Meadowland
- October 22, 2014
- Mårten Jonsson
- 2h median play time
Get on Steam"Meadowland" is a serene, exploratory game where you play as a faerie in a magical world. Wander through enchanting landscapes, discover secrets and characters, and find your purpose at your own pace. As an interactive poem, the game emphasizes relaxation, immersion, and ambient delight.
iPad
iPhone
PC
Phone
Windows
Mobile Platform
Reviews
- The game offers a beautiful and serene atmosphere with charming art and soothing audio, creating a unique and cozy experience.
- It serves as a relaxing exploration game where players can discover secrets and uncover a simple, sweet story.
- Many players found it to be a meditative experience, appreciating its artistic expression rather than traditional gameplay.
- The gameplay is very limited and simplistic, often leading to boredom as players wait for specific events to trigger.
- Numerous technical issues and bugs, including unresponsive achievements and clunky controls, detract from the overall experience.
- Many players felt the game was overpriced for the content it offers, comparing it unfavorably to free games with more engaging mechanics.
- story46 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 80 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The game's story revolves around a simple love narrative between a farmer and a madam, with players acting as a fairy to help them reunite. While some players appreciate the charming art and cozy atmosphere, many find the story underwhelming and lacking depth, often feeling frustrated by the gameplay mechanics that hinder narrative progression. Overall, the story is described as minimalist and sweet, but it fails to captivate or engage players fully.
“The charming art, beautiful audio, and cute story create a unique and cozy atmosphere.”
“Our aim here is to take clues from the storybook scenes and make the fairy sing in the appropriate place, time, and condition to make the story progress.”
“Story is hard to explain without spoiling it, so at simplest it could be described as a love story.”
“The story itself, presumably the main selling point, wasn't very captivating.”
“Story is basically just flying fishes to the fisherman dude then somehow building a bridge between the two houses, and apparently helping them down to the ground level walking them around through the little archway then back near the ocean and game over.”
“Instead I found myself insanely frustrated, feeling like my time was being royally wasted, hunting for cheap triggers to a pretentious story in a cheaply put together tablet-grade slow clicker masquerading as a sidescroll adventure.”
- music14 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as soothing and pleasant, contributing to a relaxing atmosphere, though it lacks memorable qualities and smooth transitions. While some players appreciate the sound design, including the ambient background music, others find it forgettable and occasionally cheap. Overall, the music enhances the experience but does not stand out significantly.
“I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
“The artwork is very pretty and the music is soothing.”
“You play as a faerie singing songs to create a dream.”
“Meadowland plays like a free game: in fact, I'm sure I've played free games that were better than this. The flaws are too many, like the music not transitioning smoothly from moment to moment, every interaction triggering a cutscene instead of giving you control to follow what happens yourself, and some mechanics being very awkward to make work.”
“The sound design is just birds chirping and surprisingly cheap sound assets for the fairy music that happen when you click on your fairy, and when you capture black bugs.”
“My initial curiosity was soon dulled by the style, music, sound effects, and finally by the 'poem'.”
- gameplay10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The gameplay in Meadowland is characterized by clunky mechanics and limited interactivity, primarily focusing on exploration and story discovery. While it offers a visually appealing atmosphere, the experience is marred by repetitive sound effects, awkward controls, and a lack of depth, making it feel more like a free game than a polished product. Overall, the gameplay is slow and shallow, providing only a brief diversion rather than a compelling experience.
“The core gameplay consists of exploring the map, discovering its secrets and uncovering the story.”
“It bears no complexity in gameplay and only serves for an hour's diversion, yet it presents a naively beautiful display of an age-old story.”
“Tl;dr: Meadowland is an 'artsy' exploration game with interesting but ultimately shallow game mechanics that rides with its dreamy expression.”
“The gameplay was a bit clunky, the sound effects were repetitive, and the graphics were just okay.”
“Meadowland plays like a free game: in fact, I'm sure I've played free games that were better than this. The flaws are too many, like the music not transitioning smoothly from moment to moment, every interaction triggering a cutscene instead of giving you control to follow what happens yourself, and some mechanics being very awkward to make work.”
“Gameplay is very limited and slow.”
- graphics6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players finding them simplistic and uninspired, while others praise the artwork as pretty and well-executed. Overall, the visuals are described as decent but not groundbreaking, contributing to a varied perception of the game's aesthetic quality.
“Artwork and audio are pretty well done.”
“The artwork is very pretty and the music is soothing.”
“Nice graphics.”
“Very simplistic puzzle game with uninspired graphics.”
“The gameplay was a bit clunky, the sound effects were repetitive, and the graphics were just okay.”
“Bought in a bundle (as almost always) and 4/10 that way, due to the lush graphics.”
- atmosphere5 mentions
- 80 % positive mentions
- -40 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is characterized by charming art, beautiful audio, and a cute story, creating a cozy and unique experience. While it successfully evokes a zen-like ambiance through its natural settings, some reviews note that it falls short in audiovisual execution and gameplay mechanics. Overall, the environment features diverse landscapes, enhancing the atmospheric quality.
“The charming art, beautiful audio, and cute story create a unique and cozy atmosphere.”
“Zen kind of atmosphere as the sprite nurtures nature.”
“In addition to its namesake, the meadows, you can find ponds, trees, a mountain, a floating island, and a sea, as well as a couple of celestial and atmospheric features.”
“The atmosphere feels lifeless and uninspired, lacking any real sense of immersion.”
“Despite the beautiful graphics, the atmosphere is flat and fails to evoke any emotional response.”
“The game tries to create a dark atmosphere, but it ends up feeling more tedious than engaging.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and anticlimactic, particularly when completing achievements like the tree image, which lacks a rewarding payoff. While some acknowledge it as manageable, the overall sentiment leans towards frustration with the repetitive nature of tasks such as searching for puzzle pieces.
“I was a tad disappointed when I completed the tree image because it was transparent and nothing truly special happened from completing this tedious achievement. It was very anticlimactic.”
“Circling the zone searching for puzzle pieces was the tedious part.”
“A bit tedious but doable.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with users reporting numerous bugs and broken mechanics, particularly concerning hitboxes that hinder progression. Overall, players express frustration and a lack of motivation to engage further due to these persistent problems.
“The problem is it's a broken, buggy piece of software that I don't understand and have no desire to try and understand.”
“Buggy hitboxes make it difficult to proceed to the next level.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game offers minimal replayability, with users noting that while it provides an enjoyable hour of gameplay, there is little incentive to play it again.
“No replay value.”
“Overall, not a bad hour-long game, but there is definitely not much in the way of replay value.”
