“It's quite a brief game with very little replay value, so while I recommend it, you will need to decide what 4ish hours of gameplay are worth to you.”
- stability22 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is notably problematic, with users reporting frequent micro freezes, stuttering, and graphical glitches, particularly on Windows 10 and 11. While the framerate is generally good, these issues significantly detract from the overall experience, leading to a clunky and buggy gameplay. Some players also noted that using a controller, even when not in use, could help mitigate frame drops and freezes.
“The game suffers from stuttering and sudden freezes.”
“The framerate is great considering the graphics, but these random freezes completely ruin the experience.”
“At about mid-way through the game, I started seeing graphical glitches and the game-pausing lag spikes seemed to get worse.”
- humor10 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its absurdity and irony, particularly in the context of mini-games designed for therapeutic purposes that often feel counterproductive. Players find amusement in the quirky lore, such as the repeated imagery of Siberian trillium flowers, and the intentionally poor voice acting adds to the comedic experience. Overall, the game presents a bizarre yet entertaining world that blends humor with its narrative elements.
“It's low-key hilarious to see Siberian trillium flowers emblazoned repeatedly, as a resident of Ontario.”
“While the mini-game is somewhat tied to the lore (which is hilarious since in context it's apparently tied to therapy, this is the opposite of therapy), sometimes you're better off just going out into the backyard and shooting the damn dog.”
“Your character's voice acting is bad to the point of being funny.”
- character development6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is mixed; while some users note a lack of depth, others appreciate the variety among the few characters, suggesting that they are engaging enough to maintain interest despite limited development. The character design is praised, enhancing the overall appeal.
“No character development.”
“No character development.”
“And while there are only a few characters, they have enough variety and character development to keep you engaged.”
- monetization4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy in this game is heavily criticized for being manipulative, as it dictates player emotions and experiences while pushing for microtransactions at key moments. Reviewers warn potential players to be cautious, as the initial appeal may mask a disappointing reliance on monetization tactics.
“All your involvement in video games (especially in story-driven games) is indirectly controlled or influenced by the omnipotent and omnipresent god, aka the developer. When should you cry, when should you get stuck, when should you take a pause, when should you feel like a pro, when should you need a hint, when should you pay for microtransactions, etc.”
“I'm sorry to have to advise anyone who reads this not to fall for the initial good impression the advertisement makes and stay away from this game - you'll save yourself a huge disappointment.”
