videogameblog

A Highland Song

Unfortunately rushed through this one thinking that I was required to. Game starts by telling u that u have 7 in-game days to reach the end, so I skipped past some stuff I would have looked at otherwise. After I played I read a review where they say the goal is self-imposed, and you can take as much time as you want to reach the lighthouse. sucks that the game isn't clearer with this, but I guess that would go against what they're trying to say with the mechanic.

Overall I really enjoyed the gameplay aspects of this, thought the environmental grounding was similar to Death Stranding - a 6 foot drop in any other game would likely be a small task, but A Highland Song asks you to make your way down the drop carefully. If anything I wish the game was more committed to this Death Stranding approach, because the gameplay is unfortunately shallow in some aspects of it's movement. It never really goes further than climbing up/down a slope. However, the use of this attention to detail directed at environmental traversal grounds the experience in the Highlands, making Moira's journey feel like a feasible path. Also liked the way they utilised the 2D medium - felt like I was plotting my own route through the highlands. Definitely has a significant level of replay value to it, and i want to play it again in the future. The rythm game sequences were a nice addition - the soundtrack was extremely fitting. Really wish that Oxenfree 2 employed the same style of exploratory open world gameplay that this game does - think it would really benefit from it. In retrospect I feel like me skipping alot of the content of the game made the highlands feel more fleshed out and alive? Maybe that was the dev's intention with the time limit. I walked past alot of buildings and statues that were out of reach without making any attempt to reach them - definitely fleshed out the amount of content I think is in the game right now through exclusion. This feeling of wholeness contributes pretty nicely to the feeling of the highlands being mysterious and kind of magical that is built up throughout.

Was a little confused at the ending, probably because I skipped alot of the game content :( but hopefully on a second playthrough things will start coming together for me. Also someone needs to get the voice actor who recorded the opening monologue a better mic because that shit suckkked

6/10 want 2 play this again